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How Food Affects Writers: How What You Eat Impacts Your Creativity, Energy Levels, and Overall Writing Process.

There is no question that what we eat has a significant impact on our overall health. But did you know that the food you eat can also affect your writing process? In this article, we will discuss how the food you eat can impact your creativity, energy levels, and overall writing productivity. We’ll also provide some tips for how to make sure you are eating in a way that supports your writing goals!

It is well-known that what we eat affects our physical health. But did you know that the food you eat can also have an impact on your mental and emotional health? The food you eat can impact your mood, energy levels, and creativity. When you are trying to be productive and creative in your writing, it is important to make sure that you are eating in a way that supports those goals.

Here are some tips for how to make sure you are eating in a way that supports your writing:

  • Make sure you are getting enough protein. Protein is essential for healthy brain function and can help to improve your focus and concentration. Good sources of protein include lean meats, fish, poultry, beans, lentils, and nuts.
  • Get plenty of healthy fats. Healthy fats are important for brain health and can help to improve your mood and energy levels. Good sources of healthy fats include avocados, olive oil, nuts, and seeds.
  • Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits. These foods are packed with nutrients that are essential for good health. They can also help to improve your mood and energy levels.
  • Limit your intake of processed foods, sugar, and caffeine. These substances can have a negative impact on your health and can make it more difficult to concentrate and be productive in your writing.

By following these tips, you can make sure that you are eating in a way that supports your writing goals! What you eat has a significant impact on your overall health and wellness, so make sure to choose foods that will support your writing process.

Do you have any tips for how to eat in a way that supports writing? Share them with us in the comments below!

If you found this article helpful, be sure to check out our other blog post on how to improve your writing! Click here to read more. Thanks for reading!

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Learn to Read More (And Write More!)

Want to know how to read more books? The good news is that you don’t have to spend a fortune on a library just so you can relax and read more books. In fact, you can learn how to read more books by doing less yourself. Good luck and enjoy reading! To get you in the mood of things, begin with short, light reading and alternate your reading topics each day.

Relaxing at home is great for improving your concentration and focusing your mind. It also helps you break away from a stressful situation. Many people do nothing but read when they’re relaxing at home. If this sounds like you, then it’s time to invest in your own library. Purchase or rent a large flat screen high definition television and invest in surround sound speakers. Now that you have the equipment you need, you can buy or borrow some books to add to your growing library.

The secret to learning how to read books faster is to practice reading everyday. Simply sitting down and beginning to read one book in the morning doesn’t do much to improve your reading speed and comprehension. You have to actually move your head, turn your eyes to the page, breathe deeply, and focus on what you’re reading. When you apply these tips every single day, you’ll find yourself reading more and even writing more.

How to read more books? Join a book club or subscribe to a website that offers literature on any topic you’re interested in. Reading literature is a fun way to spend time that you may normally be spending with family or friends. Whether you enjoy reading fiction or non-fiction, historical fiction, biographies, or romance novels, there’s a club for you.

How to read more books: Have you ever tried reading a favorite novel on your lunch break and then left the house to do the same thing in the next half hour? Do you dread getting stuck in your pajamas and reading a book you hate just because you don’t have the time to get caught up? Social media is a great way to stay connected while you work. Spend ten minutes or so browsing Facebook, Twitter, and blogs and you’ll have a great time while you’re doing something you enjoy.

How to read more books: Learn more about the life events that inspired your favorite literature and pursue that knowledge by sharing your hobby with others. Tell someone who you know that you want to learn more about the life events that inspired the book you’re reading with them. You might inspire someone to start writing about the same life event or to pursue a similar course of study.

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John Sargent Sr. and the Doubleday & Company Publishing House

It has been almost 10 years since the death of John Sargent, Sr., one of the publishing industry’s most influential leaders. John Sargent, Sr. was the president and CEO of Doubleday and Company from 1963-1978 and spearheaded Doubleday’s expansion into the international giant that it was when it sold to Bertelsmann in 1980.

John Sargent, Sr. was born June 28, 1924, in New York to financier Charles S. Sargent and his wife. The Sargent family was well-known in society, often throwing singles’ parties. John continued his father’s legacy and hosted singles’ parties every Christmas Eve.

