Seein’ that its Tuesday, I figured I’d dig up an old blog post and re-post it for all you who’ve just recently started following me. Since this is my first time doing this, I figured I’d do it right. I’m bringing y’all all the way back to my first foray in blog writing, my very first post.
You’ll Notice that I wrote the post to a much narrower audience. This was when I was only writing to my fans on Goodreads; it was written as an introduction to the types of posts that I would be writing in the future. So, for those of you who’ve followed along with Letters on Literary Devices and found yourself asking the question “what the f***, here’s my original explanation for writing those posts:
April 21, 2014
Just like everyone else in the world, I’ve decided to start a blog. Why? Well, because why the hell not. It was a few months ago when I got the idea. I thought to myself, “self, why not start a blog about something or other.” At the time I had no intention of actually doing it. I figured I had enough to do already (Don’t worry. I won’t list all the things I was doing already. It’s annoying when people do that). I was busy but that wasn’t the real reason. The real reason was simpler than all that. The real reason was, well, I didn’t know what to write about. I figured that with all the other blogs out there, what the hell else IS there to write about.
Some of the most common threads that I’ve read here on Goodreads have to do with complaints. In reviews, in group discussions, in personal messages, us readers love to complain about the annoying errors in judgment that writers often commit. Whether it’s too much head-hopping, too little character development, clunky prose, flowery prose, too much unattributed dialogue, or too much explanation, there are thousands of opinions out there on how writers should and should not write. My goal in writing this blog is neither to judge how books SHOULD be written, nor is it to comment on any specific work of fiction. Rather, my goal is to better inform the Goodreads universe on the underlying literary devices that often contribute to the most common of complaints. Every other week I’ll scour the conversations of Goodreads groups and the comments posted on popular books searching for common complaints. And every other week I’ll do what I can to explain the devices used, or in this case, perhaps, misused by Goodreads authors.
My first post will be next week. Hope you come back and check it out!
Sincerely,
Eric James-Olson
P.S. If there is something specific that you think I should write about, I’d love to hear about it. Just send me a message.
P.P.S. I know it’s weird that I wrote this in the form of a letter. It’s called epistolary… deal with it.
Well, that’s it. My very first post. Hope you liked it. I write a new “Letter on Literary Devices” every other week. Oh, and one other thing. All four of my novels are still on sale. This is includes the Amazon bestselling But the Angels Never Came. Just click the pictures:
Not sure which order to read them in? Check out this post: What Order do I Read These In!?!
Eric James-Olson 
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