Reddit mentions: The best writing reference books

Continued because it was too long lmao

11.) Something that would have a profound impact on your life and help you to achieve your current goals.
I honestly really want to get into acting. I love movies and TV shows, and I really would love to start acting. For that reason, this book would be a great addition to my library and would probably teach me a lot.
This book also looks like it would be a good learning experience. :)
I found another great read! I'll pretty much take any acting books I can get.

12.) One of those pesky Add-On items.
Pop Funkos are honestly my go-to add-on item. Like this little fella, for instance. Adorable and affordable (did I just make up a saying? I do believe I did).
What's that? Ah, yes. Pops. The source of my broke-ness. Have another..
Oh, you think I'm done. HA. I'm too far deep to dig myself out of the hole that is my ever-growing collection of Pops. Infinity War just came out (no spoilers, I really want to see it but haven't gotten the chance yet), so how about this adorable Thor Pop? Who doesn't love Thor?

13.) Something fandom related. (Sports fandoms are acceptable- bonus if someone figures out my favorite team)
My favorite band happens to be Twenty One Pilots... and this is a pretty sick shirt.
I'm sorry, I'm still thinking about Infinity War from up above. I found a Thanos shirt that is honestly super cool. Like I've never seen it before and now I want it lmao.
I recently got gifted this absolutely gorgeous and cool Hawkeye T-shirt. It has BOTH Hawkeyes from the comics on it! Super cool.

14.) Something ridiculously priced, more than $10,000. They exist, y’all.
Who the absolute heck buys a $180,000 watch?! Not me, that's for sure.
I'm honestly not even sure what this is, but it's expensive as heck and you could put that money toward an ACTUAL CAR.
Y'all need a parking lift? I gotchu.

15.) Something with sharks or unicorns.
Who doesn't love socks?. Especially socks with unicorns.
You ask for sharks, I get you sharks.
Also no joke this is the cutest thing I've ever seen oh my gosh.

16.) Something that smells wonderful.
I have a cinnamon candle (not that exact one) and I absolutely love it to death.
Who doesn't love coconut lime? I know I love it.
Have you ever thought to yourself, "damn, I really like me the smell of cilantro"? Well, look no further.

17.) A toy that you wanted or had when you were a child that was the best ever, or (if it’s not on amazon) a toy that you think is pretty cool now (Funko Pops, etc., will count.)
If you never played Clue, did you ever really have a childhood?
Another cool toy I had was something like this cool tent-like bus. The one I had had separate sections that were detachable. It was super cool.
I know it's not technically a toy, but I used to watch The Land Before Time ALL the time. I still love that show. It's so, so good.

18.) Something that would be helpful for writers.
Just getting started on writing? Writing for Dummies is always a good place to start.
If you're writing (especially on a computer), you're gonna eventually need some Advil, whether it's from writer's block or a headache from staring at the computer screen too long.
I know it might not be considered useful, but I always thought an ink pen was super cool to have, especially for writers.

19.) Something related to your current obsession, whatever that may be.
I don't know why, but I suddenly really like Harley Quinn's character. I've been getting, like all the Funko Pops of her. I have a problem.
Oh gosh, you shouldn't have asked. I finally finished catching up to The Walking Dead, and now I want everything Negan related. Like, seriously, I just bought a bloody Lucille of my own. Someone stop me. Anyway, here's a cute little Lucille keychain that I've never seen before.
Another thing I really like is Kylo Ren, but I think you already know that. This BrickHeadz is adorable.

20.) Something that is just so random and weird that it makes you laugh.
This oh my gosh i am dying.
Also idk why but just the lady's posture and the huge heckin' bear is k i l l i n g me.
I don't know how I stumbled upon this weirdass thing but the more I look at it the funnier it is.

Also, this whole thing took me like an hour but it was so much fun. Thanks for the contest!

Well certainly if you want to go into the computing/IT side of things an apprenticeship or a degree is pretty much the only way in... there are exceptions, but these rely on more right place right time and a big chunk of luck.

My super responsible advice would be, suck it up, get good grades and go to uni, do a vocational subject (e.g Engineering/ Computer Science) and have a decent standard of living (if nothing special) for the rest of your life. But by the sounds of it you are pretty set on going unconventional and to be honest straight out of school is probably the best time to do it (no immediate responsibilities and a good 30-40 years to sort it all out if you fuck it up first time round), so with that i give you the following...

I'm guessing where you say you're quite good at business, you mean you're doing a Business Studies (or similar) A-Level and are quite good at that? There is a lot of differences between theory and practice... in theory everything is easy if you know what you are doing and you know what everyone else should be doing, but academic studies don't always prepare you for real life situations where people "don't play fair". When it comes to setting up a business, you need a great product and a sizeable client base before you even get started.... and that costs money (or a great deal of time which as you will know is also money).

As for you travelling ambitions they also require money (normally).

Now i think you have two options and i am going to recommend you read two books, one for each option (but you should read them both if you can).

First option, you go travelling shortly after you finish your A-levels. You're the perfect age for cheap labour (i.e bar work, retail market stalls etc) and you move from place to place earning enough to live on as you go. To get an idea of how you can do this with little or no start up funds read Vagabonding by Rolf Potts (non-affiliate amazon link) It is probably one of the best non-fiction books ever written and is regarded by many to be the bible of traveling. You can alway come back and return to the conventional life after that.

The second option, and in my opinion the best option for you is to start your own business... Just be aware that what you have been taught will be geared more towards corporate business with the aim of getting you onto a business based degree so not all of it may apply (although things like accounting will, you still have to be legal, even if unconventional). This is where my second book recommendation comes in. The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss (non-affiliate amazon link). Again this is one of the top semi-educational books ever written, and provides a great framework (not a step by step guide) for building a scalable business with minimal capital and minimal responsibility as well as some interesting anecdotes (i should point out the title is not literal, unfortunately). I would also really recommend listening to his podcast "The Tim Ferris Show" where he does super in depth interviews with the most successful people (from entrepreneurs to sports trainers to motivational speakers) on the planet in terms of behaviour, routines and personal philosophies, as well as the occasional "who would you most like to punch in the face and why?" question, which is always entertaining. very much worth your time to learn what it takes to be successful.

My final point is just picking up on something you mentioned... having a "basic knowledge of most things" is no longer what we call a skill or a talent... it's called google, and everyone has it.... don't use it as a differentiator between you and everyone else.

good luck.

Heh, it's a hell of a lot easier to write walls of text. Anyone can take a dozen sentences to say something, but taking one to say the same thing it's trickier. Most aren't willing to put in the effort. And some people are just naturally verbose....butI'm sure my education didn't hurt my ability to write. I got a degree in philosophy which was basically "Write a hundred papers about a subject you don't really understand in such a way you can convince someone you do". As a writing exercise, it's pretty useful. If I learned anything from my years in college, it's how to argue, which comes down to writing cogently. Well, it also gave me the tools to win arguments the wrong way, with sophistry. Which I kind of delight in doing. It's like being given powers and using them for evil...

I always intended to write, but then my chronic illness came along and with it went my ability to concentrate well and most of my motivation (case in point, I just had to look up "motivation" because I couldn't remember the word). As far as writing goes, I say work from the ground up. Get something like this or this. Just my personal opinion, but I believe it's all about a good foundation. But you know what works best for you. The only other advice I'd give is just keep doing it. Like anything else, the best way to get good is practice. Even if the piece it isn't up to your standards it's a step.

God, fucking star signs. People are willing to believe the STUPIDEST shit. So everyone born in the same hospital as me at the same time should have identical lives and personalities? Yeah, evidence REALLY bears that out...garbage.

I'm a firm believer in the jack of all trades as a lifestyle choice. I find too many different things interesting to pick one and ignore the rest. I mean, almost all of the things I'm interested in would fall under "Academia", but so many different fields are fascinating. I don't think it's a character flaw, but then again, I wouldn't, since I'm right there with you. It's not indecisive if you find many things interesting yet none interesting enough to choose. You've chose the many over the one, a completely valid choice.

Ah, yeah, my parents were pretty lax too. Very few hard and fast rules. Probably kept me hanging around longer, but I also just really like both of my parents.

I've read a bit about mormonism, and how "The Temple" is super reserved for the elites. I've also driven past the one in DC with the overpass preceding it saying "Surrender Dorothy" because it looks like fricking Oz. I'd heard about people getting married in the temple but a lot of their family couldn't attend because they didn't count as "Mormons in good standing." Crazy. Not very "community" oriented at that point. I also remember seeing this youtube video of a guy who got pretty far up in the hierarchy before losing faith and he showed a bunch of the weird behind the scenes stuff. There's this whole ceremony with a LITERAL "secret handshake" and everyone is robed and your blindfolded. SO masonic. Interesting stuff.

I think "Humanist" sounds kinda....hippy dippy. It certainly doesn't imply "spiritual" in anyway. And certainly not compared to "Deist" which clearly posits a god from the word go. The lines between ALL spirituality branches are pretty blurry. I mean, on the whole, the big three religions are worshiping the same guy, the arguments merely boil down to how. And every religion basically says "There's a god and he wants you to be good" with the rest being window dressing.

Ok, so I promised you that I would comment on this piece, if you posted it, so lets just jump right in!



THE BASICS OF STORY TELLING

Just because you are writing non-fiction, doesn't mean that you get to ignore the process of telling a story. In fact, it may be that the elements of a story are more important in non-fiction than fiction.

When was the last time you picked up a chemistry text book 'for fun'? But how about The Elegant Universe? Or A Short History of Nearly Everything? If you haven't read the latter, you should, as it is probably one of the greatest non-fiction science books of all time.

What makes these books more engaging than a standard textbook? They are telling a story. They are leading the reader on a journey of discovery, but are introducing that discovery in a way that makes the reader feel they have some skin in the game. They introduce problems (and questions) that demand answers. They introduce characters that are trying to solve them. There is antagonists (even if it is just nature) and heroes (even if it is just nature). And all this is introduced from the start.

In other words, they have a hook.



THE HOOK

So, lets think about your hook:

>I recently put aside my doubts that all of "reality" was anything but a simulation, created by an advanced civilization, and went for a long walk (for the sake of exploring the "fun" consequences, of course).

Not. Good.

First, you don't really introduce the problem. Sure, you said you put aside some doubts, but doubts of what? What do you mean by simulation? What do you mean by 'advanced civilization)? Why do I care what you are thinking? Why Do I care if you went for a walk -- and why do I care if it were long?

Do you see the problem? You introduce a string of loosely defined terms, which gives us a loosely defined problem. It is hard to care about a loosely defined problem. Worse you give us a character (YOU) that the reader know nothing about, and then probably won't care.

Do you know who the reader does care about? Themselves.

So, I would give a hook that is something related to the reader. You already mention The Matrix, and so you might just start a hook with something like:

"What if the matrix was right all along."

Something like this introduces a well-defined problem (borrowing from popular culture to do so), and then also a character that the reader cares about: themselves.

>I then, more quickly than expected, traversed the five stages of grief and arrived at an interesting realization.

1. What are the 5 stages of grief? Why not just list them?
   
2. Why do I care how quickly you arrived at them.
   
3. I don't know who you are, and how fast you expected to run through the five stages of grief. So, 'quicker than expected' tells me nothing.
   