He served in the Navy in World War II. After his service, Sargent, Sr. got a job as a copywriter for Doubleday, then headed by Douglas Black. Sargent, Sr. advanced in the company throughout his 40-year tenure. As an editor, he worked with many authors, including Theodore Roethke, Stephen King, Daphne du Maurier, Victoria Holt, Dwight Eisenhower, Gay Talese, and Alex Haley (this is not an exhaustive list). Books that are under his belt include Stephen King’s Carrie (a horrific book about a dog who seriously needed to chill out), Alex Haley’s Roots, and Peter Benchley’s Jaws.

He hired Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as an editor in the 1970s. The pair were rumored to have had an affair, but that was never confirmed.

Sargent, Sr. met Neltje Doubleday, granddaughter to the company’s founder Frank N. Doubleday and married her in 1953. The couple had two children, Ellen and John Sargent, Jr., who went on to become CEO of the Macmillan publishing house. Sargent, Sr. and Doubleday divorced in 1965.

In 1963, John Sargent, Sr. succeeded Douglas Black as president of Doubleday. Soon after, he was also CEO and chairman. Doubleday and Co. grew from a small family-owned and run publishing house into an international empire under Sargent, Sr.’s leadership. The company expanded through their London publishing outpost and partnership in the U.K.’s Book Club association. It also opened an imprint in Canada.

John Sargent, Sr. also led Doubleday and Co. to enter into the radio, television broadcasting, and film industries. By the time he stepped down as CEO and president in 1978, and only stayed on as chairman, Doubleday was publishing approximately 700 books a year and owned the Dell publishing company, a textbook subsidiary, Numerous Doubleday bookstores, and four book printing and binding companies. It also controlled several book clubs, including the Literary Guild. When Bertelsmann bought Doubleday and Co. in 1980, Sargent, Sr. stayed on the executive committee as chairman.

In 1985, John Sargent, Sr. married Elizabeth Nichols Kelly, then Cosmopolitan fiction and books, editor.

Sargent, Sr. was an active philanthropist as well. He was a trustee of the New York Public Library, the New York Zoological Society (known now as the Wildlife Conservation Society), and the American Academy in Rome.

In 2005, the Center for Fiction at the Mercantile Library created the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize literary prize. In 2011, the prize was renamed the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. One debut author of an English-language novel wins the award and $10,000. The ceremony and First Novel Fete are held in December.

John Sargent, Sr. passed away on February 5, 2012, from frail health following a stroke some years before. He is succeeded by his aforementioned children, grandchildren, and second wife, along with her two children from a previous marriage.

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How Marcel Proust Left His Mark On Literature

Marcel Proust, a French author of the late-19th and early-20th century, has been an undeniable and timeless influence not only on writers and the very structure of literature but in the clarification of the universal experience we all share.

In Search of Lost Time

Proust’s arguably most famous work, In Search of Lost Time, is a herculean feat of seven volumes published over a period of over ten years. Proust did not finish the work before he died, and the last two volumes were published posthumously and edited by his brother. The collected work boasts over 3,000 pages and has been translated into 40 languages.

The work of Marcel Proust has never been out of print. This fact is illustrative of the enormous legacy this turn-of-the-century French novelist has had on literature. The appetite for his perspective has never diminished, and writers who have received his torch of influence have gone on to pass it to many of the most famous writers of modern times.

Literary Structure

Until the publication of his seven-volume masterpiece, literature owed itself to a particular narrative tone that reserved a limited space for the mental wanderings and emotional state of its protagonists. With its pages upon pages of musings, recollections, and contemplation, one might say that Proust paved the way for the stream of consciousness literary form which crystallized in the 1960s with writers like Jack Kerouac and continues to this day. Central to this narrative style is the shattering of expectation and resolution which readers at that time (and readers today, to a certain extent as well) were exclusively familiar with. The interviewer who stood at Proust’s bedside for hours as part of the publicity surrounding Proust’s first novel observed that the novels lacked what “we rely on in most novels to carry us along in some state of expectation through a series of adventures to the necessary resolution.”

