Rob Bignell's Blog, page 254

Four writing prompts: Loss

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise from regaining a feeling that existed when someone leaves or goes missing. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on loss.

Man vs. nature
During an expedition, a calamity occurs, cutting off our main character from most of his party. How does he survive and overcome the challenges of nature as trying to reunite with the main group?

Man vs. man
What if our main character has taken care of someone special (perhaps a foster child, an orphan, etc.) for a period of time and one day a person comes along to claim that special someone? How does our main character stop this new person from taking that special someone?

Man vs. society
Our main character finds he suffers from a spiritual emptiness that broader society seems to encourage because of its declining ethical behavior. In a decadent society, how does he lead a life based on his deeply-held moral values?

Man vs. himself
The protagonist is in a healing profession ��� probably psychology ��� but despite his success with others finds that he is unable to heal his own broken heart. What is needed for him to heal (Perhaps the one patient he seems unable to help?)?

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 on What is a Writer

���Writers, like elephants, have long, vicious memories. There are things I wish I could forget.��� - William S. Burroughs

���Writing is...being able to take something whole and fiercely alive that exists inside you in some unknowable combination of thought, feeling, physicality, and spirit, and to then store it like a genie in tense, tiny black symbols on a calm white page.��� - Mary Gaitskill

���Nothing but black ink runs through my veins!��� - Hiromu Arakawa

���Writers build their own realities, move into them and occasionally send letters home. The only difference between a writer and a crazy person is that a writer gets paid for it.��� - David Gerrold

���Writers are nothing more than borderline schizophrenics who are able to control the voices.��� - Jennifer Salaiz

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 rules for spelling possessive nouns

Most writers know that an ���apostrophe s��� is needed to show possession or ownership. Where that apostrophe goes, however, changes depending on whether the word is singular or plural and if it ends in s or not.

If the noun is singular and does not end in s, place the apostrophe between the word���s last letter and the apostrophe s: Jane���s, desk���s, car���s.

Should the singular noun end in s, just place an apostrophe after the word���s last letter. Don���t add an extra s:
CORRECT: dress��� (The dress��� hem needed to be raised.)
WRONG: dress���s

Generally, if the noun is plural and ends in s, place the apostrophe after the s: girls���, cities���, vehicles���. As most plural words end in s, don���t add an extra s:
CORRECT: boys���
WRONG: boys���s

If the noun is plural but doesn���t end in s, add an apostrophe s: men���s, women���s.

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 Florida travel memoir

A recent editing client, Mickey Harrison, has published his first book, ���The Far Shore of Paradise: A Travel Memoir.��� When a dysfunctional polar vortex paralyzed New Jersey in a record cold winter, Mickey Harrison headed out for Florida where he explores the glittering tourist coasts, the agricultural interior, gator-infested Everglades, rollicking Key West, fanciful Orlando, and Cape Canaveral. While Harrison relishes the vagrant���s life, he invents stealth urban camping along the way; this includes a nightly noir adventure as he cruises parking lots seeking protection simultaneously from the cops and by the cops. More than a laugh-out-loud travel memoir, the wandering trek of this one-time travel writer and celebrity tour guide stumbles upon Florida���s radiance as well as fascinating connections to its past, present and future. 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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An editor would fight about this: Tousle vs. tussle

A lot of writers find their writing is quite disorderly where these two similar-sounding words are concerned.

Tousle means to rumple or mess up, such as your hair or bed sheets. To wit, Auntie Jane playfully tousled her young nephew���s hair.

Tussle means to have a physical fight or struggle. For example, The two sailors got got in a tussle over which one was buying Melissa a drink.

So, your hair may be tousled after you get into a tussle, but your hair never will tussle with you if you don���t comb 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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Four writing prompts: Aging

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise from seeking something related to his age. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on aging. 

Man vs. nature
Our protagonist, now retired, decides to move back to the place of his childhood and renovate an old residence that nature is quickly reclaiming. As he struggles against the damage that Mother Nature has wrought (pipes broken from overgrown roots, weeds, rotted roof that leaks, etc.), how does he come to terms with his own aging, which is ravaging his once virile body?

Man vs. man
The main character, near the end of his life, is on the verge of achieving his life-long dream ��� but one person, a life-long nemesis ��� stands in his way. How does the main character overcome his nemesis? What is the dream our main character seeks (perhaps it is a metaphor for some idea or concept)? Why does he believe achievement of this dream matters more than anything else?

Man vs. society
A man who is an expert on a problem society faces is brought of retirement to advise a force sent to cope with this challenge ��� but the way he conducts himself clashes with the unit of young men who, focused on the present, know too little of the past and who he really is. How does he overcome ageism and advise ��� and maybe eventually lead ��� the force to victory?

Man vs. himself
Our main character finds that an old flame from his younger days wants to rekindle their relationship, despite that he has built a life with another woman and has children. What would compel him to consider experiencing this love from his past? What happens if he dips into this forbidden love only to have the undertow pull him in?

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 Theme

���The finder of his theme will be at no loss for words.��� - J.V. Cunningham

���As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.��� - Ernest Hemingway

���From time to time, however, writers have engaged in politics. Its effect on them as writers has been injurious.��� - W. Somerset Maugham

���In my view, the novelist has no right to express his opinions on the things of this world. In creating, he must imitate God: do his job and then shut up.��� - Gustave Flaubert

���Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you���re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act���truth is always subversive.��� - Anne Lamott

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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New ���Storystarters��� lists 200+ writing prompts

My latest book, Storystarters: 200+ Writing Prompts That Lead To Stories, hit bookstore shelves today.

Storystarters presents more than 200 writing prompts centered on exciting and interesting conflicts for a protagonist to solve. The prompts are divided among more than 50 topics and pit the story���s hero against nature, another person, society, god(s), and himself in various scenarios.

I was motivated to write the book because all too often writing prompt books offered some neat ideas but few of them actually lead to a story. That���s because those prompts all too often missed a key element: conflict. Conflict is the heart of every story, and without it you���re just writing a journal entry.

Storystarters marks my sixth writing guidebook and 25th book overall. In addition to being an author, I���m a long-time editor and creative writing teacher.

The book is available online in paperback and as a Kindle ebook.

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 make copyright, trademark symbols

Oftentimes when writing ��� especially nonfiction ��� you���ll need to add copyright, trademark and registered trademark symbols. They are easy to make in MS Word. Just use the following keyboard shortcuts.

Copyright ��
Press Ctrl+Alt+C

Trademark ���
Press Ctrl+Alt+T

Registered trademark ��
Press Ctrl+Alt+R

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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Alter your writing: Touch up, touchup, touch-up

Some writers��� manuscripts always seem to need a little fixing up where these three words are concerned.

Touch up is a phrasal verb meaning to make some minor alterations to, as in ���Debbie, touch up your makeup,��� Dawn said. Here, Dawn is asking Debbie to perform a specific action.

Touchup, however, is a noun in which the action itself is considered a thing, as in Debbie gave her makeup a quick touchup. Here, the touchup is an object, specifically the altered makeup on Debbie���s face.

Touch-up means the same as touchup. Usually when people begin using a phrasal verb as a noun, a hyphen is placed between the two words to show you no longer are using it as a verb; over time, as this noun becomes common in our language, the tendency is to do away with the hyphen. The hyphenated version still lingers, however, usually in more formal writing.

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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