4. The way this is phrase, it sounds like you were expecting to run through the five stages of grief. If that is the case, then why? I am struggling to understand how thinking the universe is a simulation might induce grief?
   
5. The ending of this is cheap, because you tell us there is an interesting realization, but then you don't give it to us. In my opinion, you should probably never directly assess that something YOU did is interesting (let the reader decide that), and you certainly shouldn't make a claim without immediately backing it up. Therefore, this is a bad end to the sentence.
   
   
   >I'd like to retrace my steps with the hope that you too will attain the same simulated peace that I now possess. Where to begin...
   
   The hook is now over. I do not know what the problem is, I do not know why I should care that you are having this problem, I don't know what your position is or why I should trust that it is 'interesting' and you claim.
   
   If I were not reading for critique, I would not read past this. You need a better, stronger, hook, to draw the reader's attention to the problem that you wish to discuss, and show them how this problem relates to their own life (i.e., why they should care about it).
   
   
   
   CLAIMS OF KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT SUPPORT
   
   The other issue this piece has is the that give above in bold -- you routinely issue judgement statements without sufficient support. Let us look at some:
   
   >the largest of the looming obstacles becomes the realization that all of reality as we know it could cease to exist for reasons beyond our control or even understanding.
   
   How is this an obstacle? And obstacle to what? This just seems to be a fact of one particular type of simulation.
   
   What if the simulation was being run in a manner such that it could not be interrupted? The technology to run this simulation is beyond our grasp, so why couldn't such a mechanism exist? You are making a claim that appears to have no foundation other than you think it to be true.
   
   >It is a reasonable assumption that a civilization advanced enough to simulate literally everything must first have achieved a certain level of peace and stability.
   
   There appears to be a logical flaw here. They did not simulate EVERYTHING -- just the things in the simulation. In fact, THEY must exist outside of the simulation, so that is not everything. In fact, if the laws of physics hold in their own universe, then the simulation we would be in would, by definition, be required to be MUCH simpler than their own world. The laws of thermodynamics dictate this. Therefore, this simulation would just a simple model of something.
   
   Furthermore:
   
   >After all, it's a bit difficult to investigate the nature of reality and advance science while you're busy trying to avoid being brutally murdered by bloodthirsty marauders hell-bent on wearing your skull as a hat
   
   What if, and I am just widely speculating here, the desire to avoid the fate you propose led someone to invent some new technology to avoid this -- like maybe a helmet? Or a better sword? Or something?
   
   Complete peace seems more likely to motivate technological advances. If all was perfect, then why change anything? Our invention of technology is a result of struggles against nature and others. Thus, violence and strife are primary motivators for technology, and it seems more logically sound to argue the opposite of what you are claiming.
   
   > This would mean that our creators posses at least the ability to perceive us as valid life forms, and as such, subject to the same rights as themselves!
   
   WHAT?
   
   We accept that bacteria are life forms, and do not extend to them the rights that we grant other people. Where is there any support that one would expect creators to grant rights to their creations that are on par with their own? I see absolutely zero support for this position. Maybe is exists, but if it does, you need to supply it.
   
   >The opposing perspectives could be summed up as follows:
   >1. Simulations capable of producing conscious simulants should not be created, since the act of turning off such simulations would be an act of genocide.
   >2. The knowledge obtained from simulations outweigh the ethical implications; the end justifies the means.
   
   
   This is a false dichotomy. They could also assume that we are not worthy of rights. You have not established that. So, they could view us with EXACTLY the same view we extend to simulation of people in video games. Do we consider their rights? If not, then why would they consider ours? This has not been sufficiently established.
   
   
   
   OVERALL FLOW
   
   Just as a story needs to have a cohesive plot, your non-fiction needs to have a common thread that connects ideas back to the major problem.
   
   In Star Wars: A New Hope, the story continually comes back to the problem of Luke establishing himself in a wider world. We care deeply about him, and his feeling of insignificance.
   
   In your story, you MUST return to the same idea over and over again. The problem just structure your discussion of everything else.
   
   The problem you REALLY have is this: if we are a simulation, do we have moral rights?
   
   So, this needs to guide EVERY single fact you introduce.
   
   Did the dinosaurs have rights? Then what do we make of the morality of the meteor coming in? What do we think about mammals taking over their environment?
   
   If we do not have rights in the simulation, then should we care about murder?
   
   These are interesting questions, that can be tied back the strange idea of us existing in a simulation. They provide stronger jumping off points for the tangents you are taking. They will provide a structure and focus that you are currently lacking. You need to identify a theme, and stick with it, very closely. In the same way that all actions in Star Wars were related to Luke gaining an understanding of his place in the galaxy, your story MUST always come back to the idea of Morality within and without a simulation.
   
   *
   
   SUMMARY*
   
   The idea that you are discussing is interesting, but the manner you are doing it in is not yet engaging. The reason is that you have not introduced the problem with a proper hook, and you do not identify and tread near an established theme within the piece. These are elements of story telling that will serve you well in non-fiction, as in fiction.
   
   If you want more information on this, try reading [Writing Science*](http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Science-Papers-Proposals-Funded/dp/0199760241). THough this is aimed more at the academic writer, it is a great place to start for understanding how to frame the introduction to serious non-fiction. That is, how to identify the story you are trying to tell, how to make a compelling hook, and then how to follow through on the themes that make your hook compelling.
   
   Let me know if you have questions!

I'm a firm believer that learning any skill is a matter of following a simple three step process: 1. Study; 2. Practice; 3. Get feedback. And, of course, repeat until... Well, basically until you die or lose interest. There's always more to learn.

Others have already addressed steps 2 and 3 (ad nauseum), but it's obvious what you're really asking for is resources for step 1, so here are a few of my personal favorites:

• Bestselling, award-winning fantasy author Brandon Sanderson's lectures at Brigham-Young University. As a full 12 hour university-level writing class, it is one of the best writing resources you'll find anywhere, and it is available free on YouTube. It's focused on fantasy, but a lot (most?) of what he talks about is applicable to any genre.
  
• I kinda hate recommending it because of the embarrassing title, but Writing Fiction for Dummies actually provides a pretty thorough overview of the writing process and the choices available to an author, including some options a lot of people don't seem to be aware of (for example, 3rd person objective POV).
  
• K.M. Weiland's blog Helping Writers Become Authors is full of great info, especially on character arcs and how to use (her preferred version of) the traditional three-act structure. A little bit prescriptive, so keep a pinch of salt at hand, but you can learn some good techniques from her.
  
• Jenna Moreci's YouTube channel. She's a self-published author with two mediocre books under her belt who basically regurgitates the same writing advice you can find on pretty much any other writing blog, but it's still mostly good advice, and I like the blunt, humorous style she presents it in.
  
  As a bonus, here are my two standard recommendations for where to go when you get to step 3 and are ready for peer critiquing:
  
  
• Scribophile.com is basically a free online critique group. The general atmosphere is friendly, helpful, and gracious. It's based around a karma system that ensures everyone participates in a fair exchange of critique quantity – while that doesn't guarantee a fair exchange of critique quality, it does mean that you can be sure to get some kind of feedback on everything you post (unlike some similar sites, where most stories just get ignored). Also, your work is only accessible to other members, not posted publicly for the entire Internet.
  
• r/DestructiveReaders is a subreddit for exchanging critiques with fellow redditors. I haven't actually used this one personally because I'm not comfortable posting my works-in-progress completely publicly, but their description makes a point of expecting in-depth, detailed critiques.

Dear guy in the first half of this note,

Here's your fucking problem, asshole: you're a self-centered shitheel who only writes for himself. Want to know how I know this? Because you're bitching about the one aspect of editing that requires the least amount of patience and provides the greatest benefit to readability: spelling and punctu-fuck-you-ation.

Grammar Nazis, jerks or not, are providing a public fucking service. I'm glad you're pissed off. You should be. However, if you're getting a complex, it's not because they're Nazis, it's because you're a shitty student.



Dear guy asking for help,

Great to hear you're interested in improving your ability to communicate. On one hand, it is as easy as having a conversation. On the other, it's really not. Without non-verbal cues and cliches to communicate your meaning and subtext, it becomes easy to write in a way that feels stilted or transmits ideas you don't intend. I recommend continuing to read the authors you like, but start keeping an eye on syntax and structure. That's really the best way to keep sharp. You'll be able to learn which rules persist because they work well (using dashes rather than parentheses, for instance) and which can be broken for the sake of an aesthetic or readership (i.e., Cormac McCarthy's phobia about double-quoting dialog). The rules aren't as strict as you might have been led to believe, but you'll find in time that you respect those stronger rules more for a simple reason: they just work, no matter what you're communicating.

For composition, I recommend William K. Zinsser's On Writing Well. It's a pleasurable read and useful for all but the very best and most experienced writers (and maybe them as well).

For story craft, I recommend Bob McKee's Story and Stephen King's On Writing. The former is nigh fucking indispensable; the second, just gratifying to read.

For spelling, Merriam-Websters and practice.

For punctuation, just be sufficiently considerate of your readers to google the rule you're not sure about.

Thanks for posting this. I hope my 2 cents help.

I think I disagree, but guess I haven't read a ton of books about writing. In my experience, they can be helpful, especially to people who are just starting out. Maybe not as helpful as reading the types of books that you want to write (and reading the stuff you don't want to write—it's important to read widely), but I don't know if I'd call them a waste of time. King's book is great (but that might be because I got the impression that I'd like him as a person while I was reading that), Strunk and White Elements of Style and Zissner's On Writing Well are helpful for tightening beginners' prose, Writing Fiction: a guide to narrative craft has great exercises at the end of every chapter, and I'm reading Benjamin Percy's essay collection Thrill Me right now, and it's great. I feel like a large part of /r/writing would really connect with the first and titular essay in that collection, actually. He talks about reading a lot of so-called trash genre fiction before being exposed to literary fiction and how he kind of overcorrected and became a super-fierce advocate for that-and-only-that before he realized that you can take the good parts of both to create amazing stories. I've also never read any other respected literary person mention reading R. A. Salvatore, which was cool to see since I forgot I was a big Drizzt fan when I was younger.

I know it's not explicitly geared for short stories but The Nighttime Novelist is my go-to text for how to think about structuring a larger work. Though I have yet to publish my first novel.

Short story writing is very different. Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction and Stephen King's On Writing are both wonderful craft books that shed some of the practicalities of the Nighttime Novelist and look a good writing in its simplest form.

Much more important than nonfiction books, though, is finding short story markets you'd like to read. Figure out what kind of place might accept the most perfect form of the fiction you'd like to write, and then read those magazines religiously. While you're reading, do what you can to consider what these stories are doing well and how they are pulling off what they are pulling off. Use the vocabulary learned from craft books to better articulate (to yourself, mostly) what these stories are really doing, and begin to generate a sense of what good writing looks like. Then practice, practice, practice, write, revise, and write some more until you've got something worth sending out.

At this point in your writing development, the name of the game is simply learning to write well--keep that in mind, and try to make decisions based on what will help you become a better writer. And finally remember, there is such a thing as "practicing well."

First, I'm glad you're applying to become an RD! I hope you get in and go far! :)

1. What was your timeline for when you began actually taking time to put everything on DICAS? It's September now and the semester will fly by so how early did you start actually spending quality time on it? I am wondering if it's better to just focus on the semester at hand and leave all DICAS stuff for winter break or if I should start now.
   
