Rob Bignell's Blog, page 249

Five Great Quotations: Advice to Aspiring Writers

���Hey, you, aspiring writer, stop aspiring and start WRITING already!��� - Ksenia Anske

���Writing has to come first.��� - Sue Grafton

���Love the writing, love the writing, love the writing...the rest will follow.��� - Jane Yolen

���You can fix anything but a blank page.��� - Nora Roberts

���Advice? Focus on the craft. Study the greats. Try and understand how and why they made the writing choices they did.��� - Patrick Stump

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



<A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widg... Widgets</A>

Related articles

Five Great Quotations about Writer's Block
Common questions about publishing ebooks
Promote your book by hosting guest bloggers

Grammar tip: To quickly confuse or not to confuse

One way writers can confuse readers is to use a split infinitive.

An infinitive is the word to with a verb, as in to build (e.g. Ron helped to build the house.). Sometimes this infinitive is split, however, by placing words between to and the verb, such as to quickly build. This is called a split infinitive.

Writing Ron helped to quickly build the house can be a confusing sentence. Did Ron offer his help quickly or was he involved in ensuring the house was built with haste? Moving the adverb quickly so the infinitive is not split would help immensely. If the former is meant, then write Ron quickly helped build the house. If the latter is meant, then restructure the sentence to say Ron helped ensure they quickly built the house.

Not all split infinitives necessarily lead to confusion. One of the most famous sayings of our time, to boldly go where no man has gone before, is a split infinitive, after all, and every one knows the narrator means his crew is going boldly.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



<A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widg... Widgets</A>

Related articles

Flow of knowledge: Pore vs. pour
A change in the text: Amend vs. emend
Five Great Quotations about Craft of Writing

Four writing prompts: Wrongly accused

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise when someone who is innocent must prove so. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on being wrongly accused.

Man vs. nature
Falsely accused by his closest friends, a man is abandoned or imprisoned in a hostile wilderness. How does he escape/survive Mother Nature and upon returning to civilization, prove his innocence? Or will he be bent on revenge? Why did his friends betray him?

Man vs. man
Two former lovers are coincidentally trapped together. To survive, they must work together ��� and confront the other about their shared past in which each (wrongly) believe the other guilty of some betrayal. What circumstances caused them to be trapped, and can this be symbolic of the emotional trap they���ve been in since their breakup? How do they ultimately come to be lovers (or at least friends) again?

Man vs. society
A person who generally is considered virtuous is arrested. What he is arrested for? Was the arrest part of some conspiracy? How does he prove his innocence?

Man vs. himself
Our protagonist suffers a terrible fate because he has been wrongly accused. Can he ever forgive his accusers? How does he learn that the only way to inner peace given his situation is to make peace with those who have hurt him?

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



<A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widg... Widgets</A>

Related articles

Five Great Quotations about the Writing Process
Make tables readable in your self-published book

Five Great Quotations about Rules of Writing

���The only ���ironclad rules��� in writing fiction are the laws of physics and the principles of grammar, and even those can be bent.��� - Val Kovalin

���There are many rules of good writing, but the best way to find them is to be a good reader.��� - Stephen E. Ambrose

���Writing as a creative art flourishes only when there are no rules. Rules stifle you from entering the silent and forbidden spaces where the core of the story is waiting to be revealed.��� - Gloria D. Gonsalves

���Restrictions and writing shouldn���t mix. Let your mind be open. Let it be a creative canvas.��� - Lauren Hammond

���Language is not law; it is in fact a lot like music. Speech is jazz ��� first you learn the basic rules, and then you become good enough to improvise all the time. Writing is somewhat more like classical composition, where established forms and conditions will hold greater sway.��� - Robert Lane Greene

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



<A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widg... Widgets</A>

Related articles

Writing Inspiration: 'The pleasure of each word I write is returned to me multiplied.'
Five Great Quotations about Short Stories
Give away valuable content to sell books
Writing inspiration: Model a story
Writing inspiration: Read your favorite author

Are you a person or an object: Who vs. that

There���s no doubt about it ��� there are some writers who find these are the two words that always confuse them.

Who always is used when referring to a person, as in Lisa is the attorney who represents me.

That always is used when referring to an object or idea, as in Courtroom 4231 is the one that we will appear in.

And that explanation should solve the problem for anyone who was still confused!

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



<A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widg... Widgets</A>

Related articles

Five Great Quotations about Writer's Block
Five Great Quotations about the Writing Process
Many famous books first were self-published
Make tables readable in your self-published book
Promote your book by hosting guest bloggers

Four writing prompts: Sanity

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise from attempting to live in a world based on normal, rational behavior. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on sanity.

Man vs. nature
Our protagonist believes that some location he must regularly pass through somehow is malevolent. Why does he believe this? As he falls deeper and deeper into his neurosis and insanity, how does he try to climb back out? Is there any way out? Can the evil place be symbolic of some abstract concept that many in our society suffer a deep neurosis about?