Legacy

Other form-bending writers like Vladimir Nabokov, famous in society for his novel Lolita but also the author of truly trailblazing works like Pale Fire, heralded Proust as an enormous influence on his literary canon. Shelby Foote, famous also for a set of incredibly dense series of books (his a non-fiction but highly literary history of the civil war), has confidently classed Proust with no equal beyond Shakespeare–and he is not the only one to hold the author in this regard. Andre Aciman, the author of the 2007 book Call Me By Your Name now enjoying a resurgence in popularity and himself a scholar of Proust, has the same praise to dole out. The term “Proustian”, long interchangeable with nostalgia, memory, or certain previously indescribable ways that emotion intermingles with time, also serves as an example of the influence Proust has had not only on literature but in our ability to name universal experiences. Considering the considerable legacy Shakespeare has enjoyed on naming things, the comparison seems appropriate.

Time Itself

Central to his legacy is also the sheer focus and dedication required to finish even one of his novels. Consummate with this experience is the lesson that masterpieces are not consumable, bite-size pieces of media are easily digested and presented in the most palatable form possible. A literary masterpiece is not a snack, nor is it even a meal–it is prolonged sustenance over a long period of time. It is its own era. Writers read Proust to gain confidence in the attention their own novels place on the universal, often unspoken impressions central to the human experience but marginal to most social interactions or replications of life. Ironically, and certainly intentionally, one cannot read “In Search of Lost Time” without giving up a considerable amount of one’s own time.

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The Most Prestigious Literary Awards An Author Can Receive

Aspiring actors dream of accepting an Oscar, and ambitious American writers fantasize about nabbing one of the six prestigious literary awards below. 

The Booker Prize

Awarded yearly to the best English language novel, the Booker Prize is considered by some to be the top literary honor in the Western world, and is included on the shortlist of finalists is even regarded as a noteworthy accomplishment.

Originally, only authors from the Commonwealth, Ireland, South Africa, and Zimbabwe were eligible for the prize. In 2014, the Booker committee opened it up to any novel written in English.

Each year, the Booker Prize Foundation assembles a seven-person panel of librarians, publishers, literary agents, and booksellers to pick the winner.

Nobel Prize for Literature

The Nobel Prize for Literature was first awarded in 1901, and nearly every year since it’s been given to a writer whom the Swedish Academy believes has “produced the most outstanding work” of literature “in an idealistic direction.” Unlike other literary awards, the Nobel Prize for Literature celebrates an author’s entire body of work instead of a single piece.

Ties have happened, and some years nobody was chosen. To date, 117 authors have received the award, 101 of which were men and 16 women. Frenchman René François Armand Prudhomme — better known as Sully Prudhomme — was the first Nobel laureate for literature. American Louise Elisabeth Glück took the prize in 2020.

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is the top American authorship award. First handed out in 1918, the Pulitzer celebrates a work of fiction, penned by an American writer, which deals with American life, published in the previous year.

The first recipient was Ernest Poole for his book “His Family.” Colson Whitehead won in 2020 for “The Nickel Boys.”

The Pulitzer Prize for Literature is one of six Pulitzers awarded each year in the letters and drama category. The others are drama, history, biography or autobiography, poetry, and general nonfiction.

The National Book Awards

Established in 1936, the National Book Awards are awarded every November to winners in five categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young people’s literature. Two-lifetime achievement awards are also given annually. The decision committee disbanded during World War II, but it was revived in 1950.

Like the Pulitzer, only American authors are eligible.

Being shortlisted for National Book Awards is prestigious in and of itself, as is becoming a finalist.

The Hugo Awards

The Hugo Awards are presented annually for achievements in science fiction and fantasy literature. Managed by the World Science Fiction Society, the Hugos are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories, a seminal science fiction magazine. The first Hugo was awarded in 1955, and the tradition continues today.

Currently, prizes are awarded in seventeen categories, including novel, novella, graphic story, semiprozine, fanzine, professional editor, and an artist.

The Goodreads Choice Awards

Sure, it’s fair to characterize the Goodreads Choice Awards as the People’s Choice Awards of the literary world — but hey, readers fuel the book economy, and their opinions matter. The digital home of bookworms launched the awards in 2009. Currently, there are 20 categories, ranging from best fiction to best young adult fantasy, and it’s growing in prestige.

So get writing, all you aspiring American authors. Who knows, one day, you may find yourself taking home a Booker, Nobel, Pulitzer, Hugo, Goodreads Choice, or National Book Award.