Icy Sedgwick's Blog, page 54
May 26, 2016
Meet the Grey Lady of the Assembly Rooms
Lots of locations around the UK boast a Grey Lady or a White Lady. Such spectres are usually attached to sad tales of loss, and a lot of them are nameless. Newcastle upon Tyne is no different. There are tales of Grey or White Ladies in the neighbouring county of Northumberland, but the Grey Lady in...
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May 16, 2016
What can you do with unfinished writing projects?
If you’re reading this then chances are, you have dozens of unfinished writing projects cluttering up your drawers or your hard drive. Does that mean you’re less of a writer? God no. Fragments can actually be invaluable to your writing life, and this week we’re going to take a look at how and why that...
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May 12, 2016
Are there any seahorses in folklore?
Seahorses are elusive creatures, almost like a mythological animal made flesh. I decided to further look into them after showing a friend around Newcastle’s city centre. After all, the city’s crest features two seahorses, green with gold manes, fins and tails. They were added to the shield back in 1575 as a reminder that Newcastle...
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May 9, 2016
How do you actually use writing advice?
Writing advice is pretty much everywhere in these glorious days of Google. Even before the advent of the internet, you could guarantee being able to find manuals that would provide you with all manner of writing advice. But given it’s now available in books, on blogs, on podcasts and even Youtube, what do you actually...
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May 5, 2016
The Lambton Worm & Penshaw Monument
Many parts of the UK have tales related to dragons, or giant worms. County Durham is no exception, and boasts the tale of the Lambton Worm. There are varying versions of the story, but I’m discussing the first version I heard, which links the Worm with Penshaw Hill, near Houghton-le-Spring. Other versions associate it with...
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May 2, 2016
How do you make dialogue more natural?
Do you look at your writing and wish you knew more ways to make the dialogue more natural? Or do you read what you’ve written and wish that you could tell characters apart so that you didn’t have to rely so heavily on dialogue tags? This week’s Brain to Page post aims to give you...
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April 28, 2016
Should you disturb a house elf at work?
Most people have heard the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker in some form. The original story appeared in the German version of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, but it was translated into English in 1884. There are different versions of the story. In one, a poor shoemaker gives away his last pair of shoes to...
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April 25, 2016
How to use your dialogue to show, not tell
That legendary director and master storyteller Alfred Hitchcock is often quoted as saying “Drama is life with the dull bits cut out”. Believe it or not, but the same applies to your dialogue. In books, you don’t often get those small and polite but relatively pointless exchanges of “Hi, how are you?” “I’m okay, how...
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April 18, 2016
Use Personality Quirks to Make Characters Pop
Think of someone you know. What’s the first thing that springs to mind? Chances are, it’s not what they do for a living. It’s probably not where they live or what colour their hair is. It’s probably a personality quirk. Something that makes them…them. Those little quirks, or foibles, are what takes a character from flat...
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