   When I applied, I tried to get everything done as early as possible. If DICAS has already opened, then have a goal of getting it all done and turned in 2-4 weeks ahead of time. Certainly don't wait until the last minute to put it all together. I suggest finding a date you want to turn it in by and start scheduling items from your "To-do list" so that you can pace yourself and not have to do everything at once (during the semester is fine as long as it doesn't interfere with other important things like exams). Things like who you want to get rec letters from would come first because professors have many obligations and letters likely won't be written within a couple of days time.
   
   
   
2. When did you take the GRE? Did you take it more than once?
   
   Luckily, I didn't have to take the GRE, so I won't be much help here. But, I would think that if you need the GRE for DICAS, it would probably be a good idea to take it during winter break since you haven't already. Definitely not something to wait on and you're going to have to study for it. Again, if you need it for DICAS, start scheduling study times now because you're not going to have an opportunity to take it twice.
   
   
   
3. I had to retake a couple of classes due to poor grades my freshman year of college. I did just fine after retaking both classes and ended up with an A and B which is a huge improvement from 2 D's. I was wondering how to approach this if I should bring it up in my personal statement a reason for the poor grades or if I should just leave it alone and not mention it. My most recent semester spring 2016 my GPA for the semester was 3.8 with 19 credit hours (I added a psychology minor late). Obviously I am doing worlds better academically but I am wondering if internship directors will look at the 2 D's and judge me based on grades I got 3 years ago. Freshman year I was just checked out from school and from life. 'Checking out' doesn't make for a good explanation in the personal statement.
   
   The best resource I've ever purchased was a book on how to write admissions essays (or else you're going to sound just like everyone else). This book my favorite.
   Also, I wouldn't address the grades specifically. For example, I didn't do well the first year of undergrad, but did exponentially (so to speak) better by my senior year, so I talked about my growth in education and learning and how my grades showed a positive trend that only went up over time, and were only going to continue being great.
   
   I hope you find this information useful and let me know if you have other questions!

On paper, it sounds like you are the ideal graduate student candidate! c: The only thing left is whether you'll be a good fit for the specific school/program/lab in question. That can be nailed down with a stellar personal statement tailored to the specific program (along with a good interview whenever that comes along). If you need any help with that, I highly recommend this book -- it was incredibly helpful to me throughout the application process, especially coming from a family without experience in higher education. It includes details down to waiving your rights, as suggested above.

From what I've seen, the real "above and beyond" thing you can do is establish a meaningful connection with the professor you want to work with at this school. For instance, if the school offers a summer research program for undergraduates, you can apply for that and request to work with that specific professor. In another case, you can attend a scientific conference, seek out that professor, make conversation with them about their research (and make sure your interests are known), and follow-up with them over email so that they have a good impression of you and your ambitions by the time they receive your application. Bonus points if you're presenting at that conference :D This option requires a little bit of networking or cyber-stalking to see which conferences that professor would be attending, haha. My research domain is very specialized so it was easy to locate my prospective advisor in a small conference, and besides that there's a huge generalized one that everyone remotely close to my field goes to (Society for Neuroscience). Maybe there's some equivalent in anthropology? c:

Wishing you luck in your applications! n_n

Audio books my friend, they saved my mind. I liked to mix it up between sci-fi and nonfiction.

http://librivox.org/ is totally free, public domain stories read by volunteers. Very hit or miss readers, but great content.

http://www.audible.com/ you can get a free gold membership trial for 2 book credits if you google around. These are all professional and they have so much variety.

My favorite books from that time were:

Stiff (though all of Mary Roach's books are informative and entertaining)

Neuromancer

Daemon and Freedom TM

Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics

But those are just my taste. I can vouch for the audio book quality of those though, they were very entertaining and made the time much easier to deal with. Edited for formatting

Never done it, I'm coming from Texas to try it.

It's one hell of a hike thats for sure, but I don't think its extremely strenuous overall. There are some climbing parts near the end around Glencoe and I think its a bit up and down around Loch Lomond, but overall I think it's supposed to be a bit nice with a hill climb here and there.

Granted, I do backpack outdoors a fair amount and I'm used to tent camping every night. I know the WHT has bunkhouses and hostels all along the route, so you can get a decent nights rest and some warm grub every night. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to tent camp the whole way or stay at some of the places.
You're definitely welcome to join, even if you just want to meet me at one of the towns on the route and hike a day or two just to try it out.

On the entire backpacking/get out note, I think its a great idea. I'm 26, been working since college, and I'm going insane. I think we're all so focused on "save save save/work work work, I'll do the fun stuff when I retire" that we don't pay attention to the fact that we we'll be too exhausted to do anything when we're done.

So I guess my additional tips/ideas are:

1. When you're on the road, stuff just happens, good or bad, and you just need to go with it. The best things come out of it.
   
2. I enjoyed this book, kind of helped me get over anxieties of being on the road for awhile.
   Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel
   
   
   

1. Apply to graduate courses to take in the summer (either online or in class) as a non-matriculated student. Get As. This will show that you can handle the workload and are taking the application process seriously - it also helps if you don't have a lot of research experience. (Bonus points if it's at a SUNY/CUNY school.) Many Summer I sessions start at the end of May or early June.
   
   
2. Address your low undergrad GPA in your statement of purpose in a way that shows how you've learned and can ensure your success in a master's program. Don't dwell on it, but they do want to see how you've grown and how you've applied it to your life since then.
   
   
3. Your GRE is already good, to make sure you write a smashing SOP. Graduate Admissions Essays by Donald Asher is a really helpful book on this, it also describes a lot of the "ins and outs" of applying to grad school.
   
   
4. Get strong references. Your academic ones probably won't be great, so if you can get stronger in-field references it would be helpful. That book I mentioned above has a checklist on what to discuss with a potential reference to that they can write you the best recommendation possible.
   
   
5. If your current job doesn't deal with non-profit leadership, then it would be incredibly helpful to find a volunteer position within those lines.
   
   SUNY and CUNY schools are heavily researched-based, and some of their programs are just as competitive as any other state system. It might be worth looking into CUNY EMBA programs if they are available (they are more expensive, but have more to do with making new connections and gaining experience rather than heavy research.)

You described me in high school to a tee. You are an introvert living in (probably) THE MOST extroverted country in the world. No wonder shit's tough. There is nothing wrong with being an introvert. Please PLEASE watch this TED talk by Susan Cain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0KYU2j0TM4
If there was one book I wish I'd read before middle school, it's her book, "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking". When people say that "such and such a book changed my life" I feel like smacking them in the face - what single piece of advice could do a human life justice? If ever I was to proclaim that something helped NEARLY that much, it's this woman's research.

Also, I dissolved a good portion of my depression by changing my diet. Look at Mark's Daily Apple and soak in as much as you can from that guy:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/welcome-to-marks-daily-apple/#axzz26BkmN7ot
It's probably the purest diet you can follow. However, the easiest diet to follow is the slow-carb diet, which is nearly the same, and much more fun:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/06/how-to-lose-20-lbs-of-fat-in-30-days-without-doing-any-exercise/
Tim Ferriss, the one who created the diet, has a book I found to be an inspiration, "The 4-hour Workweek"

As far as work goes, you must find something that makes you feel alive! This is easier said than done because our schools and our whole system don't work that way. Ken Robinson gives you the details as to why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
You might find his book helpful as well: "The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything"
Also, travel can really clear one's head and make one feel alive. No one explains that better than Walt Whitman in "Song of the Open Road". If you've ever wanted to know how to travel for months on end I suggest the book "Vagabonding," by Rolf Potts:
http://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347390437&sr=1-1&keywords=vagabonding

Sorry I sort of went apeshit on you. I'm just excited to share what has helped me. Twenty months ago I went through a similar hell, and the minds I describe really helped me.
I sincerely hope you escape the doldrums.

> Anyone have tips for formatting?

Oh boy do I! Honestly, for the first few months of shorts, I just did things on Google docs then uploaded a docx file to Amazon. That worked fine and looked okay and let me focus on what was important: writing more shorts.

If you want to get fancy there's a bunch of way to go: you can use Scrivener, apparently, as you're doing. If you have a Mac and want them to look really pretty you can get a program called Vellum (there are ways to get it on your PC, too, by simulating a Mac, if you really want Vellum). The two programs I've heard mentioned for Windows (or Mac) are Jutoh and Sigil.

Finally, if you want to invest a fair amount of time learning stuff, don't get frustrated very easily, and want complete control over your books, you can do something called hand formatting. That's where you go in and use HTML to make your manuscript look nice. I just learned how to do this and find it quiet satisfying. Check out A Filthy Book in a Fancy Dress by Cooper Kegel and Zen of eBook Formatting by Guido Henkel. Henkel also has a series of blog posts if you want a quick overview of what you're getting into. Both of the books are free to read with Kindle Unlimited though, I believe, and you can get a free month of KU if you're not already signed up. It's quite useful for doing market research anyway.

But, anyway, if your just getting started I'd say: just make it look nice in a Word doc and upload that.

P.S. I don't really know what I'm talking about. Just repeating what I've learned so far.

I suspect most authors at least start out as pantsers. It's like riding a bike: you don't plan a long road trip your first try. You aim for reaching the end of the block without falling off, and try to decide if you really like doing this. It proves to be fun, you do it more and you get better. At some point you may find you have mastered the difficult skills involved in basic story telling (character, setting, action - resolution cycles, dialog, etc) and you want to take better control of the big picture stuff: theme and plot.

You also start thinking about the realities of making money doing this. That raises the question of efficiency. Ramming out 5,000 words a day sounds great, but if you have to rewrite it 7 times and cut 3,000 of those words, or worse yet, all 5,000 because you drove your plot into a dead end, then it isn't 5000 words, its about 10% of that. So outlining suddenly looks more productive.

How detailed? David Drake, a very prolific author, has posted the outline for one of his well-known Lt. Leary books because of all the requests. It's interesting to see how one pro does it: https://david-drake.com/2014/plot-outline/

On a personal side note, I'm switching from pantser to planner for two reasons: first, its easy for a plot run away from me. I've always got one more great idea or a cool plot twist. Suddenly, I'm trying down to edit a 240,000 word scifi novel. That editing is a lot less fun than writing it was.

The second reason I'm switching to planning is co-authoring. I'm working on a novel with another writer. We started by exchanging chapters. It became a contest over who controlled the plot and who could create the coolest characters. About the same time we discovered there are expectations from editors for plot arcs, and hard rules if you ever want to make it into a screen play. After 10 chapters we agreed we needed an outline. We followed "Structuring Your Novel" by Weiland, which gave us a model we could understand without too much study.

The proof of being a successful author is in SALES; whats the use of writing if you don't get read? I hate to admit it, but I've got almost a million words on paper in various projects, but none clean enough to sell. I blame pantsing for that; which is why I've switched to planning on everything new I start over 2500 words.

But however you choose to do it, don't feel trapped, just write on!

Fantastic. I love audiobooks while running. I listened to a good part of Stephen King's 11/22/63 during an ultra last year which was great, and I've been listening to them during training runs for a few years now.

My favorites to listen to while running:
Scott Jurek's Eat and Run. It is kind of fun to listen to a runner talk about running while you are running.

