Rob Bignell's Blog, page 250

A quick glance at peak vs. peek vs. pique

Apparently some writers are not quite as sharp as they think, at least where peak, peek and pique are concerned.

A peak is a sharp point, like the high spot in sales on a chart or a mountain summit.

To peek, however, is a quick, often secretive look at something, such as a sneak peek at a new film or peeking through the window.

Pique is a verb that means to grab your attention, as in pique your interest.

An easy way to remember the difference is peek with a double e is a verb while pique with an i involves getting your interest.

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.



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Four writing prompts: Perfection

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise from seeking ��� or escaping ��� a flawless state. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on perfection.

Man vs. nature
What if our main character lives in a Garden of Eden-like setting ��� perhaps a perfectly-balanced living dome on another planet ��� but feels that it is like living in a cage? At what point does the perfectly balanced environment, even if utterly beautiful, becomes sterile? What price does perfection carry? Can this perfect environment symbolize utopian societies in general or some place on Earth?

Man vs. man
What if a married couple, who our two main characters, realize they no longer love each other? Though feeling duped by society���s promise that marriage meant happiness, they are unwilling to let go because to do so means admitting their own failure and that the dream they staked their lives on was a mistake. How do they comes to terms with this and along the way, how do they seek happiness since they no longer can find it in one another?

Man vs. society
Our protagonist has the perfect physical appearance, but finds that with this beauty come certain expectations from society that he doesn���t feel is the right fit for him. How does he balance others��� perceptions and expectations of him against who he is really is and wants to be?

Man vs. himself
What if our main character finds himself bored by the perfection of his life, the kind of life that so many others would desire? After all, while there is no pain or suffering, there also is little joy or appreciation for anything. How does our main character break from this perfect world so that he can experience a meaningful life again?

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.



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Five Great Quotations about Passion for Writing

���...if you���re not willing to prioritize your writing, perhaps you should do something else?��� - Theodora Goss

���Writing is like a lump of coal. Put it under enough pressure and polish it enough and you might just end up with a diamond. Otherwise, you can burn it to keep warm.��� - A.J. Dalton

���You know, they ask me if I were on a desert island and I knew nobody would ever see what I wrote, would I go on writing. My answer is most emphatically yes. I would go on writing for company. Because I���m creating an imaginary ��� it���s always imaginary ��� world in which I would like to live.��� - William S. Burroughs

���I will write until the day I die, or until I am robbed of my capacity to reason. Even if my fingers were to clench and wither, even if I were to grow deaf or blind, even if I were unable to move a muscle in my body save for the blink of one eye, I would still write. Writing saved my life.��� - Dani Shapiro

���When the vision fills your brain and passion hits your gut, the need to write it down cannot be stifled.��� - Marti Melville

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.



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Utilize parallel structure for crisper writing

To make your writing smoother when listing items, consider using parallel structure. This occurs when you follow the same grammatical pattern as providing a list of equal items or ideas within a sentence. For example, the following sentence uses parallel structure:

Los Angeles is my favorite city because of the weather, festivals, and beaches.

Weather, festivals and beaches are equal items, so they are presented as single words each separated by a comma.

The following sentence, however, lacks a parallel structure and so reads awkwardly:

Los Angeles is my favorite city because it is warm, multicultural, and the beaches and festivals are fun.

Though the warm, multicultural and fun beaches/festivals are equal items in a list, they are not presented as such. Notice that warm and multicultural are adjectives while fun beaches/festivals are nouns with an adjective (fun) describing them. The sentence might be rewritten as:

Los Angeles is my favorite city because it is warm, multicultural, and fun.

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.



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Four writing prompts: Misconception

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise from a faulty understanding of a situation. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on misconception.

Man vs. nature
A person important to our main character is accused of committing a horrible crime. To clear his name, our main character must find and bring back evidence located in a dangerous wilderness. How does our main character overcome the challenges of nature to find this evidence? And what if someone is intent on ensuring he doesn���t survive those dangers? What is the antagonist���s motivation?

