Rob Bignell's Blog, page 291

Writing Prompt: Go down another road

Suffering from writer���s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine.

To that end, try this tip: Should you find your story at a dead end, maybe you need to back up and go down another road. Rather than asking yourself what sentence should come next, think of what other sentence could be written in its place. Does this lead you to other roads?

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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. Whether you come from a big city like San Francisco, California, or a small town like Nimrod, Oregon, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Inspiration: Never be afraid to write what you believe. If the message speaks the truth, others will fear your words for you.
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Three ebook formatting tips, part VI

Ebooks follow different formatting rules than books printed on paper. That���s because a book made of ink on paper is a different platform for presenting information than a book made of digital bits on an electronic screen. Even though the same content (your book) is being presented, the platforms will need to be handled differently, just as certainly different production methods are used for a play presented on stage and on a television screen.

Because of that, there are a number of things you might do when formatting a paperback but never would do when constructing an ebook. Following are three tips about what to differently.

Page breaks
Adding a page break at the end of each chapter makes your book more readable. When formatting, though, always place the page break on the very next line after a chapter���s last word. Add blank lines between the chapter���s last line and the page break sometimes can result in a blank screen for a page in the published ebook; besides looking unprofessional, the blank page can confuse readers about where they are in the ebook.

Photographs
Limit the size of photographs appearing in your ebook. Most ebook publishers restrict the size of the manuscript that is uploaded, and large photos will quickly push you over that watermark, leading to rejection. Since photographs need not be larger than most ereader or tablet screens, it never should be more than five inches wide by five inches deep in actual size (and probably can be even smaller, depending on who you are publishing your book with). Make sure the photo���s resolution is in 300 dpi. In addition, the image quality usually can be reduced to a six on a scale of 1-12.

Page numbers
There���s no need to add page numbers to your ebook. Since readers can customize the text���s font and font size to their preference, page numbers quickly would become meaningless in an ebook. Instead, most ereaders provide a ���location��� that acts as a sort of a page number for readers.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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. Whether you come from a big city like Dayton, Ohio, or a small town like Why, Arizona, I can provide that second eye.

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Five Great Quotations about Readers

���It is the writer's fault, not the reader's, if the reader puts down the book.��� - David Halberstam

���There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored. The reader of today looks for this motion, and rightly so, but what he has forgotten is the cost of it. His sense of evil is diluted or lacking altogether, and so he has forgotten the price of restoration. When he reads a novel, he wants either his sense tormented or his spirits raised. He wants to be transported, instantly, either to mock damnation or a mock innocence.��� - Flannery O'Connor

���Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn���t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person ��� a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.��� - John Steinbeck

���When a reader falls in love with a book, it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced.��� - Salman Rushdie

���The public wants work which flatters its illusions.��� - Gustave Flaubert

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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. Whether you come from a big city like Dayton, Ohio, or a small town like Why, Arizona, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Writing Inspiration: Set a goal to succeed

You may feel the reason your writing time isn���t productive is because you don���t have a way to measure it. If so, consider setting a goal each day for writing ��� word count, percentage of a page, number of paragraphs, or some other way of showing success.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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. Whether you come from a big city like Dallas, Texas, or if you come from a small town Why, Arizona, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Colorado editing client publishes first book

A recent editing client of mine has published his first book, ���The Hardest Climb in the World.��� Thomas Q. Williams' memoir tells the story of an ambitious young rock climber who uses yoga to overcome his lack of talent. It involves descriptive travels of England, continental Europe and India. Everest legend Ed Webster reviewed as "a fantastic read and an unforgettable life journey." Williams is an AMGA Certified Top Rope Site Manager at Longs Peak Mountain Guides in Eldorado Springs, CO. The book can be ordered online.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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. Whether you come from an urban area like California's Orange County or a rural area like Loving County, Texas, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Inspiration: Profound aspirations
Don't miss this tip: Sound bite vs. sound byte
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Three ebook formatting tips, part IV

Writing Inspiration: Profound aspirations

Why do you write? To feel more fully alive? To give the world meaning and purpose? If your answer is mundane or egocentric ��� to make money, to achieve fame ��� ask if your writing can serve a deeper, more profound aspiration.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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. Whether you come from a big city like Los Angeles, California, or a small town like Hell, Michigan, I can provide that second eye.