AWOL on the Appalachain Trail. Really great book about a journalist's experience in thru-hiking the AT.

Robert Kurson's Pirate Hunters really surprised me. Nonfiction book about treasure/wreck diving. I was mildly interested the topic before I started listening to the book but now it is a favorite subject of mine.

The Martian. I can't say enough about the audiobook - the story is great and the audiobook makes the experience so much greater.

The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler, of course. Great, atomospheric noir. One of the first audiobooks I ever purchased. Engaging and makes you forget the miles.

Will start by throwing a few into the ring:

The Beach by Alex Garland - While its plot is certainly limited with regard to imitability, it offers a very interesting perspective on the types of people you meet in the more interesting places you'll travel.

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts - A quintessential nonfiction guide for anyone who's considering traveling long term. It's preachy in places, but it'll fire you up to get moving.

Off the Rails in Phnom Penh by Amit Gilboa - You'll see this one being sold by street children in Phnom Penh often, but it's not too hard to find a copy anywhere else. A really great, enjoyable view of expat life in Phnom Penh.

Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac - On the Road is, of course, the standard American road novel, and Jack's most famous, but the Dharma Bums offers a really unique perspective on travel - that of a spiritual nature.

The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner - Another highly enjoyable read by an author who travels to the world's most purported "happy" countries. Great take on the subject area.

Ok, I had a similar trip, here's a few tips and tricks:

1. Take a normal sized backpack like a school backpack. No flags, try not to look too American. Use a small zipper lock. Have your passport and credit cards in a money belt under your clothes. Carry a front pocket wallet.
   
   
2. ATMs will generally give you a better exchange rate. Traveler's cards are good too. Airport exchanges are usually worst
   
   3)Overnight trains are fine. A little loud, a little bumpy but cheaper than a hotel for a night and you're not missing out on day travel time. I say they're worth it but you miss some countryside so just play it by ear.
   
   
3. Try not to plan day by day too much. You'll know when it's time to leave.
   
   
4. Learn a couple key phrases. If you're honest and genuine people will take the time to communicate with you.
   
   Other than that, have fun good luck, I recommend Vagabonding by Ralph Potts. Lots of great advice.
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180

This is going to sound like really flippant advice, but I swear it's not: buy this book. There is a lot of basic stuff you need to know - how to build character and setting and plot, how to outline, and yes, how to market and publish - and this will spell it all out a lot better than any of us could do in a short post on Reddit. It is definitely an intro book, so it's not like this is all you'll ever need, but it's a good place to start, get your bearings, and figure out what you need to focus on next.

When you do figure that out, there are tons of books dedicated to everything from plot structure and scene structure to dialogue and character arcs; buy those too. Use them to improve your craft and fill in your gaps.

Also, read! Read a lot. Pay attention to how the authors you love set a scene, how they describe things (and to what extent), how they structure their chapters and scenes, how they write dialogue. All books contain real, solid examples for you to study and learn from. Figure out what you admire, and mimic it. Figure out what you hate, and avoid it.

And last, keep in mind that your writing probably won't be amazing right away, and you might have to rethink and rewrite your book a few times as you're learning (or maybe even start a new one) before you really feel like you've gotten the hang of it. Don't give up, just keep learning and keep working.

Well, first you must learn to edit yourself.


I'm the prose guy in my writing group, mostly due to the fact I write short stories, while my friends write longer works. You can't use "I'll edit it when I finish it" excuse when your story is 20 pages.

What helped me was listening to a few courses of Brandon Sanderson's lectures as well as Writing Excuses podcast, but while both are worthwhile, they aren't time-efficient (although free!).

What is time efficient, though, is the Little Book of Editing for Writers. I like this book a lot, because it's so concise. Not only it gives you advice, but also offers examples, allowing you to decide whether you agree with the reasoning or not on your own. And for the most part you'll end up agreeing, because the advice really is on point.

When you make the book as good as you can (which often takes several drafts and even rewrites), well, at that point you'll need to find a real editor, but maybe that's something someone else can help you with.

As a general advice, though, think about every word and what function it performs in the story.

> because why wouldn't they hold his job for that

I read a book by a programmer that left his job to hike the Appalachian Trail and got it back when he returned. He didn't have the job "held" for him exactly, but he talked to his boss before he left. The boss agreed there was a slow period coming up where they could be a man down and still do OK, and also that it was going to take them months to hire for the open position. The agreement was basically, we'll hold off on hiring your replacement and you have to apply fresh again when you're back, but I can't see why we'd hire someone else.

I also found the book interesting because at the end he said he was glad he'd done it but he was pretty sure that if he could go back in time he would not choose to do it.

Don't make saving your entire life in your 20s. It's important, sure, but only in balance with everything else, namely travel. It all depends on the lifestyle you want to live when you're old. If you want to be in the millions when you retire, your life will be pretty dull when you're young if you're just making average money, but if you get serious (talk to a financial adviser) about your finances at a reasonable age when say you're 30... you'll have no problem being better off than most who don't. For me, in my late 20s, it's travel, travel, travel. I have a degree in finance, I have a great job right now, but I'm saving up to travel long-term (1+ years) throughout central and south america in just over a year, will possibly teach English abroad elsewhere afterward, namely India. With no real responsibilities I think it's important for Americans (specifically) to live entirely out of a pack on their back for a sustained period of time. No all-inclusive resorts. Go somewhere where your money goes far (most of Europe is expensive). Couchsurf, bring a hammock - no one cares if you set it up between 2 palm trees on the beach - hostels, locals; it forces you to meet people and figure out who you are and what you want to do with your life. You can try to go with a friend, but you will meet so many great people along the way that it's not entirely necessary. It's also extremely cheap to do. Read Vagabonding or The 4-Hour Work Week . But I am one who just can't make up my mind what I want to do in life. Honestly, I just want to climb rocks, but that's not exactly practical since I'm not Chris Sharma . I have some business ideas in the works but I'll probably end up going back to school so I can teach and have 3 months off in the summer, preferrably psychology or the psychology of religion. But I think I could also be content organic farming in my later days... or writing, I write a bunch, and plan to use the trip as the muse for a Karouac-esque tale. See so I have no clue. But that's the fun of it. Just shotgun your interests and figure it out. Love life. Go live it. Don't let anyone tell you you're crazy because your values are different. They will come around. Also, no soda - water, water, and coconut water.

I've stated before that I think that TRP goes beyond just seduction.

It's about living in a world that is not what we've been told it should be. This applies to women, relationships, college, careers, accumulation of wealth, travel, Life in general.

Women and relationships - We all know, it's pretty much all we talk about here.

College - The baby boomers told you to go to college if you didn't want to be flipping burgers... Then you went to college, got out, and there are no jobs. Then the baby boomers tell you that you're an entitled brat for refusing to flip burgers. The funny thing is that the people who told you to go to college didn't actually go to college, they started out flipping burgers, but they did it without the burden of debt.

Careers - If you spend the best years of your life sitting at a desk (and you don't make any women co-workers feel at all uncomfortable in any way), maybe one day you may be able to save up enough money to buy a red convertible sports car when you're bald, fat and middle aged, to compensate you for your unfulfilling life. After that you can save up and maybe afford a few years of lower-middle class leisure lifestyle while your body falls apart and you wait for death. Does that sound like a good deal?

Travel - Extended long-term world travel is the domain of the rich and all you can afford is short stints of two week vacations to to all-inclusive resorts before you have to trudge back to your cubical to resume the life you were trying to escape from.

Life in general - Go to work, be miserable, come home, buy something to make yourself feel better, get into debt, have to work harder, become more miserable, repeat. You have to do this because the only thing that can bring you a temporary sensation of satisfaction is some kind of material item. A newer, better item. If you lose an item you lose a part of yourself, because you are the things that you own.

-

I never went to college and I have zero debt. I don't have a 'career' per-se, but I do have marketable skills in web development and design, self taught. I work from time to time to get money which I then use to fund my travels (I'll be in Spain next week). Girls are occasional but enjoyable guests in my life. I own no material possessions other than a bag of clothes and this laptop. I practice meditation and try to incorporate awareness of the present moment into my life rather than dwelling on the past or the future.

If you're interested in learning about how long-term travel is well within your reach I'd highly recommend Vagabonding by Rolf Potts.

In terms of life/spiritual philosophy I recommend authors such as Eckhart Tolle and Alan Watts

A blog about how you start from scratch would be fun. Especially if you keep it up, you will be able to look back on it as a professional years from now and see how far you've come.

For writers of large worlds (I have my own persistent universe for my science fiction), I do recommend one thing: It is possible to have a universe that is TOO big. To avoid drowning your audience is needless details, be sure to learn how all the story elements PLAY TOGETHER. Characters advance the plot. The setting is the world that characters interact with. Characters run into conflict. Plot is all about the conflict. Etc etc .... all story elements are interconnected in every which possible way. If nothing works cohesively together, then you will run into disjointed issues in your writing.

To learn how these story elements are interconnected in a sort of "web-of-storytelling", I've enjoyed the Writing Fiction for Dummies book to help explain the basics. It definitely does NOT cover everything, but it's a good high level view of all story elements. Each element (i.e. plot, setting, characters, dialogue, etc) can and does have its own books by themselves. If you feel you are lacking in a specific element, you can potentially read up further into it.

Your fictional writing courses should help out as well. Again, be aware that you will not learn everything there is to know in your coursework.

I have a disclaimer though: Reading about writing, and taking the time to write are two different things. Do NOT spend a lot of money in hopes that self-help books alone will teach you everything there is to know. Most skill comes from experience and practice. This is where your blog will come into play. It will keep track of how well you improve over time.

You can do it!

I'm glad you enjoyed my comment. I definitely agree with you about this sub. There seems to be something inherently inspirational about traveling and I think that it has to do with the fact that, often, the decision to drop everything and travel is such a personal one and often comes from some type of larger perspective about what life means.

Have fun on your travels!

If you're looking for a great traveling book - Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel was the best that I found.

https://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180

Really shows you that it's all about a person's the perspective and life priorities. If you want to make a life of traveling, it really isn't that difficult - no matter how much money you make.

• Naked Statistics by Charles Wheelan is a great overview of the science of statistics, without being too much like a lecture. After reading it, you'll have a better understanding of what statistics are just silly (like in ads or clickbait news) and what are actually important (like in scientific studies).
  
  
• You on a Diet by Roizen and Oz is touted as a diet book, and it kind of is. I recommend it because it's a great resource for basic understanding the science behind the gastrointestinal system, and how it links to the brain.
  
  
• All of Mary Roach's books are excellent overviews of science currently being done, I've read Stiff (the science of human bodies, post-mortem), Spook ("science tackles the afterlife"), Packing for Mars (the science of humans in space), and Bonk (sex), and they are all very easy to understand, but scientifically appropriate. I'm sure "Gulp" is good too, although I haven't read that one yet.
  
  
• "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming" by Mike Brown is a great, accessible overview of exactly why Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet, told by the man who started the controversy.
  
  
• "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking is a little denser, material-wise, but still easy to understand (as far as theoretical physics goes, at least!). Hawking explains the history of physics and the universe, as well as the future of the discipline. While there is a bit more jargon than some pop-science books, I think an entry-level scientist can still read and understand this book.
  

