Natasha Deen's Blog, page 99

Mechanical Monday: Active Verbs

Active verbs are self-explanatory. They're the verbs that exercise regularly, eat a balanced meal, and get eight hours of sleep every night…no, wait…I'm mixing up my notes with my doctor's orders.

Seriously, though, active verbs create action.  The past two weeks we've been talking about tenses, and if you put those together, you get a sense of action, so choose your verbs & your actions carefully.

Consider:

I was sleeping when the loud bang woke me up.

versus

The loud bang woke me up.

...

Book Launch–Gail Sidonie Sobat

Friday Furry

I don't know how I managed it, but I've ruined my cats. Absolutely, totally ruined.  Neither of them will actually forage for food anymore.  Go to their food dish by themselves? Nope. They come into the office instead, and yowl at me until I take them to the dish and watch them eat the first few bites.

Is it a bonding thing?  A way for them to assert their dominance (pfft. Like their authority was ever in question). I'm not sure. I haven't had a chance to contemplate—G.T. has been making...

Thursday Time

We're talking about time (and our great lack of it). When it comes to writing a book, 300 pages can seem like A LOT.

It is.

But you're not writing 300 pages.

You're writing 1.

Writing a novel is a big job, but if you break it down to "one page at a time" it'll get done, and if you only write one page a day, you'll still have a novel completed in a year.

Wednesday Whoa: The West Wing

I'm always slightly annoyed when I hear writers bemoan society's preoccupation with television, and when they complain that t.v. is a waste of time.
I wonder if they realize or remember that every television show, good or bad, began as a script. A written script, written by a writer, someone (I suspect) very much like the writer who's complaining.
I'm not arguing that there are bad shows.
There are terrible shows.
The same can be said for books. I've read some that made me wonder if I was alive...

Win a Copy of Sneakers, Sandals & Stilettoes

Head to this link, enter a comment, and have your name entered to win a book or e-copy of Sneakers, Sandals & Stilettoes: Fairy-Tales for the Well-Heeled Princess. Contest closes May 31, 2011.

Technique Tuesday

So, last week, we were talking about using description.  The question is: once you figure out what description you want, how do you add it in?

It's an important question because I've put down books where the authors (who are delightful writers, mind you) have characters walking into a room, doing a dead-stop, and then giving me a rundown of the room that is so detailed, it'd make Martha Stewart applaud.

Sometimes, you'll want to do the dead stop. If your character walks into a room and...

Mechanical Monday: Spelling of "ing" and "ed" Verbs

Came across this super cool chart that's a godsend for those of us who have trouble spelling (credit to Betty Schrampfer Azar):

Verbs that end in a consonant & "e" (hope) ING – drop the "e" and add "ing" (hoping) ED – add "d" (hoped) Verbs that end in a vowel and consonant AND are one-syllable (stop): ING – duplicate the consonant and add "ing" (stopping) ED – duplicate the consonant and add "d" (stopped) Verbs that end in...

Mechanical Monday: Spelling of "ing" and "ed" Verbs

Came across this super cool chart that's a godsend for those of us who have trouble spelling:

Verbs that end in a consonant & "e" (hope) ING – drop the "e" and add "ing" (hoping) ED – add "d" (hoped) Verbs that end in a vowel and consonant AND are one-syllable (stop): ING – duplicate the consonant and add "ing" (stopping) ED – duplicate the consonant and add "d" (stopped) Verbs that end in two vowels and consonant AND are one-syllable (rain): ...

Friday Furry

The dogs have just started stocking (sheep herding) classes. This is our attempt to train them re: bikes, and give them some extra exercise/fun. I thought they'd go wild—was sssooo wrong. Milo caught on pretty quick (though he was totally distracted by Murphy and me being on the other side of the pen). Murphy wanted nothing to do with the sheep or the herding, and just wanted to go home…