How much money do you get?
Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.
~ Jules Renard
Much too true. :(
Ten songs by which to plot
For many people, music and writing go together. I am not one of those, for reasons along the lines of I can’t listen to music with most headphones, so I never learned to write like that. However, some songs are very good for plotting, and these following songs are some of my favorites.
Note, I call these plotting songs, as they seem to have a story that just eludes the mind, and goes along with many characters and yet none of them. This is not my recommended writing playlist
Also, I’m trying to include songs without a video, so as not to influence your view of the song.
1) This is your life by Switchfoot
2) Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Greenday
3) Wake Me Up Inside by Evanescence
4) Sometimes by Skillet
5) Like a Lion by Reliant K (And no, I do not mean for this to be a Christmas song.)
6) Prodigal by Casting Crowns
7) My Last Breath by Evanescence
8) Dare you to Move by Switchfoot
9) Monster by Skillet
10) Let my Love Open the door by numerous people. I am familiar with the Audio Adrenaline version, but when trying to find a video, I found that Pete Townshend actually wrote it first. (Trust me, music is not my forte.) I can’t find any decent video for Audio Adrenaline so I’ll give both a Sondre Lerche version, which is pretty decent, and a Pete Townshend version. It’s your choice which to listen to.
Audio Adrenaline: which I apparently can’t put into the video either. :P
Pete Townshend:
Bonus Song! For all us writers out there.
Bonus: Paperback Writer by the Beatles
This is not a plotting song. It’s just a awesome song about writing. I hadn’t listened much to the Beatles until my dad began playing the Rock Hero version of it. Then I just almost laughed when I heard this song.
So, what are your favorite plotting songs? I’m always in the market for a few good ones.
Concerning living in space
The best one for me to know was about the space sickness, since I was having a character turn off the gravity in his ship. Wonder if he can still do that….?
Ease of the Write.
Some things concerning the challenge of writing a good book.
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. ~ Samuel Johnson
When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing. ~ Enrique Jardiel Poncela
Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that’s read by persons who move their lips when they’re reading to themselves. ~ Don Marquis
“You say what?”
Very, very few stories can get by without any quotes of characters. Some can’t. Some famous books have no quote marks at all, although characters talk. However, especially for the newer writer, it is probably better to know how to write quotes and since I ran into a writer who didn’t know how to use them well, I will go over them with you. (And really, these are very easy.)
1) Each speaker gets a new paragraph.
So, you got on the captian’s bad side again?” Max said.
Daria turned as Max approuched her and shrugged. “You weren’t suppose to hear about that.”
“I keep finding that you, my dear little sister, are keeping things from me that I am suppose to know. How am I to protect you if you don’t even tell me what you need protection from?”
“I don’t need protection from the captain, Max.”
2) If a person is speaking something that requires or improves with the use of two paragraphs, place beginning quotes at the beginning of both paragraphs, but no ending quotes until the person has finished speaking.
Example:
Father stared at me with hard, cold eyes. “For the last five generations, the Retinal family has been the capstone of society, the pillar in our community. Whenever anyone needed help, we knew who to go to. Whenever someone needed advice, we knew who to go to. Whenever someone needed parenting advice, or job advice, they knew who to go to. Whenever anyone needed a boast in their venture, they knew who to go to to get the community on board. That’s right; the Retinal family.
“And in the matter of two weeks, you, Samuel Markus Retinal, have ruined that reputation.”
“But–I didn’t do anything wrong!” I protested.
3) Punctuation goes inside the quote mark.
The punctuation mark, whether it be a period, question mark, or comma, always goes inside the quote marks. This is applicable even if it isn’t something a person says (in American English).
Correct:
“And have you sent in a requestion for this device here?”
“Yes, sir, I have. Twice now.”
Incorrect:
“And have you sent in a requestion for this device here”?
“Yes, sir, I have. Twice now”.
OR
“And have you sent in a requestion for this device here”
“Yes, sir, I have. Twice now”
4) If there is a dialog marker (such as he said), a comma goes where the period should be.
Correct:
“My life has just never been the same,” he said. “She was the world to me.”
Incorrect:
“My life has just never been the same.” He said. “She was the world to me.”
5) If there is a dialog marker, and the person is asking a question or using an exclamation, a question mark or exclamation mark stays.
Correct:
“Is there something I can do for you, sir?” he xaid.
Incorrect:
“Is there something I can do for you, sir.” He xaid.