Definitely long term travel. It could probably help you grow more as a person than a semester of a graduate program.
What is your experience with statistics and what are you looking to do with it? There are excellent online modules (I've heard anyway, my stats knowledge came from school) that you can definitely utilize while working at your own pace (even at work during downtime). R is the statistics program/language that is currently most well respected in the statistics community, and it's free. R isn't even really taught in a lot of academic programs as far as I know, all the people I know who are proficient in it taught themselves.

edit: This is a great book about long term travel, he's also done some podcasts https://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541349629&sr=8-1&keywords=rolf+potts

> I'll never meet a guy that will love me back. There's no one that's remotely interested in me. I'm too awkward. Even if I did find a guy, he'd probably leave me anyway.

I lived in SF for a long time and I can tell you that people of all stripes and levels of awkwardness find love, I saw it all the time.

The people at Pixar say things get better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a4MR8oI_B8

As for your parents, people find comfort in having scapegoats and people who are followers tend to listen to leaders who are happy to supply scapegoats - in the past (US) it was the Irish, Italians, Chinese, Polish, etc nowadays for rednecks it is the immigrants, for flag wavers it is ISIS, for Mormons it is the gays. One way to think of these people is morally immature and easily lead astray by the authority figures they rely on to tune their moral compass. You have to be the bigger man. In this case, yes they are torturing you but it is because they think it is what they are supposed to do. Success is your best revenge.

As far as jobs or education here is a secret - being a middle manager or something is not necessarily more rewarding than being a barista. Honor and fulfillment come from how you conduct your life and how you treat others. Chop wood, carry water there is much to be said for humility and simplicity. You can learn more for free from the best schools in the world on iTunes University than you could at BYU.
https://diyscholar.wordpress.com/guide-to-itunesu/

"Do not let yourself be guided by the authority of the sacred texts, nor by simple logic, nor by appearance or opinion, nor even by the teachings of your master; when you know in yourself that something is bad, then give it up, and accept the good and follow it." -Buddha

You are stuck in a place where people live in a very small bubble and they all believe it is real, it is not and there are many amazing and fulfilling things out there that you should try out before you kill yourself. Here are just three books with alternative ideas about spirituality, philosophy and jobs - you can stop living live exclusively from the POV of the Mormon bubble without letting anyone else know that you are doing it - for now while you are still in prison, once you are out you can be your own man.

http://www.amazon.com/Chop-Wood-Carry-Water-Fulfillment/dp/0874772095
http://www.amazon.com/Wabi-Sabi-Artists-Designers-Poets-Philosophers/dp/0981484603
http://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180

Take a look at this recent post. There are some good suggestions in there.

I posted in there, but it still applies here: Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded. Great book, easy to read, and I saw great improvement in my writing.

My list:

• Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel - travel, see the world, experience new things
  
• How to Win Friends and Influence People - make friends, enjoy people
  
• Starting Strength - get fit, look good
  
• Esquire The Handbook of Style: A Man's Guide to Looking Good - dress well, look good
  
• The 4-Hour Workweek - work on your own terms

If I handwrite - I prefer plain bic blue pen on yellow legal tablets, otherwise I preferred my Asus netbook until my husband ruined it by spilling chili oil on it - now I'm shopping for a replacement.

I prefer a starbucks or other cafe - but not the comfy chairs - I need the hardback chairs, not too close to the drink prep areas, 'cause that's too noisy, and close to the outlets for keeping my equip. charged. Panera is too noisy, cold and only has 30 mins of wifi free.

I need eats and drinks available and extra comfy longsleeved sweatshirts. And I use yarny.me online as my software because that way I won't lose my work and I can pick it back up anywhere and it's uncomplicated and free.

I'm just one wholesale slaughter away from finishing the first draft of a short novella, then I can get back to the first book in a trilogy that I already have outlined. I also have the first few chapters of a mystery/western series book, as well as other stories outlined for an anthology.

Whenever I get a good idea, I outline the heck out of it, because life is a determined b---h who likes to interrupt me at the slightest provocation.

This would be great as the next addition to my writing resource shelf.

Out of college, my sister got a job with Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch, Germany.

It's a Department of Defense resort for troops- so she gets awesome benefits, and will be able to retire with pension after 20 years. And they paid for her flight.
http://www.edelweisslodgeandresort.com/employment

Not sure if that helps though. Good luck.

I've also heard that the book Vagabonding by Rolf Potts is pretty useful in this type of situation.

http://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417675510&sr=8-1&keywords=vagabonding

That's pretty good. I like Write Your Novel from the Middle by James Scott Bell. It's short, $4; you can download it onto your phone and read it in an afternoon. There's a certain point in the middle of a book where the hero takes a good, hard look at himself, then decides what he needs to do. Figure out that point, and the rest of the book falls in place.

I also like How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James Frey.

That looks like an awesome book, I'll definitely get it. Thanks! In exchange, for any traveler, I highly recommend Vagabonding by Rolf Potts, and also the website Travelfish which was indispensable when I spent a month in Thailand, and it's great for SE Asia in general.

A few points from Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, a book about cultural differences between Americans (and English-speaking nations in general) and the French:

1. The French appreciate arguing and polemic in conversation. This is in contrast to English speakers, who try to emphasize what they have in common with the other person's point of view. This can easily be misinterpreted in inter-cultural situations: Americans will think the French are being agressively argumentative and rude, when they are actually just trying to make interesting conversation, the way they're used to. The French, on the other hand, will find the Americans conventional-thinking and prone to agree with anything, when they're just trying to be "nice" and keep things smooth (of course their opinions can be just as strong as anyone else's, and they can be eloquent in expressing them--they just don't make casual conversation that way; for Americans, it's all about "greasing the wheels" of social interaction).This probably doesn't come as complete news to most Americans (or French), but it still comes as a shock when they first experience it first hand.
   
   
2. The French will correct a foreigner's mispronunciation of French words (or slips in grammar) as a matter of politely helping that person improve themselves. Another big no-no with Americans: such a person would be called a "grammar Nazi" by Internet geeks, but in casual conversation among non-geek Americans, it would be seen as gratuitous arrogance. A (somewhat extreme) example from the book: one of the authors, a native English-speaker from Ontario (the other being a native French-speaker from Montreal, both having had lived two years in France), asks for a bottle of ice tea in a grocery store, in good French, but pronouncing Ice Tea in English (since that's what's written on the bottle). The saleswoman corrects her pronunciation: EES-TEH. So a native English-speaker is corrected about pronouncing two words of their own language by a French person speaking only basic English, with no self-consciousness at all. Amazing as it may seem, the intention was to be helpful, not arrogant. (Not really a reason for Americans to hate the French, but an illustration of how easily cultural impedance mismatch can distort image.)
   
   (I don't have the book at hand right now, this is just what I could remember from reading it a few years ago.)
   

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, Yvon Chouinard's book that's kind of about building the business that is the Patagonia we know today, but is a lot more about his philosophies and ideologies and how we can all be better and do better for our planet.

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel. A fairly short book that's not some abstract ideas or a story about traveling the world (that's Marco Polo Didn't Go There, which is also fantastic), but an actual how to book on doing it. It helped me, and has helped people I've given the book to, understand that extensive travel isn't just for the ultra wealthy, it is easy to do and achievable for everyone if you make travel your priority.

I remember writing a grant proposal for fieldwork in the first year of my PhD. Me and my supervisor edited it together (he thought ti would be a good exercise. No content was changed, but the entire text was red from the 'track changes' after working on it for two hours!

It's pretty normal and a others said: the learning curve is steep.

(PS: there are some great books out on academic writing. This is one of my favorites: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Science-Papers-Proposals-Funded/dp/0199760241)

If you have the good fortune to take a class in fiction writing, they talk about the mechanics of storyform, how stories are composed, what sort of structures they have, what the parts are and how they are related. It can be invaluable information.

Out here in the world, there's no one to tell you how to write a novel. You're supposed to just try doing it until you can somehow teach yourself how to do it, I guess. But that could take 20 years...

So one of the best things you can do to help yourself is to read a couple good books on storywriting.

Write Your Novel from the Middle by James Scott Bell is $4 and 100 pages. Put it on your phone and you can read it in a couple afternoons. Bell's premise is that most great stories have a special type of scene, and that if you can nail that scene, the rest of the story, forward and back, will practically fall into place. It's an inspirational book that will get you pumped.

And if you find that helpful, you should get Bell's Plot and Structure. I've read a lot of books on writing, and this has been one of the most helpful.

Beyond that, How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James Frey is great.

Writing Active Hooks by Mary Buckham is indispensable. No one tells you how to manage hooks, but they're a critical part of a story.

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Beyond that, you just have to write shit. Your writing ability is a muscle; you need to exercise it to make it grow stronger. Every day, seven days a week, sit down and force yourself to pound out 1000 words of...whatever; nonsense, dreams, freeform imagery, snippets of scenes or ideas. Type it all into one big file, and make a new file every time you get above 100K.

You need to train yourself not to write awkward phrases. In order to do this, you first need to write all those awkward phrases.

Write 1000 words, every day, for 3 months.

Then look at the results. You'll see a tangible difference between when you started and when you finished. It really does work.

On Writing Well by William Zissner and Elements of Style by Strunk and White will help you write with clarity and succinctness. King's On Writing and Lamott's Bird by Bird will give you good general advice (and the reading list at the end of King's is great), but yeah, they don't get into the nitty gritty details too often (which is why some people like them and why some people don't).

Thrill Me by Benjamin Percy is a great collection of essays on fiction. It's somewhere between On Writing's and Bird by Bird's generalness and the specificity of On Writing Well and Elements of Style. You might even disagree with some of Percy's essays but he tackles topics that are important to think about regardless.

And I can't recommend Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Barroway and Elizabeth and Ned Stuckey-French enough. It's a little pricey—look for it at your local library before you buy—but it's basically a undergraduate class on writing, complete with readings and exercises.

We read this book in a graduate writing seminar I took this semester. It was the first book we read and I thought it had some great ideas on how to develop a writing schedule and stick to it. We followed it with "Writing Science" by Josh Schimel which really gets into the details of how to write WELL, not just a lot. It's much more dense but worth looking into if you're committed to improving your writing. :)

As the other poster said, you should look at examples from your field/program/group. Examples of previous students are some of the best places to learn what belongs in your manuscript.

If you're in STEM then I'd recommend the book, Writing Science, by Schimel:

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Science-Papers-Proposals-Funded/dp/0199760241

It's a great primer on what makes a good paper. The style and way of thinking presented in that text, combined with analyzing previous dissertations, is what I've used to write my dissertation.

You should also ask your PI for any of their prior students' dissertations that stand out as a good example. They'll likely have some that they can name and possibly send to you.

r/digitalnomad

You've earned the gift every lurker on that sub, myself included, dreams of. Sure, you may still need to work, but you can work from anywhere with a half decent internet connection. Travel, experience the world in a way most people aren't fortunate enough to be able to. Hop on Airbnb, type in a destination you've always wanted to go to, and set your dates for the entire month of May. You've hit the jackpot, congratulations. Vagabonding is a great book on the topic. Rolf Potts' other book, Marco Polo Didn't Go There is also a phenomenal read.

r/onebag if you want to get extra obnoxious (in a good way!) about how little you own.

r/vandwellers if you want to travel the US in a van.