Man vs. man
What if our protagonist falls in love with a woman who has a notorious reputation ��� but he thinks it is merely a fa��ade she has created. Why does he think it is merely a fa��ade? And what if once he���s in too deep there are hints that she really is using him? Can he see through her deceit?

Man vs. society
A false rumor or an outright lie has been told about our main character. Before our protagonist knows it, the rumor/lie affects his ability to function in his neighborhood/job. How does he deal with the rumor/lie, especially when he finds that there is evidence to support these untruths?

Man vs. himself
What if our main character has made every right decision in life, leading him to incredible success in his career, finances and reputation ��� then one day he wakes up and realizes that it all had been a grave miscalculation for it never led to his happiness. Can he reshape his life by making the right decisions ��� despite enormous pressure not to ��� so he can find happiness? How does relearn how to live the life he really wants to lead rather than the one he has created for himself?

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.



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Five Great Quotations about What is a Writer

���The standard personality type for a writer is a shy megalomaniac.��� - John Lanchester

���Authors were shy, unsociable creatures, atoning for their lack of social aptitude by inventing their own companions and conversations.��� - Agatha Christie

���We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.��� - Kelly Marcel & Sue Smith

���By his very profession, a serious fiction writer is a vendor of the sensuous particulars of life, a perceiver and handler of things. His most valuable tools are his sense and his memory; what happens in his mind is primarily pictures.��� - Wallace Stegner

���A writer can���t not write. If a writer can���t write, a writer will bite.��� - Ksenia Anske

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.



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Do it right: do���s and don���ts vs. dos and donts

All too often, I see writers doing the don���ts where do���s and don���ts are concerned. In all fairness, though, various stylebooks disagree about what you should do with these two words.

Let���s start with do���s. If you have several rules and guidelines that are recommended, you have a list of do���s. The word is one of the rare exceptions in which an apostrophe is used to show that something is plural. While The Associated Press Stylebook and many dictionaries follow this spelling, be aware that The Chicago Manual of Style says to dispense with the apostrophe and stick with dos.

If you have a list of several rules and guidelines of what not to do, you have a list of don���ts. Here, the s is added to the contraction don���t to make it a plural noun. Don���t spell it donts.

Whichever style you use on do���s vs. dos, just be consistent with it throughout your manuscript.

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.



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Four writing prompts: Distrust

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise when there is suspicion of others. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on distrust.

Man vs. nature
The power goes out, and a group of people in a somewhat isolated location find themselves at the mercy of nature and unable to communicate with the outside world. Thanks to misinterpretation and doubt, they soon find themselves unable to trust one another. Can they overcome the wild possibilities offered up by a few frightening facts to work together so they can overcome the dangers nature tosses at them?

Man vs. man
What if two brothers who deeply hate one another must come together to stop a threat that endangers something they mutually love? How did the brothers come to dislike one another? What skill does each possess that makes their cooperation necessary to defeat this threat? How are they ever able to work together?

Man vs. society
Our main character finds himself in a place where friends are indistinguishable from enemies. What would be such a location in our society (A war zone? A workplace full of interoffice politics?)? How does he weave his way through and out of such a place?

Man vs. himself
The protagonist is a victim of a crime in a community he���s moved to and because of it loses his sense of security there. How does he keep this fear from becoming a neurosis and how does he regain trust of others in his new hometown?

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.



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Five Great Quotations about Why to Write

���The writer���s task is to invent the reality. - J.G. Ballard

���I write because you can play on the page like a child left alone in the sand.��� - Shannon L. Alder

���I write to believe in goodness.��� - Red Haircrow

���We write to give strength to the soul of the spirit.��� - Lailah Gifty Akita

���If you���re not creating, you���re disintegrating.��� - Tawny Lara

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.



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Editing client publishes first poetry collection

A recent editing client has published his first collection of poetry. Andrew H Smith���s ���Split Ends��� takes the reader on an alliterative journey to the depths of the human psyche. From impermanence and ever-pervading self-doubt to the tumultuous waves of love and hate, this collection of gripping poems invites you to join the poet in a reflective and ultimately cathartic experience. The book is available online.

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.



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