L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 56

The Unconventional Heroes Series Part 3: Another Update

It’s been just over a month since my last update about the third part ofThe Unconventional Heroes Series, which features Timmy the necromancer and his precocious apprentice, Katie,so I thought I’d let you know what’s happened since then.

A month ago, I finished the first draft (the skeleton draft). That draftweighed in at ~73,000 words. However, that draft was really quite bare bones. It contained all of the essentialelements of the plot, characters, ideas,and settings, but not much else. It...

About The Oxford Comma

The use of the Oxford comma is something that continues to be debated. Technically, it is not necessary although many advocate its usage for reasons of clarity.

Consider the following two sentences, the first without the Oxford comma and the second with it:

I talked about my parents, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. I talked about my parents, Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton.

In the first sentence, the lack of an Oxford comma (the comma preceding‘and’) means the sentence is potentially am...

Family Battle

I was in the car today talking with my mother when I discovered something shocking.

My mother does not support the use of the Oxford comma.

I no longer know what to believe in.

Finding Your Groove

One of the most important lessons that I’ve learned over the years is that there are going to be times when you feel particularly inspired and creative. You’ll feel like you’re firing on all cylinders, like everything is just falling into place. It can be quite a surreal experience. It can seemed less like you’re writing your story and more like your story is writing itself.

Obviously, your first priority when you find yourself in that sort of mental state is to take advantage of the situatio...

How Children See Things…

Children see things differently from adults. They are filled with a sense of wonder, amazement… and pure evil. Here are some examples:

Plush Toys

Adults: Oh, wow, this plush toy has a hard plastic nose. I hope my children don’t accidentally hurt themselves with it. Children: Those chumps! The next time the kids in my class start swinging their plush toys around, I’m going to win. All it takes is one good hit to the eye with the plastic nose to achieve victory!

Rakes

Adults: Wow… raking lea...

Improving Your Vocabulary By Reading Different Genres

As a writer, one of the things I’m always trying to do is to improve my vocabulary. Having a large vocabulary is like having a tool box with a lot of different tools in it. Sure, you won’t need all of the tools all of the time, but there are going to be times when you’re really glad that you have that one tool that just works perfectly for what you have in mind.

If you want to improve your vocabulary, then one of the best ways to do that is to read more. However, stories from different genres...

How The Average Can Lie

One of the things that researchers are often interested in is understanding what a‘typical’ or‘normal’ score on a particular test or measure looks like. For example, a lecturer might be curious to know how a typical student performs on the end of semester exam. Alternatively, a biologist might want to know how many offspring a particular species animal tends to have.

The most common measure of what constitutes a‘typical’ or‘normal’ score on a test or measure is the average or mean. To calcula...

The Unconventional Heroes Series Part 3: An 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 pardonby taking on some tricky missions that only someone with hisparticular 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, aBureaucrat, and an Elf, came out in July...

Skeleton Drafts

Today, I’d like to talk about drafts. Drafts are an integral part of writing because it is almost impossible to write things exactly the way you want them the first time around. Expressing your thoughts in a manner that is both clear and also engaging is not easy, and it generally requires some level of revision. This applies not only to things like essays but also to things like poems and novels.

What makes things a little bit tricky is that there are different types of drafts, and these dif...

Some Thoughts on Exam Technique

As someone who has been on both sides of the examination coin (both taking exams and setting them), I thought I would share some tips that you might find helpful the next time you take an exam.

Guessing is not a Crime (Most of the Time)

Many exams will include multiple choice questions (MCQs). These questions typically have either four or five possible answers to choose from. Unless there is a penalty for getting a question wrong (i.e., unless you lose marks when you get a question wrong)...