Stuart Aken's Blog, page 200
February 10, 2016
Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 35.
We writers generally enjoy sharing ideas to improve our craft. Here are some ways to trim our writing. Readers will appreciate us removing these common redundancies and flabby expressions. Crisis situation: Since a crisis is a ‘situation’, we can do without the word here. e.g. Inaction by many governments renders climate change a crisis situation […]
February 9, 2016
Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 34.
Writers seem to enjoy sharing ideas to improve our craft. Here are some ways to trim our writing. Readers will appreciate us removing these common redundancies and flabby expressions. Could possibly: Could generally means ‘might’, ‘may’ etc., so ‘possibly’ is redundant. e.g. Your cat could possibly win the Fancy Cat contest. Try: Your cat could […]
February 7, 2016
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, Reviewed.
Who’d have thought a novel written from the point of view of a fourteen-year-old American chapel-going girl would find favour with an agnostic British male pensioner? This one did, and how! Lily is given an authentic voice by the writer so that there’s no danger of author intrusion in this tale of prejudice, faith, injustice […]
February 5, 2016
Creative Writing Competition Page Updated
Just the weekly reminder that the table has been updated on the website. In fact, whenever you visit the page, the table will be as up to date as it is on my home computer, as it updates each time I ‘save’ to the table.Filed under: Author, Creative Writer, Prizes Tagged: Author, Writers Resources
Navigating Nightmare Ecstasy, by The Junk Talk Poet, Reviewed.
I’m cautious about reviewing poetry: it’s an esoteric art form with echoes of the world of the contemporary arts. In other words, a field full of the pretentious attempting to bamboozle the unwary, and too often succeeding. It differs from the world of visual art in the amount of cash thrown at it, of course, […]
February 4, 2016
Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 33.
As a group, writers enjoy sharing ideas to improve our craft. Here are some ways to trim our writing. Readers will appreciate us removing these common redundancies and flabby expressions. Connect together: Is it possible to connect any other way? I don’t think so. e.g. Connect together the multiple sightings of UFOs and you get […]
February 3, 2016
Does Grammar Matter in Online Dating?
A mite early for the romantic occasion, but, for those seeking a partner online, this grammar advice may be timely. And, better to be prepared than to wait until the last minute! As a happily married man I have no need of such services, but this modern age seems to create lives with little time […]
February 2, 2016
Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 32
We writers tend to enjoy sharing ideas to improve our craft. Here are some ways to trim our writing. Readers will appreciate us removing these common redundancies and flabby expressions. Completely filled: When something has been filled, it is full, so ‘completely’ is redundant. e.g. She blew up the beach ball until it was completely […]
February 1, 2016
False Starts and a Solution?
How many times should you start a writing project? Odd question? Well, I normally have my books ready in my mind, that is, I know where I want to end up even if I don’t know the route, long before I place a single word on paper (for which, read ‘screen’, since I compose at […]
January 29, 2016
Name a Character in my New Novel.
Characters are fundamental to my stories, as readers will know. I’m in the initial stages of writing a new science fiction novel, set on Mars. For a while, I’ve been beset by a mysterious barrier to getting on with the story. Lots of preparation, research, and reading round essential topics of interest. And I have […]
