Stuart Aken's Blog, page 208
September 12, 2015
Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 05.
Most writers seem to enjoy sharing ideas to improve our craft. So, let’s chop the fat from our writing. Make it lean and trim. Readers will thank us.
In this series, I’ll look at some common redundancies.
But, reading this post and nodding wisely in agreement won’t work. We need to stay alert to those extraneous words that sneak into text, or they’ll intrude when we’re not looking. Including this as part of our editing process should catch most offenders.
Added bonus:
This is not as definite...
September 11, 2015
The King of Fools, by M.R. Mathias, Reviewed.
Fantasy embraces many styles, subjects and themes. This short is a great example of what can be done when a writer has imagination. It’s a piece with charm. Amusing, insightful, and caustic, it pokes fun at the idea of leaders.
There’s some repetition, and one or two small editing faults, but these are easily forgiven as the story takes the reader through events via the main character, the fool of the title. There is no background here, but the story carries its world well and the characters...
Running for #ME/CFS no. 54
Part of our walk. This is the penultimate post on the run. I’ve completed the programmed exercise for this week. Tuesday (my usual Wednesday session was programmed for Tuesday this week) required a 30-minute easy walk. So, Valerie and I took a lengthy walk amongst the hills of the forest. Lovely to watch the squirrels, songbirds and buzzards. Today was just a 10-minute easy walk, which was simply accomplished with a walk down to the village shop. Again, we exceeded the requirements and went t...
September 9, 2015
Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 04.
Many writers enjoy sharing ideas that might improve our craft. So, let’s chop the fat from our writing. Make it lean and trim. Readers will thank us.
In this series, I’ll look at some common redundancies.
But, reading this and nodding wisely in agreement won’t do. We need to stay alert to those extraneous words that sneak into text, or they’ll reappear. Including this aspect in our editing process should catch most offenders.
Advance warning:
Oh dear: can we warn in retrospect? I don’t think...
International Literacy Day
This infographic courtesy of Grammarly https://www.grammarly.com/plagiarism-checker
Filed under: Uncategorized
September 8, 2015
Men Vs Women Writers Infographic
An interesting infographic here. Of course, we’re all individuals and each of us will recognise various aspects of this survey as either true or false for us. But averages are always of interest.
Originally posted on SaylingAway:
Thought you might enjoy this infographic on men vs women writers, while I’m living it up in Maine! Please note this graphic was kindly provided by:https://www.grammarly.com/grammar-check
Filed under: Uncategorized
September 7, 2015
Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 03.
Many writers welcome the sharing of ideas that might improve our craft. So, let’s chop the fat from our writing. Make it lean and trim. Readers will thank us.
In this series, I’ll look at some common redundancies and other questionable writing devices.
But, reading this and nodding wisely in agreement won’t do. We need to stay alert to those extraneous words that sneak into text, or they’ll reappear. Including this aspect in our editing process should catch most offenders.
Advance planning:
...September 6, 2015
Running for ME/CFS no. 53
The original has a little pocket full of slips with the website details for people to take with them. One week today at this time I’ll be recovering, hopefully with a local pint and some tasty food, after running the 13.1 miles of the Great North Run along the roads from Newcastle Upon Tyne to the seafront at South Shields.
I’ve done all the training. Run a good many miles along local roads and through the hilly forest above my house. I’ve had physio for my back, taken advice about proper sup...
Nine, by Drew Wagar, Reviewed.
This is a science fiction short based on the Oolite space trading game. No, I’d never heard of it, either. But you don’t need to be familiar with this created Ooniverse to understand and enjoy this clever tale.
It’s a multi-layered piece, with many themes, in spite of its brevity. But it can also be easily enjoyed as a simple story. The characters are all drawn with care and enough personality to make them real people rather than either caricatures or stereotypes.
The story moves at a good p...
September 5, 2015
The Man Whom the Trees Loved, by Algernon Blackwood, Reviewed.
Modern readers may find this short novel too wordy, which is a shame, as it’s a well-told story. But it is undeniably written in the style of its age, with a good deal of description and not a great amount of action.
The central characters are all very fully drawn and their interactions are beautifully set out on the page. This is a strange tale, founded in the paranormal genre, but bordering on horror and definitely laced with subtle menace. The God’s eye point of view won’t be to everyone’...