Can't offer consultation myself, but check out Artifexian's YouTube channel. He does a lot of worldbuilding tips based on known science and offers handy equations to allow you to ballpark exact specs, like distance from the parent star and whatnot.

A book that was helpful to me was World-Building by Stephen L. Gillet. Very math heavy and maybe no longer current thanks to how quickly exoplanet science is evolving, but it gets really deep into the mechanics, moreso than Artifexian.

River travel today = best case scenario:

“In his most ambitious journey ever, William Least Heat-Moon sets off aboard a small boat named Nikawa ("river horse" in Osage) from the Atlantic at New York Harbor in hopes of entering the Pacific near Astoria, Oregon.”

Whaaat? Across the entire US, by boat??!! NYC to the Oregon coast??

Add the SHTF concerns discussed here and I think it’s on point to your question. (Also a good read in itself.)

“River-Horse: The Logbook of a Boat Across America” by William Least Heat Moon.

If you can find a writing group that fits your needs, that is probably the best place to go. If you're talking about a specific person as a resource, I would suggest finding a set of books that provides that expertise, since a person who does that with the level of expertise you would need would probably charge a fee. Unless you are able to get references from other writers, there is no guarantee that a fee-based approach would get you advice that was really helpful to you in your chosen genre.

​

Two books that I find are indispensable for your world-building efforts are World Building by Stephen Gillett (https://www.amazon.com/World-Building-Science-Fiction-Writing-Stephen/dp/158297134X) and Aliens and Alien Societies by Stanley Schmidt and Ben Bova (https://www.amazon.com/Aliens-Societies-Science-Fiction-Writing/dp/0898797063/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542787506&sr=1-1&keywords=aliens+and+alien+societies).

​

Best of luck!

Believe me, it makes me a grumpy toast to shell out that much for likely outdated books. At least it's an ebook, though. CTRL+F FTW!

Still working through it, but I'm reading Writing Fiction for Dummies. I found it in my store and was actually pretty surprised. I'm not usually a fan of the quality of Dummies books but this one seems pretty comprehensive so far, if a little geared towards professional writing.

Go and buy these three books: The Language Construction Kit, Advanced Language Construction (don't worry, it's not that advanced), and The Conlanger's Lexipedia. And if your conlangs are designed for made-up worlds, then get [The Planet Construction Kit] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Planet-Construction-Kit-Mark-Rosenfelder/dp/0984470034/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=W79ND56BKPK8EKXT2VQZ) too. If you want to make cultures that are not European then I'd also suggest The China Construction Kit!

Of all of these I'd suggest that you definitely buy The Language Construction Kit and see how you get on. I'd also suggest buying some grammar books of languages you're interested in, and even go so far as to learn a second language if you don't speak one. Having knowledge of at least one other language will help you a great deal.

I just finished The Emperor of All Maladies and just shortly before that Stiff. I really enjoyed both of them! Emperor is a long read, but well written and very thorough. Stiff is a quick, enjoyable read that's a less academic, but still really interesting. I'm about to start My Sister's Keeper. The PI across the hall recommended it. And I'm reading Introduction to Statistical Thought by Lavine for a class. I added a few of the books other people listed here to my to-read list

Language building and world building go hand in hand in my opinion. The world, its geography, history, politics, culture, flora and fauna, all and more inspire uniqueness in languages.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0984470034/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_op7Pub04GQYCT

This is a book I got for christmas. It's a fantastic read for conworlding.

Look for Vagabonding in Google, there's a fair amount of stuff on the subject.

This is a book on the topic I've only heard good things about.

The basics are: Get the very best backpack you can (try it on first), carefully think about what you really need in terms of clothing (consider the climate you want to be in), at least learn a bit of the language of where you want to be and then look for some hobo-tips on how to avoid most stab-wounds (also, try to look like a tourist instead of a hobo).

Dumpster-diving can also help greatly as it means less money is needed for food.

I'm a first-year grad student that applied last year using this book as a guide. Part of the book contains great general advice for the different components of your application: finding the right programs, keeping track of deadlines, asking for recommendation letters, etc. But as the title suggests, most of the book is about the entire process of writing a solid personal statement. You start with some brainstorming exercises that eventually lead to compiling your first draft, followed by editing techniques until you get to your final iteration. 50+ example statements are provided, along with commentary that points out good and bad aspects of each one.

That book was easily the best resource I had while applying. I was able to borrow a copy from my local library, but even at the $15 Amazon price it's totally worth the money. It looks the the one I linked you to is a brand new edition that's only a couple months old, so I'd be interested to see what's been updated.

Whatever saves to Word format is fine. Doesn't matter what you use, really. Remember that both mobi and epub are very stripped down - you can't have a lot of formatting in there.

So don't worry about what you're writing in (honestly, just use whatever's most comfortable - I've used Evernote, Google Docs, Word, and others, depending on where I am working).

Things like text justification and hyphenation don't matter much. In ebooks, the reader decides things like font size and font formatting. What you DO have to worry about are:

• Headings and other styles
  
  
• Page breaks
  
  
• Non-breaking spaces, hyphens, etc.
  
  
• Centering
  
  If you want to get serious about getting your formatting right, let me recommend the book I refer to most often for these questions: Zen of Ebook Formatting by Guido Henkel. His blog is worth checking out too.
  
  Or wait till I give another webinar on the subject. :)

This isn't specific to romance, but Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View has been immensely helpful in shifting my writing from shorter "tell" style of smutty shorts to more immersive "show" style of better written novellas/novels.

As a bonus, "showing" instead of "telling" will also explode your word count!

if a laptop is completely necessary, bring it, but bringing more SD cards instead will save a lot of stress and worry and potential sadness if something does happen. there's always travel insurance which is a good idea to have anyways but it still sucks to have things stolen and a theft would put a damper on things for sure. plus the insurance route includes the joy of filing a police report in a foreign country and dealing with the claims process afterwards, an avoidable waste of time but an adventure nonetheless. internet-wise a smart phone is usually sufficient and if you need to use a computer most large cities and/or tourist areas have internet cafes and hostels may offer computers as well.

may i suggest reading vagabonding by rolf potts. it's a great primer for travel, inspiring and feel-good while covering all the bases. I always give it a listen before trips, gets me in the zone.

Could everyone add a quote from the book they're reading? A good quote could draw my interest. Helps me find new stuff to read!

As for myself, I'm currently on Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel. Here are a couple of quotes from said book:

"We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what."

"In this way, vagabonding is like a pilgrimage without a specific destination or goal— not a quest for answers so much as a celebration of the questions, an embrace of the ambiguous, and an openness to anything that comes your way."

Two of my favorites, from two of the all-time best science fiction writers:

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card

World-Building by Stephen L. Gillett and Ben Bova

Both look at it from more of a writing standpoint, but they're great resources for RPGers or hobbyists too.

Well the most important thing is to just have fun with it. After all, it's your world.

You don't need to fully understand every aspect of a world in order to create one. Just have a general idea. Also you can ask any questions you may have and the community here will be sure to help you out. And if something is really stressing you, just take a break from it for a while. Work on something else and an idea may come to you.

That said I found this book to be incredibly helpful when I started out with world building, and it still is.

Bless your heart, darling. That's it.

I was going through the comments and didn't see much about where to find an editor or how to edit.

Here are my offerings:

http://www.the-efa.org/dir/search.php Type in a genre or place and see what the search finds you.

Self-editing how-to books:

[Savvy Self Editing](http://www.amazon.com/Savvy-Self-Editing-Developing-Editing-Process/dp/1418437964
/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2Y6K8TCM225QI&coliid=I557WJNM4C04M) This is the one my own developmental editor (who cost me $1500.00 on a 100,000 word story, BTW) recommended. You absolutely can get a less-expensive editor, but I chose to work with someone who's been editing since 1988.


Wired for Story

Edit Yourself

Revising and Self-editing

And something quick, short, and cheap, but very useful (Kindle only):

$3.00 Little book of Self-Edit

No. In River-Horse he has a twin outboard motorboat with a pilot house that he and his mate take from the Hudson Bay to the PNW traversing the US E to W with a few overland portages. It has some history about the Missouri and the Mississippi. It's a good read, but I liked his debut Blue Highways better. You'd have to have a lot of money and a deep support network to do his River-Horse journey, whereas the Blue Highways journey path is open to a much wider segment of the population.

If you're into books on writing, I found Outlining Your Novel helpful. If you've read your share of writing tips and books it will repeat some things you know by now, but I found its techniques helpful.

I knew how great an outline can be so I used one to frame my novel in Scrivener using the index cards, it has helped immensely. I didn't write every single detail leaving left plenty of room for things to change course if the story and characters need to evolve in a different direction. Outlining prevents writers block in the sense of "what do I do next?" plot-wise.

Good book. Love Mary's stuff. Stiff is also great.

Reading journal articles is a good start but be careful because there are many poorly written published articles out there.

A book that could be really helpful is Writing Science - I haven't read it all personally but my supervisor outlined the major points in it before I started writing my thesis and it had some really good advice.

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Science-Papers-Proposals-Funded/dp/0199760241

Not the OP, but I am pretty sure it is Stiff by Mary Roach. If you haven't heard of her, you must read it-- hilarious, accessible, and still sciency non-fiction.

K. M. Weiland's book Structuring Your Novel is awesome. She also has other books about outlining and character arcs that were super helpful for me.

The Planet Construction Kit is a great resource for worldbuilding, covering almost all aspects of society and general setting from cosmology to biology, history, culture, religion, technology, map making...

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Construction-Kit-Mark-Rosenfelder/dp/0984470034/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1286906911&sr=1-2

Its companion book, the Language Construction Kit, is an invaluable resource for creating conlangs if that was of any interest to you as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Language-Construction-Kit-Mark-Rosenfelder/dp/098447000X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268637297&sr=1-1

This one and this one (which is the one you recommended to me). I really love how Henkel explains a lot of the reasoning behind some of the code used (which is totally my thing). The first one was great for introducing me to the basic concepts and is a quick/clear/concise how-to guide. Plus, it has some neat tricks for setting up macros and templates, which cuts down on time for future projects.

I would start off with Stiff and then Bonk. I liked Spook but on amazon it doesn't have as good of reviews as the others so I'd read that one later if you aren't as interested in it. I've yet to read packing for mars but if it's anything like her other books, it's wonderful.

I like to sit in silence at my laptop. I need to be able to focus on my ideas. I tend to have a vague outline, but I like to let the work take me where it wants to go.

I'd love this.

I'm a big fan of K.M. Weiland's books Structuring Your Novel and Outlining Your Novel. I frequently recommend the first one to my editing clients when they need help with plotting and pacing. Weiland's website is a great resource, too--here's a page with a visual representation of some of the principles she talks about in her books.

One of the best books I have ever read is “Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded” https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199760241/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_6MpxCb2Y2PH49

The book is easy to read and has DRASTICALLY improved my science writing. I read this book with my undergraduate lab (like 4 years ago) and still reference now in my PhD program.

Check out this book by Rolf Potts.

Its called Vagabonding and is all about cheap long-term travel around the world.

It was an inspiration for me, and I truly recommend you check it out if you're interested in traveling outside your comfort zone.