OR
“Is there something I can do for you, sir,” he xaid.
6) You can put an action of the character at the beginning of the quotation to indicate who is speaking.
Example:
Captain Grant slammed his fist on the desk. “Stop trying to think, Holt! You’re worse at it than your brother.”
You don’t need….
Captain Grant slammed his fist on the desk and yelled. “Stop trying to think, Holt! You’re worse at it than your brother.”
7) Said is an invisible word.
When I first saw this, I almost couldn’t believe it. One of my books on writing told me to always use something stronger than said, such as yelled, shouted, whispered, whimpered, sighed. However, I look and other people are saying not to use any of those words, because said is one of the few invisible words in the English language. Our mind just skips over it, but tells us who is talking without us realizing it. (I have observed that myself.)
I’m not going to advocate one way or the other, but keep in mind when writing, that said is invisible. Once you add any adverbs or anything to it, it becomes visible.
That’s all I have now. Hope that helps point you in the right direction.
The Shadow Scholar
Today’s article is something more of interest I think in the relation that it has to writers and jobs that writers can get. After reading this article about how he writes papers for students, I find myself terribly wanting this job, if only for a year. Just think if all you’d be able to learn!
The Shadow Scholar — The man who writes your school papers.
The most interesting comment he makes:
After I’ve gathered my sources, I pull out usable quotes, cite them, and distribute them among the sections of the assignment. Over the years, I’ve refined ways of stretching papers. I can write a four-word sentence in 40 words. Just give me one phrase of quotable text, and I’ll produce two pages of ponderous explanation. I can say in 10 pages what most normal people could say in a paragraph.
How good is the product created by this process? That depends—on the day, my mood, how many other assignments I am working on. It also depends on the customer, his or her expectations, and the degree to which the completed work exceeds his or her abilities. I don’t ever edit my assignments. That way I get fewer customer requests to “dumb it down.” So some of my work is great. Some of it is not so great. Most of my clients do not have the wherewithal to tell the difference, which probably means that in most cases the work is better than what the student would have produced on his or her own. I’ve actually had customers thank me for being clever enough to insert typos. “Nice touch,” they’ll say.
Why else do you think that he doesn’t edit his assignments? Because he’d probably realize how much fluff he put into it, not to mention that he doesn’t want it to be too smart. But as legitimate writers who want our name on our product, we should keep in mind that we don’t want fluff and we don’t want to seem too dumb.
Some random possibilities.
I’m just throwing out some random things that you may find useful when writing.
Excessive yawning can be a symptom of a brain tumor.
A side effect of hypothyroidism in babies is they become very small and mentally retarded. (I’m not sure why I thought that to be of note, but I wrote it down when I heard it.)
When a plant exploded, what happened was that the water erupted from wherever it was stored, flash-vaporized into steam, and then reacted with the metal to cause the whole building to come down.
People with Aspergers have problems with overstimulation.
People’s short term memory lasts about thirty seconds. After that, it goes into the long term memory. We don’t always remember it because some memories become little deer trails in words and others become superhighways, based on how often we’ve accessed the information. But, theoretically, if someone could speed up their short term memory, could they then have a better memory?
Cultural crossovers almost always start with food. And therefore, food is the backbone of cultural diversity.
Calcium is the means by which all muscles in the body contract, from the finger muscles for typing to the heart. So if someone removes all calcium from a body, or inhibits all the calcium, that person dies. (I know, morbid. Sorry.)
The right word.
I might have posted this one before, but Mark Twain said a lot of very wise things, and it fits into the theme I’ve had this month in quotes involving editing, deleting, and the right word.
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. ~ Mark Twain
Commonly confused words
Words, either through typos or through not understand actual meanings, can often be mistake through spell check. Now, oftentimes we don’t know that we made a mistake, and usually it is easier to look it up in the dictionary. However, just in case you were wondering, this is my non-comprehensive list of all similar words and homophones that I could find.
Just in case you were wondering, I have a total of 452 words.
As a note, for those using safari or firefox, you can press either cmd+down arrow or spacebar to get to the bottom and tell me how impressed you are with me. :)
That being said, here is my list of commonly confused words.
