AILD was an interesting novel not to say the least. My favorite part was whenever Vardaman would say, “My mom’s a fish”. Besides the comic relief, the book had a serious tone when it came to abortion and sexual manipulation. Vardaman’s sister Dewey Dell, had a sexual encounter with a man named Lafe. This encounter lead to Dewey getting pregnant, then soon searching for a way to get rid of the child. During her search for a way to have an abortion, she met a man who pretended to be a doctor. While, sexual assault/ manipulation is not explicitly mentioned it can be inferred that it took place. For instance, the “doctor” took her to a room in the back to get rid of the child. But, it had been said that the man was deceitful. We know this because after it was over Dewey Dell came out of the room and cursed the man. The encounter was not mentioned after this chapter. Nonetheless, the novel had an unconventional way of presenting the characters’ thoughts and perspectives to the readers. This unconventional way helped shape how amazing and interesting the novel comes off to the reader!

A rose for Emily was about a girl that was often the center of all the rumors in her town. The author gave us the viewpoint of the town folk. Which limited our knowledge of Emily. It created a mysterious tone to the story since we did not know exactly what happened. Overall the story was great in my opinion.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.