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Editing tip: Learn some literary devices
Feeling left out? Accept vs. except
It's not all too much: Faint vs. feint

Find your way: Lose vs. loose

The grammar of a few writers gets all unraveled where these two words are concerned.

Lose is a verb that is the opposite of win; it also can be a synonym for ���miss.��� For example, Analysts predict the team from New York will lose to the one from Los Angeles or I���m afraid in a big city like Chicago I���ll lose my way.

Loose is an adjective that is the opposite of tight. To wit, One reason the New York team won���t win is because their players��� shoelaces are loose.

Will you now take a bet about getting these two words right the next time you use either one ��� or are you afraid you���ll lose (or is it loose?)?

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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. Whether you come from a big city like Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or a small town like Dry Prong, Louisiana, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Prompt: Take your story forward

Suffering from writer���s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine.

To that end, try this tip: Stories consist of many different bits: dialogue, the main character doing something, that character���s thought, another character doing something to the main character, a description of the setting, just to name only a few. Take a story you are stuck on and write a potential next line using each of these five approaches. Does one of them give you a good idea about how to take the story forward?

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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. Whether you come from a big city like Scranton, Pennsylvania, or a small town like Funk, Ohio, I can provide that second eye.

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Three ebook formatting tips, part V

Ebooks follow different formatting rules than books printed on paper. That���s because a book made of ink on paper is a different platform for presenting information than a book made of digital bits on an electronic screen. Even though the same content (your book) is being presented, the platforms will need to be handled differently, just as certainly different production methods are used for a play presented on stage and on a television screen.

Because of that, there are a number of things you might do when formatting a paperback but never would do when constructing an ebook. Following are three tips about what to differently.

Headings
Most ereaders will allow you to vary the text���s font size (aka point size) but within strict limits. The paperback might be able to handle a font size of 48 points, but the ereader won���t because ereaders and tablets have a limited screen size, so going too large means all of the letters of a word won���t fit on a single line. If varying the font size, do so only with the headers and limit yourself to just a couple of changes. Typically, 18 points is the largest (and accepted) size that looks good in an ebook. So the title of the book might be 18 points boldface. After that, the most important heading ��� say for a chapter ��� would be 15 points boldface. The next heading ��� say for a section of a chapter ��� would be 12 points boldface with the text 11 or 12 points regular font. Subsections of a chapter section might be the same size as the text but in italics.

Line spacing
Line spacing is the amount of space between lines and paragraphs. Fortunately, adjusting the spacing between lines is easy enough in a word processing program; simply go to the line and paragraph spacing menu and adjust. Usually 1 or 1.15 is good enough; any more, and the paragraphs will be difficult to read.

Long dash
Avoid using long dashes, which occurs when two short dashes are typed and after the space bar or enter key is hit magically converts into a single long dash (and typically is used with no spaces between the dash and the word before or the word after it). Long dashes typically make ebook text less readable. That���s before the ereader views the long dash and word before and the word after it as a single word. The result is odd spacing as most ereaders automatically distribute your text evenly between the margins. The solution is to use a single dash that expands in length when the enter key is hit and to leave a space between this dash and the word before and the word after it.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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. Whether you come from a big city like Baton Rouge, Louisiana, or a small town like Slap-Out, Alabama, I can provide that second eye.

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Five Great Quotations about Pleasure of Writing

���There is more pleasure to building castles in the air than on the ground.��� - Edward Gibbon

���Next to doing things that deserve to be written, nothing gets a man more credit, or gives him more pleasure than to write things that deserve to be read.��� - Lord Chesterfield

���Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you - as if you haven't been told a million times already - that writing is harder. Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching.��� - Harlan Ellison

���You dream of writing the Great American Novel, but not because of the status or money it will bring.��� - Martha Alderson

���Writing is the geometry of the soul.��� - Plato

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper 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. Whether you come from a big city like Allentown, Pennsylvania, or a small town like Chugwater, Wyoming, I can provide that second eye.

 

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