It's a quick read but is also filled with many helpful links and real-world examples of what to expect and how to make the most of travelling.

/r/conlangs !!!

Here's a good podcast.

Book from the guy that created Dothraki (he's also on the podcast every now and then) about constructing languages

The language construction kit. Gives you a general overview of how languages do things and how you construct languages

Second part of the LCK. Highly optional

After you're done with either the podcast or the fist LCK, you might as well get into the grammar of other languages instead of using language construction things.

Don't do auxlangs, though.

Edit: There's also a planet construction kit in case you want to get straight into world building as well

There are some good book resources if you want to take the time to read through them. Schimel's Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals that Get Funded seems pretty well recommended on Amazon.

God might be hiding somewhere too. Pixies might. Fairy dust too. Until we come up with something that is provable, however, it's useless speculation. There is not even a shred of proof of anything that even remotely resembles a soul. And I'm not just saying that to be contrary, I really wish there was something. I'm the kind of guy that reads books like Spook - which is a great book, by the way - about the earnest search for... something. It just isn't there.

This interview was aired in the beginning of August, he survived, finished his book. Sadly, no MSM, except for one, picked it up. He also participated in a much more detailed interview more recently (Language Barrier).

Note that he worked for the FAZ, one of the most respected newspapers. And he also points to other huge media outlets that are compromised.

This took place, after in spring a comedy show exposed the influence of American think tanks on German media and even politics. One of the most corrupt individuals even wrote a speech for the President, which he later praised in his own news paper.

There's a great book by Kansas author William Least Heat Moon called "River Horse" where he takes his boat Nikawa from the Atlantic Ocean at NYC to the Pacific at Portland Oregon via America's lakes and rivers. All told he has the boat on a trailer for something like 28 miles. They use a canoe and a jet boat at parts, but 90% of the journey is aboard Nikawa ('River Horse') through America's rivers. Great read. http://www.amazon.com/River-Horse-Logbook-Boat-Across-America/dp/0140298606 Sorry for not formatting the link I'm late for my bus

Here's something I read in Rolf Pott's Vagabonding that's so obvious, but most of us don't think about: there are people living frugal, yet comfortable, lives almost everywhere in the world. When you visit the place, if you adopt some of the local practices of frugality, your trip suddenly becomes a lot cheaper than you would have imagined when you were thinking of yourself as just a typical a tourist.

The main cost of world travel is the airfare for getting to the place. Once you reach there, you can do as the locals do (who are usually poorer than the average American) and have yourself a frugal trip, without sacrificing the awesome experiences of world traveling.

The book also goes on to say that as a world traveler, you can travel cheap and save your money for an occasional splurge on something unique, than waste it on routine stuff like staying in expensive tourist hotels and eating in tourist restaurants all the time.

I highly recommend that book.

A bit late to the party but I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Sixty-Million-Frenchmen-Cant-Wrong/dp/1402200455

It's a very thorough look into the cultural differences with, for most of them, a good explanation as to why.

It's written by 2 Canadian Journalists who live(d?) in France.

Mary Roach is great. I also loved her books ["Bonk"] (http://www.amazon.com/Bonk-The-Curious-Coupling-Science/dp/0393334791/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1409258621&sr=8-7&keywords=mary+roach) (about sex-related research) and ["Spook"] (http://www.amazon.com/Spook-Science-Afterlife-Mary-Roach/dp/0393329127/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1409258592&sr=8-6&keywords=mary+roach) (about research into the paranormal).

I highly recommend this book -- http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939 -- it's a very well researched discussion of all of the possibilities for cadavers. You'll be quite surprised at what "donating your body to science" can mean. My favorite part was the need for human bodies to calibrate crash-test dummies.

As a traveller/tourist, I've always tried to stay AWAY from tourist areas, haha. I have friends who go to the Bahamas, for example, and won't leave their resort/casino. My personal best experiences have been in the local communities; you tend to stand-out more (obviously), but people are more curiouse than malicious towards you.

Of course, though, do your homework! Go to traveller's forums, read books, do your research.
May I also recommend this book Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

As mentioned, you should definitely get the latest AT guidebook. You may also enjoy reading Becoming Odyssa, Grandma Gatewood's Walk, and AWOL on the Appalachian Trail. I would also highly recommend Walking With Wired's 2014 AT blog.

There really isn't much difference between third person/first person except the use of I/She/He and how much you're allowed to reveal to readers. One thing you want to avoid (I find it easier to look for this in editing so that I'm not slowing down on my first draft) is to keep an I out for the words -I think/thought, I feel/felt, I see/saw, ect. Anytime you have these words are similar, it's telling.
Ex. I felt a shiver run up my spine vs. A shiver ran up my spine. Those words tend to draw the reader out of the book, disconnecting them.

I found the book Rivet You Readers with Deep POV to be helpful. The last book in the chapter is dedicated to first person, though, like I said, most of third person show vs tell applies.

https://www.amazon.com/Rivet-Your-Readers-Deep-Point-ebook/dp/B007PUMQ1O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1494940914&sr=8-2&keywords=deep+pov

You can always afford it if you make travel a priority. You don't need thousands of dollars to travel, you just need a shift in priorities. I recommend reading Vagabonding to help shift your awareness. It'll help you prepare for where you eventually want to be -- living in another country. In the mean time, it'll teach you how to prioritize your life for what's important to you. Maybe that's travel, maybe not.

I guess it depends on whether or not you want the program to do the formatting for you.

For example I plot and write in Scrivener but then I strip the story out into a plain text file and format it manually. (It really doesn't take long once you've learnt the basics of html etc.) Once the formatting is done, I shove the html file into Calibre and convert it to epub and mobi.

It sounds like a crazy way to do it, but I don't get any weird formatting issues in my files at all. Check this page out if you think this is the route for you. That guy also has a book - Zen of eBook Formatting which is just a clean version of his blog posts.

HTH :)

> I often think of interesting ways the story can go and I have the beginning and middle of the story sorted but I am unsure of where I am going to end up

I absolutely CANNOT write a long story/book without an outline. I think of it like a roadmap: I'd never try to drive to a new city without a roadmap, or build a house without a blueprint. It becomes chaotic, and I freak out and leave it unfinished.

You can do an outline a couple ways. This is a blog post on using index cards to create a streamlined story, or you can outline on a computer and list major scenes. (For a longer description of outlining, I recommend Outlining Your Novel by K.M. Weiland.)

Some authors can "fly by the seat of their pants," but I can't, and if I'm reading your post right, it sounds like you'd benefit from outlining as well.

I'm reading Spook right now. There are people that research kids' reincarnation stories. I wish more non-Hindus would contact them, since most of it comes from India where reincarnation is pretty much fact.

My mom tells me when I was little I always asked questions like, "when I was a chicken, did I . . . ?" or "when I was a brick, was I . . . ?" I don't think you can get reincarnated as a brick though.

Drafting your essays in a Google doc is a great idea. Strongly recommend reading Donald Asher's Graduate Admissions Essays. Tons of tips on how to write your way into the graduate school of your choice, and samples.

I prescribe these two books for you to read in this order:

Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

1. https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Tools-Essential-Strategies-Writer/dp/0316014990
   
   On Writing Well, 25th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction
   
   
2. https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-25th-Anniversary-Nonfiction/dp/0060006641/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539787015&sr=1-4&keywords=on+writing+well
   
   Read these two books carefully and apply the advice to your own writing.
   
   Good luck.

I very much recommend the book Writing Science, by Joshua Schimel. You wouldn't know from the title, but it's one of the best books on writing (academic or otherwise) ever written. I'm actually putting together a graduate-level course based on the book for next year!

If your fiction is suffering from contact with stiff, over-formal academic writing, this book can help.

Maybe it's because you're overambitious. "Realistic reasons for everything existing" sounds to me like you might have too much going on for a first novel. I would personally look more at what the characters and the world need and then give them that stuff rather than giving them stuff and trying to figure out a reason why they have it.

You should definitely check out /r/worldbuilding if you haven't already because I think they concern themselves more specifically with this type of problem and there are plenty of pointers to have there even if you're not very interested in fictional maps, which make up a big part of the content there.

edit:

Ty Franck & Daniel Abraham talk worldbuilding: http://youtu.be/sCsPtUo91B0

A worldbuilding guide for writers: http://www.amazon.com/World-Building-Science-Fiction-Writing-Stephen/dp/158297134X

I suggest reading some good books on writing novels. Writing Fiction for Dummies is a great place to start

Write Your Novel from the Middle by James Scott Bell. An unusual perspective that involves finding the defining moment for your main character. Once you have that, the rest of the book practically falls into pladce. $4 and only 100 pages. Put it on your phone and you can read it in an afternoon or two. Also, his Plot and Structure.

How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James Frey.

Dramatica: A New Theory of Story by Melanie Anne Phillips.

Writing Active Hooks by Mary Buckham. Also, her Writing Active Setting.

Million Dollar Outlines by David Farland.

I just bought and read This book. Short, concise, and really practical advice. It also includes a checklist you can flip to (and a link to a printable version) for each step the book goes over.

The book doesn't claim to be 12 years of English classes. It claims to allow you to deliver a manuscript that has been ironed out a bit more. Waging a step by step war on a lot of the common, mechanical issues. It has helped me right away and I pull my printed checklist out before I allow the editor in the room. While it's just a basic coat of polish, I was surprised to see how many things can be cut and how stories become a little more lean and powerful in a few minutes. At 4.99 not a huge investment but I needed to improve on every little thing the book covered. I have been edited before and this system allows me to produce changes similar to those I've gotten back from editors, but were never really explained to me all that well.

It's being so inside the character's head that the author or narrator disappears. Deep POV can be in either first or third person. Generally, to get deep POV, an author would remove tags and all references to the narrator, even in first person. There tends to be a lot of tagless inner dialogue, and it's more fragmented in style. In third person, the dialogue isn't italicized, has no tags, and feels first person. Many authors will pull in and out of deep POV, depending on how they want their readers to feel about the situation at the time. It's extremely popular with current readers and many publishers.

The go to book for this is Rivet Your Readers With Deep POV by Jill Nelson.

These are a bit oversimplified, but here are some examples:

I saw the sun. (First person, distant/narrator POV)

Pinpricks of heat clawed. What is this explosion of light? (First person, deep POV)

"Is it morning?" she said. (Third person, distant/narrator POV)

The shutters bounced against the vinyl siding. Heat wrapped her face in a fleece blanket. Hello sun, old friend. (Third person, deep POV)

Fun book! Funny woman investigates scientific studies that have been done on the subject.

http://www.amazon.com/Spook-Science-Afterlife-Mary-Roach/dp/0393329127

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers was incredibly humorous and I also learned a lot of gross and interesting facts I can never bring up at dinner parties.

No, really, read a book.

edit: Also, start comparing your blog to other blogs in the same field. It just seems like you have little interest in producing quality material. You write as if you're talking to your friend on Steam.

> Is this a theory of yours, or is it contributed to elsewhere?

There is plenty of literature out there on it, don't know any online references off the top of my head though. This book has a good basic coverage. Note this is a book about writing realistic Science Fiction, so it does talk about what we think is plausible and what we think isn't. And looks at things like known abundance of various elements.

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts is a pretty good guide on how to make long-term travel possible on a small budget.

