Stuart Aken's Blog, page 307

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Amend or emend

 'Little Driffield Pond'Amend or emend: 'To amend is to change; to emend is to correct' is sometimes considered the difference between these two words, but the reality is that, in some cases, they are interchangeable.Amend: verb – to correct, reform or convert;  to free something from fault; to correct errors in the text of a document etc.; repair or make good something broken or damaged, restore; heal or cure a sick person or a disease; make better, improve; reform yourself; abandon faults and evil ways. Emend: verb – to alter a text to remove errors and corruptions; to make free from faults, correct, rectify.Generally speaking, 'amend' is the catchall word and 'emend' is used in reference to the correction of a manuscript or spoken statement.
'Failure to amend you bad habits will result in disaster for you and those who count themselves your friends.'
'Andrew took pains to be accurate as he used his journalistic skills to emend the statement due to be released by the head of the Party.'

Writing: 2700 Words and a Dozen Characters

After yesterday's self-imposed challenge, I awoke to a dead phone line and therefore no internet connection this morning. This allowed me the freedom to do 1300 words before breakfast. Once I'd taken Valerie to her bowls match just up the road, I returned and did another 1400 words. Because two of my main characters are now entering lands that have not been previously visited in the books, I needed some new characters. I start this with pictures, then names, and then write a bio file for each. I managed to select the necessary pictures (I have a database of about 1,000 or so people shots culled from the web over the years) then chose the name (I have a file of about 150 made-up names for the fantasy - these are all spares, so I chose from that. Haven't yet got round to doing the bios, but will start that tomorrow, since it's a Bank Holiday here.
The internet connection returned around 17;30 so I've been dealing with all that correspondence. Now I'm off to spend the rest of the evening with my wife.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Ear

Image via Wikipedia
Ear: noun - organ of hearing in all animals; an imagined organ of hearing of the mind or heart; an object like the external ear in appearance, shape, or position; handle of a drinking vessel, bottle; projection on a tool or piece of machinery, serving as support or handle.
'Prince Charles is often unfairly mocked because his ears stick out, as if this is something over which he has control.'

Writing: 1500 Words Again

The burning question is this: will I manage to get book 2 of the epic fantasy finished as a first draft before I go on holiday for 2 weeks? It would be a shame to have a break of that length before the whole story is down on paper, but it would be excellent to have the break once the story is complete in its first form. So, I'll have to consistently turn out enough words to complete book 2 by 6 July. That's 39 days to write enough words to take me to a proposed total of 200,000. I have around 120,000 at present. 80,000 in 39 days is a little over 2000 a day. Looks like I'll have to really knuckle down to this.
Today, in spite of my current bout of fatigue, I managed 1500. Tomorrow I'll have to start on the target and allow other things to slide a little. Less time on the groups and posts, more time on the story. But I'll continue with the Daily Word Spot and any author interviews, of course. I'll also do a short post on the WIP to keep you informed of progress.
Wish me luck. I'm going to need it!

Featuring The Indie Book Blogger

The Indie Book Blogger is run by Scott Poe. Here are his words about how the project started and what he does there.
My wife bought me a Kindle for this past Christmas and she probably still regrets it. I had played with the kindle app on my phone for a few months before getting the real thing, but that had been mainly mainstream authors. I had just begun to look into lesser known authors mainly because of the $0.99 price tag that a lot of their books had on Amazon. I started playing around in the forums and finding out a little bit more about the indie author community. In January I started my own thread on the Amazon forums, Looking to read and review indie fantasy books  that was basically welcoming authors to pitch their books to me and if I liked it I would write a review. I started to actually interact with a few authors on a regular basis and really relished the sense of community that everyone enjoys. I learned how much of a struggle it is to get any attention at all paid to your books when there are thousands of authors targeting the relatively small readership that enjoys indie stories. I started my blog to bring a little bit more attention to the authors by posting my reviews, including links to their pages and other works, and doing interviews. I truly enjoyed getting to know a lot of wonderful people and feeling like I was helping a little bit. My blog began in late January and I have gotten about 8000 hits so far. I have done several interviews with some great authors and recently have started hosting guest blogs to help authors market to a little bit of a new audience. I have also posted 57 reviews on Amazon since January and I try to read 10-15 books a month. There have been a few authors that have given me exclusive coupons or sneak peeks at their upcoming work and I feel extremely honored by their generosity. I really love being a part of such a great community even though I have no thoughts of ever writing anything of my own.
You can find the Indie Book Blogger here: http://indiebookblogger.blogspot.com/
Thank you, Scott, for a valuable service to both writers and readers.
If other book bloggers would like to spread the word about their sites here on my blog, please contact me and we'll see what we can do together. There's a handy 'Contact me' link at the top of the page, just under the welcome message.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Applicability

