Rob Bignell's Blog, page 252

Five Great Quotations about the Power of Writing

���A word is dead/When it is said,/Some say./I say it just begins/to live that day.��� - Emily Dickinson

���We need stories to live, all of us. We live by story. Yours enlarges the circle.��� - Richard Rhodes

���What I don���t write is as important as what I write.��� - Jamaica Kincaid

���The true artist...gets his sense of worth and honor from his conviction that art is powerful.��� - John Gardner

���Language is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought; words will tell you things you never thought or felt before.��� - W.H. Auden

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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How to fix dangling modifiers in your writing

Among the most common mistakes beginning authors make is dangling modifiers. These occur when a description isn���t about the noun that comes immediately before or after it. For example:

After not meeting curfew three nights in a row, Jane decided to try a new strategy with her teen daughter.

The dangling modifier is not meeting curfew three nights in a row, because Jane the mother isn���t the one who didn���t meet curfew. However, the sentence reads like Jane is the one having a problem getting home each night.

To resolve a dangling modifier, all you need to do is shift the dangling modifier���s position in the sentence. You instead could write:

Jane decided to try a new strategy with her teen daughter, who had not met curfew three nights in a row.

While true that in most cases the reader will get what you mean, a dangling modifier still results in an awkwardly worded sentence. You���ll also probably get a shorter sentence, mainly because it���s more efficient and streamlined.

In the worse cases, however, your sentence will simply elicit a laugh from the reader for being humorous (albeit unintentionally). To wit:

Oozing slowly across the floor, David watched the salad dressing.

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: Obsession

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise from a fixation or mania. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on obsession.

Man vs. nature
Obsessed with finding a treasure, our main character enters a perilous wilderness where he must fight off nature���s challenges. How do each of the challenges alter him ��� do they deepen his obsession or cause him to his view of what is important in life to evolve?

Man vs. man
Two men are obsessed with the same woman. Each will do anything to prevent the other from obtaining the woman���s affections (She loves them both.). Which one will be victorious (Perhaps it will be the one who realizes his inner flaw and changes his behavior, which the woman finds uberattractive.)?

Man vs. society
A man who was adopted is obsessed with identifying his biological father/mother. But what if some organization doesn���t want that information to be known? Why not? How much will our main character risk to fulfill his dream���or is it his obsession?

Man vs. himself
What if our protagonist is obsessed with a woman who is seemingly perfect but holds dark secrets? What if he surreptitiously discovers what the secrets are and they���re something he has trouble stomaching? Which wins out ��� his obsessive love for her or his inability to accept her for what she once did?

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 the Writing Process

���The writer���s silent mind is a period of intermission before orchestrating a symphony of words.��� - Khaled Talib

���...don���t wait for inspiration, just start the damned thing...once you begin, keep on until the end. How do you know how the story should begin until you find out where it���s going?��� - Roger Ebert

���When you write, it���s like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring them unity. Your fingers have still not perfected the task. Some of the braids are long, others are short. Some are thick, others are thin. Some are heavy. Others are light. Like the diverse women of your family. Those whose fables and metaphors, whose similes and soliloquies, whose diction and je ne sais quoi daily slip into your survival soup, by way of their fingers.��� - Edwidge Danticat

���...you always have this image of the perfect thing which you can never achieve, but which you never stop trying to achieve. But I think...that���s your signpost and your guide. You���ll never get there, but without it you won���t get anywhere.��� - Cormac McCarthy

���The best thing to do is to loosen my grip on my pen and let it go wandering about until it finds an entrance. There must be one ��� everything depends on the circumstances, a rule applicable as much to literary style as to life. Each word tugs another one along, one idea another, and that is how books, governments and revolutions are made ��� some even say that is how Nature created her species.��� - Machado de Assis

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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Use comma to set off introductory element

Whenever your sentence begins with an introductory element, set it off with a comma. Think of the the comma as a handshake.

An introductory element is a word, phrase or clause that provides important information at the beginning of the sentence before the main subject and verb appear. Consider this sentence:

After the dance, they kissed under the moonlight.

In the above example, after the dance is the introductory element with they the main subject and kissed the verb. The introductory isn���t needed to make a complete sentence as they kissed under the moonlight could stand on it own. Still, the introductory element serves a somewhat important purpose in the sentence because it tells when (after the dance) the main action (they kissed) occurred. As it���s extraneous, however, it is set off by a comma.

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: Manipulation

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise from seeking something so badly that he no longer cares if he must influence or control someone unscrupulously. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on manipulation.

