Books and writers

As a new writer I found that books helped me to organize my writing.
There is no doubt that there are a lot of books to choose from concerning writing in various genres, but how do you choose the one that is right for you?
I would recommend that you first decide on the type of writing you want to do. Once you have done this then you can look for the type of book to help you. Many are written by professionals and although none of them can write the book for you they may help you understand the writing world better.

good luck with your writing
sara

Have you ever thought about reading some of the classics? A good one to start with, if you are a little unsure when it comes to classic novels, would be Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. One of his most famous novels it tells the story of Pip, who, throughout his life goes on a journey of discovery. He has been chosen for 'great expectations' but who is his mysterious benefactor? In his attempt to find out Pip's life sometimes seems to lurch from one emotional problem to the next. Dickens has filled this book full of description, to the point where you can actually imagine yourself in the story, walking around Victorian London. A fantastic window to a lost world and a definite must read. This novel is good for writers wanting to improve their own characterization. Dickenses characters are so diverse and rich that any wirter can't fail to be influenced by them.
Happy writing!

This book is a brilliant read for someone new to the world of publishing. There are lots of facts and information for writers trying to get their manuscripts published.
The author is a writer himself turned publisher. If you are a writer with no knowledge of publishing then this is the book for you. It's small and to the point.
The author writes his information in a very frank and honest way. He starts by saying that a publishers decision is based on more than just how well your manuscript is written.
He goes into great detail on what makes a publisher decide to publish or not to publish a book.
He reveals some very insightful thoughts on publishing. Some of which seem obvious when you read them but you may not have thought of before.
He moves on to explain in detail about how publishing works and puts you in the publishers seat with incredible ease.
He then explains how to find a publisher and why its important to get the right type of publisher.
He ends the book with two sections on what to do if you get a contract and if you don't.
I found this book an insightful and sympathetic read with and obvious knowledge of both writer and publisher.
I would recommend it to anyone writing their first book or anyone wanting to know you more about their publishers decisions.
it also has the added advantage of being compact enough to take with you anywhere and very cheaply priced.

The title of Mary Elizabeth Coleridge's 'The Other Side of a Mirror,' suggests a reflection or an opposite of a reflection. This immediately poses the question as to what this is. We could see the title as a metaphor for the female image, someone that is transparent with no opinions and is a reflection themselves. However, there is the scope to view this title as a reference to a glassy prison state. It creates curiosity in the reader and gives the poem a degree of understanding. Without the title the first line of the poem could be referring to another type of glass.
The graphemics are of a medium length poem with five stanzas, each with six lines. All of the stanzas start with seven word lines resulting in an appearance of a formal representation. The poem has a rising duple and is therefore using the iambic tetrameter form, which coupled with the a,b,a,b,c,b rhyme scheme, works to create a nursery rhyme rhythm. The expectation of a sing song rhythm associated with a nursery rhyme puts it at odds with the poems content of dark passionate feeling. The speaker is female, we can deduce this from reference to the reflection as a woman and the impression that she is describing herself. The poem gives off the air of being an elegy whilst also being a poem of reflection.
'No sigh relieved her speechless woe,
She had no voice to speak her dread.' (Lines 17-18)
The beginning and the finish of the poem are in first person narrative but the main body of the poem is in third person narrative;
'I sat before my glass one day' (line 1) and;
'And in her lurid eyes there shone...' (Line 19)
-this then results in the vision being described as a separate entity from the narrator, which creates the impression that the vision is so horrifying to the woman she cannot recognise it as herself. The poet has used lots of Plosive consonants, which creates an uneasy feeling of jerky stops and starts and adds to the depth of harsh feeling.