Man vs. man
How does someone maintain his sanity when abused by another? What is his personal story of surviving a living hell? What psychological trauma does he suffer afterward?

Man vs. society
Our main character finds himself thrust into a shadowy underworld where people���s behavior appears to be irrational, even insane. How does he tease out the logic in their seedy behavior and manipulate it so he can return to his own sane, rational world? What if upon returning he finds this his world is just as mad as the one he left?

Man vs. himself
What if our main character begins to see signs of paranormal activity that no one else can see? How does he discover if these strange events are ���real��� ��� and how does he maintain his sanity?

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



<A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widg... Widgets</A>

Related articles

Writing inspiration: Model a story
How many words is a novella?
Writing inspiration: Read your favorite author
Questions to ask yourself when plotting a story
How to create an interesting villain for your story

Five Great Quotations about Imagination in Writing

���To imagine is everything.��� - Anatole France

���I am simply impressed by the unexpected insights which shower down on me when my job is to imagine, as contrasted with the woodenly familiar ideas which clutter my desk when my job is to tell the truth.��� - Kurt Vonnegut

���The writer must have a good imagination to begin with, but the imagination has to be muscular, which means it must be exercised in a disciplined way, day in and day out, by writing, failing, succeeding and revising.��� - Stephen King

���Writers fly with imaginary wings.��� - Melody Robinette

���The imagination of creative thought can be a crazy place,this giving reason to write it down to try and make sense of it all.��� - Helen Ingram

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



<A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widg... Widgets</A>

Related articles

Five Great Quotations for Aspiring Writers
Five Great Quotations about Characters
Five Great Quotations about Creativity

Don't confuse readers with misplaced modifiers

English is a word-order language, meaning where a word appears in a sentence helps establish the sentence���s meaning for users. Sometimes in a conversation this word order can be broken, as the participants have enough context to understand what was meant. In writing, however, words that appear out of order usually result in confusion or lead to an unintended, humorous line.

A common word order error in writing is a misplaced modifier. This occurs when a word, phrase or clause describing something doesn���t appear next to the word(s) it describes. For example:

Jane kicked the ball donned in a Packers jersey.

This sentence reads as if the ball were wearing a Packers jersey. As Jane was the one wearing the jersey, the modifier donned in a Packers jersey needs to be moved:

Donned in a Packers jersey, Jane kicked the ball.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



<A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widg... Widgets</A>

Related articles

Don't smother writing with your red pen
How formal should be your novel's voice?
Write winning query letter to editors, agents
Writing Prompt: Random sentence
Writing Prompt: Start with last line

Four writing prompts: Innocence lost

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise from gaining a new awareness of pain, suffering and evil in our world. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on innocence lost.

Man vs. nature
While in the wilderness on a camping or backpacking trip, something occurs that causes our young main character to almost die and in the process to gain a broader awareness of evil in the world. Feeling the pain of this new awareness, how does he survive not only his only mental anguish but also the wilderness as he makes his way back to civilization?

Man vs. man
How do two people who feel guilt about the loss of their loved ones come to feel love for one another? Why do they feel this guilt? How do they overcome it? How do they come to understand that they are right for one another when they each think they���ve lost the love of their lives or the only for them?

Man vs. society
What if our protagonist, to get out of a jam (maybe to pay off a gambling debt or to avoid bankruptcy) decides to strike a deal with the devil (perhaps a crime syndicate or a hard-nosed but wealthy employer) to cover him. How does this deal make his situation worse for him? How does he extricate himself from it?

Man vs. himself
Our main character possesses special abilities that make him vital to solving a great crisis. Yet those abilities means he will be responsible for incredible ��� but seemingly inevitable ��� atrocities. How does he come to grips with the clear consequences of his growing abilities as they are honed for solving the great crisis?

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



<A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widg... Widgets</A>

Related articles

How to create an interesting villain for your story
Develop complex antagonist to maximize conflict
Rotate third-person limited to avoid issues

Five Great Quotations about the Writing Life

���I���m writing. The pages are starting to stack up. My morale is improving the more I feel like a writer.��� - Neil Gaiman

���It���s been my experience that most writers don���t talk about their craft - they just do it.��� - Alfred Lansing

���While I���m writing, I���m far away; and when I come back, I���ve gone.��� - Pablo Neruda

���Writing is like daydreaming through your fingers.��� - Jenna Alatari

���First time I ever put pen to paper, I had one goal ��� to build something no one had ever thought of before.��� - Carla H. Krueger

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



<A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widg... Widgets</A>

Related articles

Common questions about publishing ebooks
Promote your book by hosting guest bloggers
Long-time editing client's novelette published
Writing Inspiration: Be in right mindset