L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 53

Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire is now Available on Amazon!

The third part ofThe Unconventional Heroes Series is finally available on Amazon!Join Timmy, Katie, and the rest of the gang for morecrazy fun, riotous action, and magical adventure in Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire. When there’s a pardon up for grabs, you can bet that Timmy and the others aren’t going to let anyone stand in their way, even if they have to smash an army, sink a fleet, or go up against the most powerful empire in the world.

You can getTwo Necromancers, a Dragon, and...

What Kind Of Typos Do You Make?

I’ve spent the past couple of weeks proofreading something, and I’ve noticed that almost all of my typos are sound-based. In other words, even though I don’t say what I’m typing, the typos I make are usually the kind where I exchange one word for another word that sounds the same when spoken aloud.

For example:

‘Know’ instead of ‘no’ ‘Through’ instead of‘threw’

What about you guys? What sort of typos do you usually make?

My Suicide Squad Review

I’ll start off by getting the most important thing out of the way: I enjoyed the film.

It’s not a perfect film by any means, but I found it to be thoroughly enjoyable. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, and the mood afterward in the cinemafrom the other people watching seemed to be very positive. I would certainly rate it as more enjoyable than Batman v Superman and Man of Steel.

Now, let’s take a look at what worked and what didn’t.

If you’re expecting a highly sophisticated film structure, yo...

Suicide Squad

The first reviews for Suicide Squad are in, and it’s not entirely pleasant reading if you’re a Warner Bros executive. What really interests me, however, is the divergence betweenthe fan response and the critical response. To be sure, not all fans think the movie is great, but fans, as a whole, seem to regard the movie in a more positive light that the critics. I can recall a similar phenomenon for Batman v Superman.

As always, the real testwill be how the movie does at the box office. Regardl...

The Importance of First Principles in Debating

In debating, first principles are the bedrock upon which an argument rests. They are the assumptions that define not only the arguments of the opponent but also the sorts of evidence they will use to support those arguments. More than that, their first principles define how they view the subject matter itself.

An attack against the evidence used by the opponent to support their case can be deflected with sufficient verbal gymnastics. A badly structured argument can be disguised through skilfu...

How Long Should A Chapter Be?

One of the trickier decisions that writers face is deciding how long each chapter in a story should be. To be frank, chapter length is quite flexible. There are no ironclad rules. However, there several methods that seem to be more common than others:

Start a new chapter with each new point of view Start a new chapter with each new scene Start a chapter with each new major plot point Start a new chapter with each new story arc

One way of deciding how long each chapter should be is to simply...

Pokemon Go…

I live in an area that is close to four or five Pokestops. Recently, I’ve found a new hobby. No, it’s no Pokemon Go. It’s seeing if I can spot all the people playing Pokemon Go.

It’s actually quite fun.

Today, more than half the people I encountered near the Pokestops were playing Pokemon Go. It was kind of funny watching all of them try to act like they weren’t playing when, really, all of the people near them were also playing.

Voting in Australia is compulsory, but I do wonder if other cou...

Class Sizes

How many students are in a class can have a powerful impact on how effective a teacher can be. Students each have their own level of ability and optimum way of learning. Having too many students in a class can make it far more difficult to teach any of them well.

Consider a class in which half of the students learn best in a more structured environment and half the students learn best in an unstructured environment. Even a simple division like this means a large increase in the amount of work...

Poke It With A Stick! vs Why Would You Do That?

Have you ever felt the urge to poke something with a stick when you really, really know that you shouldn’t? Perhaps it was one of your siblings. Perhaps it was a cat or a dog. For your sake, I hope it wasn’t a tiger. If you’ve ever felt this urge, then you can probably empathise with the type of character that I’ve come to think of as Poke It With A Stick! (PIWAS) characters.

PIWAS characters are the kind of people who simply cannot let sleeping dogs lie. If there is a button to push, they’ll...

The Unconventional Heroes Series Part 3: Another Update

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about the next part ofThe Unconventional Heroes Series. For those of you who haven’t read the series, it’s a humorous fantasy about a necromancer named Timmy who is trying to earn his way to a pardon by taking on some tricky missions that only someone with his particular set of skills can handle. If you like my sense of humour, I think you’ll definitely enjoy it.

The first part of the series,Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Elf, came out in Ju...