- a lot / allot
- accent / ascent / assent
- accept / except
- acts / ax
- ad / add
- ado/adieu
- ads / adds / adz
- adverse / averse
- advice / advise
- affect / effect
- aide / aid
- ail / ale
- air / heir / err
- aisle / isle / I’ll
- all / awl
- all ready / already
- all together / altogether
- allowed / aloud
- allude / elude
- allusion / illusion
- already / all ready
- altar / alter
- angel / angle
- ant / aunt
- arc / ark
- are / our
- assay / essay
- assent / ascent
- assistance / assistants
- ate / eight
- aural / oral
- away / aweigh
- axil / axle
- aye / eye
- bail / bale
- bait / bate
- ball / bawl
- band / banned
- bard / barred
- bare / bear
- baron / barren
- base / bass
- bases / basis
- bazaar / bizarre
- be / bee
- beach / beech
- beat / beet
- beau / bow
- bell / belle
- berry / bury
- berth / birth
- billed / build
- bit / bite
- bite / byte
- blew / blue
- bloc / block
- boar / bore
- board / bored
- boarder / border
- bode / bowed
- bolder / boulder
- born / borne
- bough / bow
- bouillon / bullion
- boy / buoy
- braid/brayed
- braise/brays
- brake / break
- bread / bred
- breath / breathe / breadth
- brewed / brood
- brews / bruise
- bridle / bridal
- broach / brooch
- browse / brows
- bus/buss
- bussed/bust
- but / butt
- buy / by / bye
- cache / cash
- callous / callus
- cannon / canon
- canvas / canvass
- capital / capitol
- carat / carrot / caret / karat
- carol / carrel
- cast / caste
- cede / seed
- ceiling / sealing
- cell / sell
- cellar / seller
- censor / sensor
- cent / scent / sent
- cents / scents / sense
- cereal / serial
- cession / session
- chance / chants
- chased / chaste
- cheap / cheep
- chews / choose
- chic / sheik
- chilly / chili
- choir / quire
- choose / chose / choice
- choral / coral
- chord / cord
- chute / shoot
- cite / sight / site
- clause / claws
- click / clique
- close / clothes / cloze
- clothes / cloths
- coal / cole
- coarse / course
- colonel / kernel
- complement / compliment
- conscience / conscious
- coo / coup
- coop / coupe
- core / corps
- corps / corpse
- correspondence / correspondents
- council / counsel
- creak / creek
- crews / cruise
- cruel / crewel
- cue / queue
- currant / current
- curser / cursor
- cymbal / symbol
- dairy / diary
- dam / damn
- days / daze
- dear / deer
- definitely / defiantly
- defused / diffused
- descent / dissent
- dessert / desert
- device / devise
- dew / do / due
- die / dye
- disburse / disperse
- discreet / discrete
- do / dew / due
- doe / dough
- dominant / dominate
- done / dun
- draft / draught
- dual / duel
- dyeing / dying
- earn / urn
- eight / ate
- elicit / illicit
- eminent / imminent
- envelop / envelope
- everyday / every day
- ewe / you / yew
- eye / I
- facts / fax
- faint / feint
- fair / fare
- farther / further
- faun / fawn
- faze / phase
- feat / feet
- find / fined
- fir / fur
- fist / first
- flair / flare
- flair / flare
- flea / flee
- flex/flecks
- flew / flu / flue
- flocks / phlox
- flour / flower
- for / four / fore
- foreword / forward
- formally / formerly
- fort / forte
- forth / fourth
- foul / fowl
- friar / fryer
- fur / fir
- gait / gate
- gene / jean
- gild / guild
- gilt / guilt
- gnu / knew / new
- gored / gourd
- gorilla / guerrilla
- grayed/grade
- grease / Greece
- great / grate
- groan / grown
- guessed / guest
- hail / hale
- hair / hare
- hall / haul
- halve / have
- half / have
- hangar / hanger
- hart / heart
- hay / hey
- heal / heel / he’ll
- hear / here
- heard / herd
- heed / he’d
- hertz / hurts
- hew / hue / Hugh
- hi / high
- higher / hire
- him / hymn
- hoar / whore
- hoard / horde
- hoarse / horse
- hoes / hose
- hold / holed
- hole / whole
- holey / holy / wholly
- hostel / hostile
- hour / our
- human / humane
- idle / idol
- illicit / elicit
- in / inn
- insight / incite
- instance / instants
- intense / intents
- iron / ion
- its / it’s
- jail / gel / jell
- jam / jamb
- jeans / genes
- knap / nap
- knead / kneed / need