Image via Wikipedia
Applicability: noun – relevance of a matter or issue because it is applicable to the subject at hand
'I can't see the applicability of your argument to the discussion at hand: I mean, in what way is freedom of speech related to how a woman styles her hair?'There is also a literary meaning to this word: J.R.R. Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings is credited with coining the term when asked once too often whether his epic fantasy was an allegory for World War II. He said it wasn't, but could see how readers might apply such an interpretation to the text without losing anything.  

Missing Followers

If anyone visiting is trying to 'Follow' the blog and can't use the Networked Blogs link, please be patient. The problem of the missing Followers has been reported to Google and should be fixed soon, I hope.

Writing: 2000 Words, Against the Odds.

Unusually, I didn't start writing the epic fantasy today until after lunch. I had a latish start as I was still feeling unwell. But, moping gets you nowhere, so I sat at the keyboard and, to my delight and surprise, turned out another 2000 words. Pleased with what I've done, as well.
Later, and with many rest periods in between, I managed to update the 'Writing Contests' page and write and post a piece about entering such competitions.
So, late in the evening, and still feeling no better physically, but heaps better spiritually, I'm going to watch some entertaining TV with my wife, who has just returned from a successful bowls match, and imbibe some of the wine I received for my birthday.

Should I Enter Writing Contests?

It seems some writers are frightened of entering competitions. There are a number of reasons for this: some believe their ideas will be stolen by the organisers, some think the 'competition' will be too strong, some believe results are determined by who you know rather than what you write, and some worry that, without a theme, they'll never be able to second guess the judges' preferences.In reply, I say: no organiser is going to steal your ideas (in which there is no copyright anyway), you can't compete if you don't enter and you'll never know if you don't try, this may happen in one contest in a thousand but the odds are against it, trying to decide what the judges will like is a waste of time; they're looking for a strong voice with something new to say, that's all.Entry fees are sometimes a worry for some. I know of one USA website, which is very strong on writing contest yet advises writers not to enter if there is an entry fee. Rubbish! How are the organisers going to raise the cash for some of the substantial prizes some of them offer, if they make no charge? My only rule on this is that I would never enter a contest where the top prize was not at least 20 times the value of the entry fee. But you can set your own level. One other point: never, ever enter a contest that demands you sign over copyright to the organisers: no reputable organisation would make such a demand. It's fine if the organisers wish to produce an anthology for sale and want to include some Highly Commended entries with the prize-winners to make up the numbers. Look on that as a chance to have your work published and to include it on your writer's CV.Writing contests are a great way of honing your writing skills and often make an excellent home for those stories or poems you haven't been able to place anywhere else, no matter how good they are.As far as trying to decide what the judge will like is concerned: this is a waste of time. I've come across judges who are romance specialists in their own writing but who look for anything but romance as prize winners. The only thing you can do is accept that contest writing is always going to be something of a lottery. Just turn in your very best writing; make it fresh and alive and ensure you have a real story to tell, not simply an anecdote wrapped up as a story. Remember; beginning, middle, end. There's a reason for this rule: it's been proven to work.And, finally, many of the competitions will attract the interest of editors and publishers. Don't you want a leg-up into that magazine or publishing house? If you treat competitions as opportunities and positive challenges rather than as something to avoid or fear, you might just surprise yourself.I've won more money from contest prizes than I have from stories published in magazines. Which reminds me; time to get some more entries in. Now, if you're inspired, click on the 'Writing Contests' tab above and see if anything amongst the links takes your fancy. I look forward to competing with you for the cash and the kudos. Good luck to all those who try, I say.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Daft

Horse Fair LaneDaft: adjective - meek, humble, mild; lacking in intelligence, silly, stupid, reckless, wild.
'I tell you, Donald, that politician is as daft as they come; I mean, expecting us to believe a word he says is as daft as a vicar standing stark naked in the pulpit and expounding on the virtues of modesty.'