The mirror, the typical Victorian image of femininity was used by many male poets to show a serene, beautiful, virgin image of the female. In the first stanza of this poem, instead of it reflecting the expected image of beauty, it reflects the image of a;
'woman wild.' (Line 5)
This is an unconventional way of using a mirror as immediately upon reading the first line an image of serenity and beauty is expected. This surprise makes the image of wild desperation all the more powerful in its deliverance.
In Lines 3 and 4 we learn that the image is not a happy image previously seen in the mirror, (use of 'erst' is described in the dictionary as meaning earlier). This creates a wonder as to what has happened to change the image so greatly. We are not shown the previous image but merely told that there was one, nor is it specified what length of time 'earlier' is referring to. The length of time could be very short or it could be of some length. The poet leaves the decision to the reader to imagine for themselves and to wonder why the image has changes so greatly.
In the second stanza, (line 7) the description of her hair creates an image of severity. This image is confirmed in the following line which describes the woman's face as;
'bereft of loveliness' (Line 8)
-this works to instil in the reader the sense of someone who once may have been beautiful. The following lines hint at some reason for her loss of beauty by stating that;
'It had no envy now to hide
What once no man on earth could guess.' (Lines 9-10)
-this could be interpreted in different ways and characteristically for this poem the poet has not specified which she intended. We could see the woman as someone who has no envy to hide because her envious feelings no longer exist, which in turn begs the question as to why she does not feel this way anymore. However, it is more plausible that she has no envy to hide because this mirror is a window to her inner self and she does not need to hide the truth.
The use of 'thorny areole' (Line 11) is a very good example of imagery and is a metaphor for the crown of thorns. The dictionary definition of areole is a halo. A halo being an image of purity and godliness, ironically in this poem is a crown of distress. Unsanctified suggests unholy, which could be a referral to being out of wedlock and suggests sexual relations out of matrimony. Has this woman been seduced unwittingly?
The idea of a reference to a crown of thorns has been taken a step further in the following quote;
'...portrays the female as a divided self whose double is a crucified Christ figure suffering from a hideous wound...'
If we are to believe this quote then the poem is a reference to the woman's reflection being a messiah figure, suffering from injuries caused by men in power.
In the third stanza the use of open lips and 'parted lines of red' are suggestive of sexual connotations. The wound is hideous suggesting something shameful and secret and although the speaker goes on to describe how it bleeds in silence and secret she claims not to know what it is;
'whate'er it was, the hideous wound' (Line 15)
The reference to the wound bleeding in silence and secret is a double reference to a wound of the heart and to menstruation suggestive of a sexual encounter. This hints that the sexual encounter was with someone the speaker had feelings for.
The fourth stanza takes a slightly different stance than the previous stanzas. Whereas the previous are concerned with the woman's injuries and her feelings of woe, this stanza starts with the description of her eyes as 'lurid' (Line 19) which suggests an air of violence as if she is angry. Her hopes, dreams and plans are dying and this is creating her anger. Fire is a very powerful image to reference the anger and depth of her feelings. These feelings are so strong they will not tire, they just keep eating her up making her mad with jealously and revenge. This suggests that whatever happened, she has let her feelings consume her and this is resulting in her own demise.
In the final stanza the woman is desperate for the vision looking back at her to disappear, she wants to be free from her feelings and her memory. She begs the vision to go and not to return even when her mind inadvertently wanders. The acknowledgement of herself as the vision is a strong final statement and although many of the questions remain unanswered the poem seems to have come to a natural conclusion.
The poet leaves open the possibility of differing interpretations by letting the reader answer the questions posed themselves. The whole poem is a statement about the use of women by men. The crown of thorns represents the dominant men in the speaker's life, she must wear the crown even though it is uncomfortable and hurts her. The consequence of the male expectation causes her to feel angry and bitter. She lets it dissipate her, taking her whole consciousness. Consequently her suppressed inward anger and feelings turn outward and take away her loveliness, consuming her whole being.

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge wrote this poem in 1896, she was the great grand niece of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and as such did not think of herself as a great poet. This is partly the reason why she took a pseudonym for her poetry. Mary Coleridge was very private and her poetry was not intended for public viewing, instead she wrote it for a small circle of friends. She was persuaded to publish her poetry but it was a reluctant decision and she only agreed to small collections. This may be the reason why some of the questions remain unanswered and the reader is left wondering about this poem. If the content and meaning were personal to Coleridge, she may not have intended us to find out its secrets. This idea is consistent with her tendency to put up a boundary between herself and her reader.
This poem would have been viewed as rather shocking in the era because it describes violent emotions of the type that would have been unheard of for a woman. And especially a woman of Mary's station in life as the daughter in a middle class family. The poem is also surprising for its time because it goes against the conventional ideas of the feminine ideal - that of someone subservient. The use of strong, almost violent emotions would usually have been used by a male poet and would have been unheard of to think of a woman having the same feelings. Female feelings of emotion were often characterised as hysterical.
Although Mary never rebelled against the constraints put upon her this poem does show that she may have disagreed with the view that women were inferior to men. Mary seems to be making a criticism of society and this expectation of the feminine ideal in this poem. There are underlying tones that she may have been trying to convey the message that this ideal is impossible to achieve.
The use of the mirror also ties in with this as it was used by many male poets to convey purity and femininity. Whereas in this poem Mary uses this image and turns it on its head to describes the opposite of what conventional male poets describe. The mirror reflection shows the woman's true self, her inner self. The mirror is the window to her soul showing her what she really is. The view repulses her and she spurns the image.

Refrences
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, "The Other Side of a Mirror," Victorian Women Poets: A New Annotated Anthology, ed Virginia Blain, (Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2001).
Richard Thomas Eldridge, Beyond Representation: Philosophy and Poetic Imagination, (Cambridge: University Press, 1996).
Virginia Blain, Victorian Women Poets: A New Annotated Anthology, (Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2001)
Old Poetry. Mary Elizabeth Coleridge. http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Mary_Elizabeth_Coleridge
Karen Devlin. Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907): A Chronology of Her Life and Works.
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/coleridge/chron.htm