- knew / new
- knight / night
- knit / nit
- knot / not
- know / no
- know / now
- knows / nose
- laid / lade
- lain / lane
- later / latter
- lay / lei
- leach / leech
- lead / led
- leak / leek
- lean / lien
- leased / least
- lee / lea
- lessen / lesson
- levee / levy
- liar / lier / lyre
- lichen / liken
- lie / lye
- lieu / Lou
- lightning / lightening
- links / lynx
- load / lode
- loan / lone
- locks / lox
- loins / lions
- loop/loupe
- loose / lose
- loot / lute
- low / lo
- made / maid
- mail / male
- main / mane / Maine
- maize / maze
- male / mail
- mall / maul
- manner / manor
- mantel / mantle
- marry / merry / Mary
- marshal / martial
- massed / mast
- material / materiel
- maybe / may be
- meat / meet / mete
- medal / metal / mettle / meddle
- might / mite
- mince / mints
- mind / mined
- miner / minor
- missed / mist
- moan / mown
- mode / mowed
- moose / mousse
- moral / morale
- morn / mourn
- mourning / morning
- muscle / mussel
- must/mussed
- mustard / mustered
- naval / navel
- nay / neigh
- nix/nicks
- none / nun
- ode / owed
- oh / owe
- one / won
- or / ore / oar
- overdo / overdue
- overseas / oversees
- pail / pale
- pain / pane
- pair / pare / pear
- palate / palette / pallet
- passed / past
- patience / patients
- pause / paws
- pea / pee
- peace / piece
- peak / peek / pique
- peal / peel
- pear / pair
- pearl / purl
- pedal / peddle / petal
- peer / pier
- per / purr
- personal / personnel
- phrase/frays
- pie / pi
- pier / peer
- place/ plaice
- plain / plane
- plait / plate
- pleas / please
- plum / plumb
- pole / poll
- poor / pour / paw / pore
- praise/prays/preys
- pray / prey
- precede / proceed
- presence / presents
- prince / prints
- principal / principle
- profit / prophet
- quiet / quite
- rack / wrack
- rain / reign / rein
- raise / rays / raze
- rap / wrap
- rapped / rapt / wrapped
- rational / rationale
- raw / roar
- read / red
- read / reed
- real / reel
- reek / wreak
- respectfully / respectively
- rest / wrest
- retch / wretch
- reverend / reverent
- review / revue
- right / rite / write
- ring / wring
- road / rode / rowed
- roam / Rome
- roe / row
- role / roll
- root / route / rout
- rose / rows
- rote / wrote
- rough / ruff
- rung / wrung
- rye / wry
- sail / sale
- scared / scarred
- scene / seen
- scull / skull
- sea / see
- seam / seem
- seas / sees / seize
- sense / since
- serf / surf
- sew / so / sow
- shear / sheer
- shoe / shoo
- shone / shown
- shore / sure
- side / sighed
- sighs / size
- sight / site / cite
- slay / sleigh
- sleight / slight
- slew / slue / slough
- soar / sore
- soared / sword
- sole / soul
- some / sum
- son / sun
- staid / stayed
- stair / stare
- stake / steak
- stationary / stationery
- steal / steel
- step / steppe
- stile / style
- straight / strait
- suite / sweet
- summary / summery
- surge / serge
- tacks / tax
- tail / tale
- taught / taut
- tea / tee
- team / teem
- tear / tier
- tern / turn
- than / then
- their / there / they’re
- theirs / there’s
- therefore / therefor
- threw / through
- through / thorough / thought
- thrown / throne
- thyme / time
- tic / tick
- tide / tied
- to / too / two
- toad / towed
- toe / tow
- told / tolled
- track / tract
- trail / trial
- trussed / trust
- vain / vane / vein
- vale / veil
- vary / very
- vial / vile
- vice / vise
- wade / weighed
- wail / whale
- waist / waste
- wait / weight
- waive / wave
- wale / whale / wail
- want / wont
- ware / wear / where
- way / weigh / whey
- ways / weighs
- we / wee
- we’d / weed
- we’ll / wheel
- we’ve / weave
- weak / week
- weal / wheel
- wear / where
- weather / whether / wether
- wet / whet
- where / were
- which / witch
- while / wile
- whine / wine
- whirled/world
- whirred/word
- whose / who’s
- won / wan
- wood / would
- worn/warn
- write / right
- yoke / yolk
- yore / your / you’re
- you’ll / yole / yule
So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed.
Abigail
always a writer 