He got up and sat on the edge of the bedstead with his back to the window. “It’s better not to sleep at all,” he decided. There was a cold damp draught from the window, however; without getting up he drew the blanket over him and wrapped himself in it. He was not thinking of anything and did not want to think. But one image rose after another, incoherent scraps of thought without beginning or end passed through his mind. He sank into drowsiness. Perhaps the cold, or the dampness, or the dark, or the wind that howled under the window and tossed the trees roused a sort of persistent craving for the fantastic. He kept dwelling on images of flowers, he fancied a charming flower garden, a bright, warm, almost hot day, a holiday—Trinity day. A fine, sumptuous country cottage in the English taste overgrown with fragrant flowers, with flower beds going round the house; the porch, wreathed in climbers, was surrounded with beds of roses. A light, cool staircase, carpeted with rich rugs, was decorated with rare plants in china pots. He noticed particularly in the windows nosegays of tender, white, heavily fragrant narcissus bending over their bright, green, thick long stalks. He was reluctant to move away from them, but he went up the stairs and came into a large, high drawing-room and again everywhere—at the windows, the doors on to the balcony, and on the balcony itself—were flowers. The floors were strewn with freshly-cut fragrant hay, the windows were open, a fresh, cool, light air came into the room. The birds were chirruping under the window, and in the middle of the room, on a table covered with a white satin shroud, stood a coffin. The coffin was covered with white silk and edged with a thick white frill; wreaths of flowers surrounded it on all sides. Among the flowers lay a girl in a white muslin dress, with her arms crossed and pressed on her bosom, as though carved out of marble. But her loose fair hair was wet; there was a wreath of roses on her head. The stern and already rigid profile of her face looked as though chiselled of marble too, and the smile on her pale lips was full of an immense unchildish misery and sorrowful appeal. Svidrigaïlov knew that girl; there was no holy image, no burning candle beside the coffin; no sound of prayers: the girl had drowned herself. She was only fourteen, but her heart was broken. And she had destroyed herself, crushed by an insult that had appalled and amazed that childish soul, had smirched that angel purity with unmerited disgrace and torn from her a last scream of despair, unheeded and brutally disregarded, on a dark night in the cold and wet while the wind howled
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How To Create Successful Writing Goals 
Welcome to the New Year! Have you made your writing goals yet? Writing goals are one of those things most writers either shy away from or slouch into. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Let’s look at 3 typical writing goals, and I’ll show you why they’re bad goals and how you can improve […]
Read More 50 Surprising and Unusual Gifts for Writers (No Coffee Mugs!) Looking for a great gift for a writer in your life? Look no farther. This post offers ideas for bookends, writing software, books about how to write, magazine subscriptions, professional editing services and more! (and some are affiliate links — thanks for supporting Bookfox!) Each category comes with at least 4 or 5 suggestions for […]
Read More 22 Tax Deductions for Writers Writers, as a group, are usually bad at taxes. That’s because we’re not numbers people. But you’ve got to get better at your taxes, because it’s costing you a fortune. Writers pay about 30% of their income for taxes. And that’s after an agent takes 15%, or after several publications don’t pay you for freelance […]
Read More 6 Books That Make You Feel Thankful So much of our culture stokes our desire and our greed, because that’s what fuels the economy, not thankfulness and gratefulness. The books below are defiantly counter-cultural, because they will help you to feel satisfied and whole. Sure, there’s longing and striving inside these books, but I think overall the reader will walk away from […]
Read More 25 Terrible Ways to Start a Novel Wondering how to start a novel? Well, avoid these 25 mistakes and you’ll be well on your way. This list was made in honor of NaNoWriMo, which started yesterday, and I post it as a tribute to all those souls trying to knock out 50,000 words in a mere 30 days. Good luck to all of […]
Read More 5 Ways a Developmental Editor Can Help Writers In the golden days of publishing, every writer got a developmental editor. Not anymore. Editors today are inundated with manuscripts and are looking for manuscripts that require little polishing. Every publishing house still employs proofreaders, to ensure the text is free of glaring errors, but many books are published without the insight of a developmental editor. […]
Read More The Best Tips for Collaborative Writing The first step to successful collaborative writing? Abandon the false idea that writers write better when they work alone. People usually think of writers as quiet and brooding loners who separate themselves from society in order to write. The solitary writer is imagined as an introvert, alone at the desk. But this fantasy of what […]
Read More How to Write Second Person POV So you want to learn how to write in second person point of view? You’ve come to the right place. What is 2nd person point of view? Second person point of view is when the writer uses “you” as the main character in a narrative. Example using the first line of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man: 1st person: […]
Read More 9 Tips to Become a Better Self-Editor Writers are often bad editors of their own work. Even when they are fantastic draft writers, they need help from an outside eye to get it to the next level. Still, there are some easy tips that will improve your skills as an editor of your own work. The editing tips below are not, for […]
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