Edit: First chapter is available here: http://www.vagabonding.net/excerpt/

Ralph Potts' "Vagabonding" is pretty good:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0812992180

If you’re trying to write to trend, then you may want to consider the “accepted” standard for the genre you’re writing in. For example, paranormal romance tends to be third person and generally two alternating POVs (the h/H...and potentially the villain as the third). Urban fantasy, on the other hand, although similar to PNR, tends to be mostly first person (it appears to be shifting to 3rd person, 1 POV).

The biggest error I see with third person POV is making the POV too omniscient or all knowing. You should strive to write in deep POV and stay in your character’s head, regardless of whether you’re writing 1st or 3rd.

Of course, at the end of the day, you can do what you want. Writing is an art, after all.

Good luck

ETA: when I refer to 3rd person, I’m referring to 3rd person limited

ETA: i forgot you asked for resources/link. Rivet your reader with deep POV - https://www.amazon.com/Rivet-Your-Readers-Deep-Point-ebook/dp/B007PUMQ1O

You can read the author going over the basics in the preview

For any who are interested, Mary Roach's book Stiff is a great, in-depth look at this subject, partially through the eyes of medical/lab students but from many other perspectives as well.

Here is a book on vagabonding. Pretty much how to long term travel in very much a way this guy did. Its an inspiring read.

I want to learn about the afterlife. What happens when you die? What are some of the ideas people have of the afterlife? It's both terrifying and fascinating, but it's something I like to think about. This book would help me tackle the subject with more depth.

I recently read Vagabonding by Rolf Potts, it was pretty interesting.

It's about traveling not a story about travelling though. If you travel a lot you may have already experienced some of what he talks about.

Not sure if this has been posted, but I found this book to be one of tremendous inspiration for my travels.

A long time ago, there was a scientist, Dr. MacDougall.
interesting book about death,
also this, also that. The reasoning is legit, but it was not scientific and was unable to be reproduced. So the commentor's statement of "poop" is more accurate :)

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

On Writing Well

Elements of Style

Thrill Me

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft

---

^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

There was a best-selling book about how anything that matters in the entire German media is controlled by one or the other intelligence agency: Gekaufte Journalisten. English translation is promised for June 2016.

I have some but depends on what you want

About planets:
http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Construction-Kit-Mark-Rosenfelder/dp/0984470034/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1286906911&sr=1-2

About languages:
http://www.amazon.com/Language-Construction-Kit-Mark-Rosenfelder/dp/098447000X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268637297&sr=1-1

i dont know about it too much but heard its good:
http://www.amazon.com/Maps-Imagination-The-Writer-Cartographer/dp/1595340416

This is THE deal:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Science-Fiction-Fantasy/dp/158297103X

Another helpfull thingy:

http://www.amazon.com/Strata-Terry-Pratchett-ebook/dp/B003NX6Y6U/

If you haven't read it, you will probably find this interesting, and helpful.

http://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180/

And to put things in perspective, most people work their whole life without being able to take 2 months off to travel. Some are able to when they retire, if they're lucky and planned for it.

http://www.scribophile.com

Scrivener

Pinterest

Aside from this subreddit I find https://www.reddit.com/r/Writers_Block/ and their discord helpful.

Edit: I also found these two books very helpful for outlining and checking my novel structure. I got them both on Kindle and read them religiously.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0978924622/ref=r_soa_w_d

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00EJX08QA/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

To provide you a serious answer, I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Sixty-Million-Frenchmen-Cant-Wrong/dp/1402200455

I read it before coming to France and it gave me a surprising amount of insight into the French mindset. It helped me understand how to interpret certain actions and behaviors that I wasn't accustomed to.

[I Hike] (http://www.amazon.com/I-Hike-Lawton-Grinter/dp/0985241500) IMHO paints the best picture of a thru-hike. Though it is not specifically AT, it also has short stories from the CDT and PCT. AWOL on the AT is a decent account of an AT thru-hike.

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts is a great read. He talks about the philosophy of travel quite a bit.

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel It isn't fiction... but I can't think of anything else more inspiring to world travel.

I could only find a bootleg PDF which looks weird and unintelligible. Bootleg pdf: http://www.agmiw.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/GekaufteJournalisten-UdoUlfkotte.pdf

The only official version I can find is the German book on Amazon but it's twenty dollars. https://www.amazon.com/Gekaufte-Journalisten/dp/3864451434/ref=pd_sim_14_1/135-6879697-5879016?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=3864451434&pd_rd_r=baa083fb-8892-4434-8ef6-8e49892b1f4c&pd_rd_w=IY1d6&pd_rd_wg=e1Wih&pf_rd_p=04d27813-a1f2-4e7b-a32b-b5ab374ce3f9&pf_rd_r=4BRBSJD9CKQJ9GBBANFQ&psc=1&refRID=4BRBSJD9CKQJ9GBBANFQ

Last month it seems a very small independent publisher seems to have copied the original book in English and published it under a different title which is sold here at a very expensive 30 dollars: https://www.amazon.com/Presstitutes-Embedded-Pay-CIA-Confession/dp/1615770178/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0/135-6879697-5879016?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1615770178&pd_rd_r=3e0a83df-f0f1-4ab1-bde6-298b65c9a020&pd_rd_w=QdjMV&pd_rd_wg=8EyBK&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=7SD24B75M7DGK0K7P3VD&psc=1&refRID=7SD24B75M7DGK0K7P3VD

It's not fiction but it's good for traveling - Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

r/StatementOfPurpose has lots of examples from other people that you can read, as well as if you search through this sub. I also used https://www.amazon.com/Graduate-Admissions-Essays-Fourth-School/dp/1607743213 this book for help and swapped SOPs with my peers. After a while, you get a feel for it.

Read this and this and you will gain a ton of knowledge on how to travel anywhere on your own.

I HIGHLY recommend this book.

> Like...it would be passable if she was struggling.

I've read Writing Fiction For Dummies for fun, and I know how to structure a story better than this.

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Science-Papers-Proposals-Funded/dp/0199760241

I enjoyed this one.

In the spirit of Chris Ryan I'll recommend the book Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel, if you're in the mood for non-fiction.

1 Read - Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel (http://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180)


2 Visit - http://www.vagablogging.net/


3 Enjoy

Lots of people do this. You might enjoy reading Vagabonding

Why hello there good sir!

I'm in a proposal-writing class, and we're reading Writing Science by Joshua Schimel as part of the course. It's quite good, and emphasizes what science writing has in common with other kinds of writing/storytelling.

Absolutely! Check it out if you haven't. I got mine for like 8 bucks on Amazon!

Read Vagabonding

Great resource for the whole 'drop my current life to start a new one' mentality, even though it involves mainly travelling the world, not setting up shop somewhere.

I'm French and I would rather advise on reading Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French.

If any of you are further interested in the topic of burials and how we treat the dead, eco-friendly options, and/or the tradition of burial, I HIGHLY suggest Stiff, by Mary Roach. I had to read this for a Anthropology of Death class in college. It is an amazing read. Good stuff.

Good book on this topic: http://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180

Read Vagabonding by Rolf Potts, as soon as possible. It’s full of useful advice for travel, especially solo travel.

I have always liked AWOL on the Appalachian Trail.

It's easier than you think:

http://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180

Also, check out this book. A nice guide/inspiration for the whole getting rid of stuff and focusing on travel thing.

Someone gave me an interesting book that documents a guy attempting to boat across the US in a small cabin cruiser. He was able to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific on rivers, canals, etc with only a brief portage across the Rocky Mountains (And maybe some portages around dams IIRC). https://www.amazon.com/River-Horse-Logbook-Boat-Across-America/dp/0140298606

Found the title, the author is actually Rolf Potts.

Here's the amazon link for anyone who stumbles through here interested in the book.

Get this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0812992180. I wish I would have read this book before I went to Thailand.

You might be interested in reading this (excellent) book:

World-Building (Science Fiction Writing)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/158297134X/

And this is the book if you are interested:

http://www.amazon.de/Gekaufte-Journalisten-Udo-Ulfkotte/dp/3864451434

used books?

anyway.. check out the reviews of this book on how to outline your novel:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978924622/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is a collection of tips and whatnot from a published author.

Maybe read Vagabonding and see if it helps you visualise your trip

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vagabonding-Rolf-Potts/dp/0812992180

On Writing Well. Fantastically written, naturally. I would recommend it for anyone, not just writers. We all write, and we can all learn something from the book.

May I recommend "Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide To The World of Travel"?

Write Your Novel from the Middle by James Scott Bell.

How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James Frey.

That being said, you might like "Zen of eBook Formatting" by Guido Henkel.

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-eBook-Formatting-Step-step-ebook/dp/B00KJAH4HS

>Wish I could work my ass off for 2 years straight on Vyvanse and earn enough money to "chill" for 6 months and unravel my mind or something.

You may enjoy this blog: Mister Money Mustache which talks about how to do exactly this thing. Also Timothy Ferris' book The Four Hour Work Week. Ooo also: Vagabonding by Ralph Potts is even more precisely what you are looking for.

In short there are a lot of ways to live and if you think of a "weird" way to do it, chances are someone else has too and written a book or blog about it.

The author of the AT guidebook also wrote a book about his thruhike. He had a wife and kid(s?) at home and discusses this throughout the book. It's kind of dry, but I thought it was worth reading before my hike.

>I was expecting something else and certainly didn't find it.

So it looks like you are disappointed by the difference between your expectations and reality. If your expectations, as for China, are not very high, then you're not disappointed...

I really suggest you read "sixty million Frenchmen can't be wrong". It explains the whys of French society to Anglos who, because they are culturally not so distant (unlike with China), have so many expectations about French society and when those aren't fulfilled, are disappointed by that fact.

http://www.amazon.com/Sixty-Million-Frenchmen-Cant-Wrong/dp/1402200455#reader_1402200455

> Basically people from Forensics dept's around the world come to America and dig up donated bodies then figure out what killed them..

http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939

Highly recommended book. Amusing, yet dealing with an interesting subject.

Go read this book. I could care less what happens to my body. I'm gone. Same for you regardless of your beliefs your are done with your body when you die. Maybe somebody else can use parts. Become an organ donor and know that someday you may help someone after you're gone.

Some 4 year olds in India dream of reincarnation, so I guess that's real too.


Or maybe it's bullshit.

You can donate your face so aspiring plastic surgeons can reconstruct your dead nose -- see book Stiff. I want to be composted. I used to want my corpse dropped in an active volcano from a helicopter but that's totally impractical, probably not legal (but you can probably chop my parts up and get away with it).... not to mention it's such a to-do for someone who doesn't really think about the afterlife too much. Composting though, that sounds useful. David Cross will do this

sixty million Frenchmen can't be wrong

possibly not true. If you read Spook, there's a fascinating conversation with a physicist in which he uses thermodynamics and information theory to argue that your consciousness might not just disappear... instead, it may get "recycled" by the universe. So there may be a sort of afterlife, though not in the "spirits floating around and interacting" sense.

You may want to read the Planet Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about this and the history of cadavers/medicine/ethic of the dead while NOT being a med student. Highly humorous at times and very informative.

http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939

http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939

This book detail the dog experiments and the resulting scientific discoveries.

Stiff?

http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939

Everything you've ever wanted to know, and then some, about corpses.

Stiff.

http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939