Struggling to find the ‘right’ word for your writing? Me, too. Maybe, in trying to improve my own work, I can help other writers. Today’s words: Quash, Refute, Quiet as a dormouse, Rückkehrunruhe, Reporter. Synonyms are alternative words that might say exactly what you’re trying to convey. Quash: Roget lists three sub-headings; suppress, abrogate, and …
Month: Jun 2018
Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
Well, it’s back with the publisher. The finished MS ran out to 75949 words, though whether that will be the published total depends on how the editor sees my changes. I’m expecting to have the book back for some minor tweaks and the odd typo, etc. But I’m relatively confident the MS I delivered on …
1000 Yards, by Mark Dawson: #BookReview.
85 pps Thriller/Espionage. This short is written in typical ‘thriller’ style, however, it also gives the reader some meat on the bones of the characters, which is great. The depiction of North Korea is chilling, and reads as though the author has first-hand experience. The protagonist, Milton, shows some concern for those who help him …
The #Write #Word? Post 24
Struggling to find the ‘right’ word for your writing? Me, too. Maybe, in trying to improve my own work, I can help other writers. Today’s words: Pathos, Prescribe/Proscribe, Pair of twins, Pope. Synonyms are alternative words that might say exactly what you’re trying to convey. Pathos: is a quality exciting pity or sadness. Roget lists …
Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
And the tale continues. This book’s been subject to a number of interruptions during its creation. Not least was the collapse of my iMac, it’s replacement with a Windows 10 PC, and the appallingly drawn-out and unnecessarily complex issue of transferring files from iCloud to MS OneNote. I’ve dealt with corrupted files along the way, …
The #Write #Word? Post 23
Struggling to find the ‘right’ word for your writing? Me, too. Maybe, in trying to improve my own work, I can help other writers. Today’s words: Off of, On the rocks, Offensively, Occhiolism, Obsolescence. Redundancies: words serving no purpose. In speech, they’re spacers, giving the speaker time to think. But in writing they slow …
Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
As a general rule, authors dislike dealing with the edits sent them by their publishers. It’s often a battleground between competing egos. However, I welcome the chance to correct those things that escaped my attention by being too close to the creation. I’m on the third pass through the MS, having already done the full …
The #Write #Word? Post 22
Apologies. I’m deeply involved in the edit notes for my WIP back from the publisher. This is time sensitive, so I’m missing the post this week to concentrate on the vital job of getting the corrections back in time for publication later this year. Bear with me. I expect to be back to normal next …
Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.
Now the serious editing has started: I received the publisher’s editing notes on Monday and I’ve been beavering away at them ever since. Both the creation and my editing of the book were interrupted by several events over which I had no control. And my final editing session was done under pressure of knowing I’d …
Everybody Shrugged, by Walt Pilcher: #BookReview.
354 pps Genre Fiction/Political/Literary humour. Humour in any book is a gamble. We don’t all see with the same eyes. Whilst this novel rarely made me laugh out loud, I did smile and grin a lot, so it was a positive experience. That it managed this while dealing with such issues as government incompetence (this …
Continue reading Everybody Shrugged, by Walt Pilcher: #BookReview.
The #Write #Word? Post 21
Struggling to find the ‘right’ word for your writing? Me,too. Maybe, in trying to improve my own work, I can help other writers. Today’s words: Great Minds Think Alike…, Nod the head, Not in my backyard, Nodus Tollens, Nondescript, A slightly different approach this week: we don’t want this to be too predictable, after all. …
Creative #Writing #Contests Table Updated
Here’s your monthly reminder that the writing contest table has been updated. It lives under the ‘Resources’ tab. The table went through a period of corruption, the cause of which I can’t identify, but it seems all okay again now! I update the table frequently, in fact whenever I come across new contest details. However, …
Stuart Aken 