Rob Bignell's Blog, page 294

Writing Inspiration: Avoid the Distractions

One cause of distractions is having them in your line of sight. Setting aside the laundry is difficult to do when there���s a basket full of clothes before you. Find a place that you can write each day where whatever distracts you isn���t visible.

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 Miami, Florida, or a small town like Normal, Illinois, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Appeal to sense of sound when writing

When writing descriptions, one of the five senses that you can appeal to is sound.

We���re surrounded all day by sounds, though most of it is tuned out. When we do hear something out of the ordinary ��� an alarm, the crunch of metal when cars collide, the annoying repetition of a water drip ��� it stands out.

Likewise, most authors use sound in the same way in their stories: the sensation is often implied but only used at a moment when it can most contribute to raising dramatic tension or add to a description of an important object in the story.

Matthew Johnson does this in his short story ���Lagos��� (which appears in the Aug. 2008 Asimov���s Science Fiction). The story, about a Third World worker named Safrat who vacuums other people���s houses by telepresence, never describes the sound of the vacuuming in the opening paragraphs, but as we learn about a day in Safrat���s life, the reader almost can hear the changing whirs as the type of vacuuming performed changes. It isn���t until the 13th paragraph arrives that the sense of sound is directly appealed to, when Safrat laughs when her brother tells her in her sleep ��� in the language of the wealthy people whose houses she vacuums ��� about taking a vacation. The sound points toward the poignant irony of such a dream. As the story nears its climax, the number of times the sense of sound is used increases.

One way to insert sound into your story is through the use of onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia occurs when words are spelled like the sound they make, such as buzz, whoosh, beep. Again, such sounds shouldn���t be inserted into a description for the sake of having sound in your story but instead to generate dramatic tension or to show some important characteristic of an object.

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 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or a small town like Boring, Oregon, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing inspiration: Alter the world

Rather than consume something, when writing we make something. The very act of writing then is a choice in how we���ll live and treat our planet. In what other ways does your simple decision to write alter the world around you?

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 Syracuse, New York, or a small town like Hicks, Alabama, I can provide that second eye.

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Don't miss this tip: Sound bite vs. sound byte

Do you remember a day before computers were everywhere? Then you probably know which of the following two spellings ��� sound bite or sound byte ��� is correct.

Sound bite is right. The term was first used in 1980 to describe quick, clever statements, often made by politicians, that could be played in a few seconds on the evening news. In those days when computers weren���t commonplace, the term played off the notion that viewers��� preference for such news was like taking a bite of a meal rather than fully consuming it.

Sound byte does make sense in that a byte is a small unit of information in computing. Perhaps one day this spelling will overshadow the original and become commonplace.

For the time being, though, when writing just remember this snippet: Use i not y.

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 Colorado Springs, Colorado, or a small town like Big Chimney, West Virginia, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Prompt: Make the impossible happen

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: ���Impossible��� is merely a state of mind. The only reason something is ���impossible��� is because we lack the knowledge or experience of how to do it (Remember that a little more than a century ago, human flight was deemed ���impossible.���). As a writer, you are tasked with explaining why something is possible (How does warp drive work? How were some Jews smuggled out of wartime Nazi Germany?). List five things that are widely considered ���impossible��� then write about how they could occur.

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 Charleston, West Virginia, or a small town like Frog Eye, Alabama, I can provide that second eye.

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Recent editing client releases his first novel

A recent editing client of mine has released his first novel. Jay Chalnick���s ���Finding Buddha��� tells the tale of five-year-old Hubert ���Bode��� Price, who is too young to recognize his life���s purpose. But one thing is certain: People have been searching for him since the day he was born. Narrated by his father, ���Finding Buddha��� follows Bode on a cross-country road trip complete with adventurous hikes, encounters with Mexican drug lords, and intimate conversations about love, loss, life, death, and rebirth. As Bode struggles to remember the mother he never knew, his father discovers what she left him���a boy in her likeness, who meditates, quotes philosophers, and practices yoga and Reiki healing. A story of enlightenment for both father and son, Finding Buddha ends with a discovery that will change Bode���s life forever. The book is available in paperback and a variety of ebook formats.

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 Fort Worth, Texas, or a small town like Tightwad, Missouri, I can provide that second eye.

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Five Great Quotations about Rules of Writing

���There is no satisfactory explanation of style, no infallible guide to good writing, no assurance that a person who thinks clearly will be able to write clearly, no key that unlocks the door, no inflexible rules by which the young writer may steer his course. He will often find himself steering by stars that are disturbingly in motion.��� - E. B. White

���There is no method except to be very intelligent.��� - T. S. Eliot

���Occasionally, there arises a writing situation where you see an alternative to what you are doing, a mad, wild gamble of a way for handling something, which may leave you looking stupid, ridiculous or brilliant - you just don't know which. You can play it safe there, too, and proceed along the route you'd mapped out for yourself. Or you can trust your personal demon who delivered that crazy idea in the first place. Trust your demon.��� - Roger Zelazny

���There are three rules for writing. Unfortunately, no one can agree what they are.��� - Somerset Maugham

���There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.��� - Ernest Hemingway

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 Bakersfield, California, or a small town like Mosquitoville, Vermont, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Writing Inspiration: Finding time to write

Do you dream of becoming a writer but always have an excuse for not actually writing? If you���re excuse is ���There���s no time,��� think again. For the next week, keep track of times during the day that you were free to think about a story or to sketch a scene in your notepad. How many minutes did this add up to over an entire day?

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 Atlanta, Georgia, or a small town like Atlanta, Idaho, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Add hashtags to your social media posts

Among the best ways to increase your social media visibility is to use hashtags. This involves adding a pound sign (aka as a crosshatch or a tic-tac-toe sign) before a keyword in your post or adding the sign/keyword at the end it.

For example, two hashtags are used in this tweet:

Suffering from #writersblock? Self-doubt about your talent? http://www.amazon.com/dp/0989672379/r... #writing

Just about every major social media site allows hashtags (sometimes simply referred to as tags) in their posts.

Hashtags offer a way for others on that social media site to search for keywords. Suppose while on Twitter someone wants to locate tweets about writers block. That can be done by typing #writersblock into the search space or by clicking on that hashtag if used in another post. So long as you use the hashtag, your post will show up in their search. This increases the chances of someone purchasing your book, heading to your blog, or retweeting/sharing you. In this sense, hashtags are a way to better reach your target audience.

Hashtags do work. Twitter states that posts with hashtags are 55 percent more likely to be retweeted than those without. Most social media report that posts with hashtags receive more hits, more shares, and more comments.

Before using hashtags, you���ll need to determine which ones work best for your book. That usually can be done typing ���top hashtags for (topic of your book)��� into a search engine. You���ll probably come across an article or blog entry in which someone (usually another author!) has already done the research for you and made such a list. Barring that, simply scan through the mini-profiles of your followers/friends and list what hashtags they���re using and that best apply to your tweets/posts.

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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Writing inspiration: After-action review

Experience alone doesn���t make a great teacher. A good learner also observes how he���s handling the experience, processes it afterward, and incorporates lessons from it into his life.

Given this, think about one of your recent writing sessions. What writing difficulties did you face during it (Maybe it was coming up with a plot twist or writing pithy dialogue.)? How did you handle them? What did you learn from the way you handled those difficulties? How might you address those difficulties differently the next time you write?

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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