Man vs. nature
An expedition is marooned in a remote wilderness. Each effort the protagonist and his expedition makes to overcome the challenges nature poses to their survival is undercut, however. What if their efforts were being manipulated to doom them? How do they determine this, and how do they discover who is sabotaging them?

Man vs. man
Two brothers vie for something ��� control of a family fortune, a throne, their father���s affection. What happens when their zeal for achieving mastery over the other causes them to manipulate others? How many people will be hurt by their manipulation? Is there anyone who can end their game?

Man vs. society
What if an organization with evil intent attempts to manipulate our protagonist into committing a murder? How do they go about doing this? How does our main character come to suspect he is being manipulated, and how does he go about turning the tables on this organization?

Man vs. himself
Manipulation typically involves telling lies about oneself and others. What happens to the manipulator, though, when he has told so many lies that he begins to believe them himself? Is there any way out of his internal madness and the life he has created?

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 Business of Writing

���The biggest threat to authors in this age is not plagiarism or poverty, it���s obscurity.��� - Bernard Kelvin Clive

���Write without pay until somebody offers to pay.��� - Mark Twain

���Writers don���t make any money at all. We make about a dollar. It is terrible. But then again we don���t work either. We sit around in our underwear until noon then go downstairs and make coffee, fry some eggs, read the paper, read part of a book, smell the book, wonder if perhaps we ourselves should work on our book, smell the book again, throw the book across the room because we are quite jealous that any other person wrote a book, feel terribly guilty about throwing the schmuck���s book across the room because we secretly wonder if God in heaven noticed our evil jealousy, or worse, our laziness. We then lie across the couch facedown and mumble to God to forgive us because we are secretly afraid He is going to dry up all our words because we envied another man���s stupid words. And for this, as I said, we are paid a dollar. We are worth so much more.��� - Donald Miller

���All trademarks, company names, registered names, products, characters, mottos, logos, jingles and catchphrases used or cited in this work are the property of their respective owners and have only been mentioned and or used as cultural references to enhance the narrative and in no way were used to disparage or harm the owners and their companies. It is the author���s sincerest wish the owners of the cited trademarks, company names, etc. appreciate the success they have achieved in making their products household names and appreciate the free plug.��� - E.A. Bucchianeri

���To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.��� - Steven Pressfield

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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Avoid making incomplete comparisons

Leaving out a key word in a manuscript will leave most readers confused. Such is the case with incomplete comparisons.

For example, suppose an author wrote, The Los Angeles Rams are stronger.

Stronger than what? To say something is stronger ��� or better or faster or smarter or dumber and so on ��� tells the reader you���re making a comparison. You must include words that complete this comparison.

So, our errant author above might instead write The Los Angeles Rams are a stronger team than the Tennessee Titans.

Sometimes in dialogue an incomplete comparison is not a big deal as the conversation has previously established what is being compared:

���The Titans are the best team in the NFL,��� Davie said.

Matt shook his head. ���The Rams are stronger.

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: Revenge

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise when someone believes he has wrongly suffered. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on revenge.

Man vs. nature
While on a trip in the wilderness to rest and relax, our main charater finds that someone is out to kill him for revenge. How does he survive the challenges of nature as trying to outwit his would-be assassin?

Man vs. man
The main character���s former spouse, livid at her perceived abandonment and betrayal, plots to send him to prison and ruin his life. How would she do this? What effect would this have on the main character���s friendships, career and intimate relationships? How would the main character respond to and overcome this threat?

Man vs. society
What if to destroy the society that supresses his people, the protagonist must become one of his overlords (Perhaps through an elaborate scheme he infiltrates this society.)? Will the material trappings of the supressor become too much for him to resist? How does he go about bringing the collapse of this society? What if a member of the supressor discovers his secret plan?

Man vs. himself
Our protagonist must decide if he will avenge a man who stole his wife and ripped apart his family and life. On one level, the protagonist may fantasize about revenge and decide there���s nothing that can be done in the real world. On another level, he may be overcome with emotion and act out of passion. Or perhaps he will realize that no one stole his wife but that he lost it all on his own and make changes to ensure this doesn���t happen to him again. What choice will he make and how will he arrive at it?

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 Creativity

���If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.��� - Juan Ramon Jimenez

���Inspiration comes and goes, creativity is the result of practice.��� - Phil Cousineau

���Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn���t, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.��� - Stephen King

���There is a ruthlessness to the creative act. It often involves a betrayal of the status quo.��� - Alan Watt

���Creative power flourishes only when I am living in the present.��� - Brenda Ueland

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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