This series aims at helping writers find the right words to express their meaning. Your thoughts and comments are welcome. Do you want to inspire readers with joy, stoke their terrors, romance them with love, fill them with horror? This set of posts looks at ways of influencing mood by selecting the ‘right’ words for …
Month: May 2016
Progress on the WIP. SciFi in the Making.
This week’s progress report reveals that I’m now 63545 words into the first rewrite, which takes me 17762 words further than last week at this time. I’ve had to take out some of the original story as a result of additional information I’ve gathered from the last lot of research. It’s actually given the story …
How Did the Author Do That?, by Dr. John Yeoman PhD, Reviewed.
This historical novel, set at the very end of the 16th century in London, is more than merely a damned good novel. It’s purpose is to help other authors improve their writing through example. John Yeoman is a well-respected writing tutor, amongst other things. He displays a wicked, sardonic, sense of humour in the story, …
Continue reading How Did the Author Do That?, by Dr. John Yeoman PhD, Reviewed.
Searching for the Right Words? Tip #15
This series aims at helping writers find the right words to express their meaning. Your thoughts and comments are welcome. Do you want to inspire readers with joy, stoke their terrors, romance them with love, fill them with horror? This set of posts looks at ways of influencing mood by selecting the ‘right’ words for …
Searching for the Right Words? Tip #14
This series aims at helping writers find the right words to express their meaning. Your thoughts and comments are welcome here. Do you want to inspire readers with joy, stoke their terrors, romance them with love? Or, maybe you need your reader to sink into despair along with your protagonist? This set of posts looks …
The Construct of Time
Worth your time to read!
Time is just an agreed upon construct. We have taken distance (one rotation of the earth, and one orbit of the sun) divided it up into segments, then given those segments labels.
-Author Unknown
Before man decided to differentiate between the periods when the sun had risen, and when the moon had taken its place, there was no such thing as time. Before days, hours, and minutes ever existed there were merely rotations of the earth that brought about phases of light, and periods of darkness. But our quest for intellectual enlightenment, coupled with human curiosity urged mankind to quantify and label the earth’s rotations.
Early Egyptians divided the day into two twelve hour periods, erecting huge obelisks that rose into the sky, allowing them to use shadows to track the sun’s movements. The Greeks and Persians used water clocks called clepsydra. And Plato even went as far as to develop…
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Progress on the WIP
Another week has passed and I've been prodding those keys with vigour. The WIP is now up to 45783, with 4865 of those words new to the story. Several developments are emerging following my research, and the story is twisting and turning with a life of its own. This is the first rewrite, so there …
Searching for the Right Words? Tip #13
This series aims at helping writers find the right words to express their meaning. Your thoughts and comments are welcome here. Are you hoping to inspire readers with joy, arouse their fear, romance them with love? Or, maybe your story needs the reader to sink into despair along with your protagonist? This set of posts …
Searching for the Right Words? Tip #12
Please add your thoughts and comments. Are you hoping to inspire readers with joy, arouse their fear, romance them with love? Or, maybe your story needs the reader to sink into despair along with your protagonist? This set of posts looks at ways of influencing mood by selecting the ‘right’ words for the job. I …
Naked News for Indie Authors: How NOT to Invest Your Marketing $$$, by Gisela Hausmann, Reviewed.
This is not the first book I’ve read by this author, which is why I bought it! She has a knack of stating the relevant facts without offending but without wasting words. If you’re looking to market your book(s), read this short piece of advice before you start to spend cash on the process. It …
A Sense of Wonder
We live in a place of outstanding beauty, my wife and I. If possible, we walk in the Forest of Dean every day. Today, we took a fairly familiar route but followed the trail the opposite way round from previous walks. That, in itself, is a stimulus to the brain, of course. Different viewpoints bring …
Progress on the WIP
12 days since I last gave you an update on the scifi novel I’m currently writing. I’ve been quite busy on a number of things, both domestic and in the writing arena since. Suffice it to say that progress hasn’t been as rapid as I’d hoped. But I’m not beating myself up over that: life …
Searching for the Right Words? Tip #11
Hoping to inspire readers with joy, arouse their fear, romance them with love? Or, maybe your story needs the reader to sink into despair along with your protagonist? This set of posts looks at ways of influencing mood by selecting the ‘right’ words for the job.Example: “I held Leigh’s hand and looked at him. He …
Take a Break and be More Productive
Picture courtesy Pixabay.com People often ask how I manage to get so much done (actually, I don’t achieve as much as I’d like, but that’s another story). One thing that helps is the way I break every hour for just a couple of minutes. It’s long been known that sitting at the keyboard, or bending …
Searching for the Right Words? Tip #10
Hoping to inspire readers with joy, arouse their fear, romance them with love? Or, maybe your story needs the reader to sink into despair along with your protagonist? This set of posts looks at ways of influencing mood by selecting the ‘right’ words for the job. Example: “I had wine for the first time. People …
Stuart Aken 