I was into my sixties when I began writing. Most successful writers took half a lifetime to hone their craft. Us silver scribblers have less time to smooth out those wrinkles in our writing that identify an apprentice wordsmith. This blog is about my own writing wrinkles. (You may prefer to call them laughter-lines but … Continue reading Laughter Lines
Apostrophic Error’s.
The apostrophe indicates that a letter is missing – as in that’s, can’t, who’s (who is), there’s (there is), could’ve, fish'n'chips… One school of thought claims that all apostrophes indicate missing letters, and this alone should inform our use of them."But what about possessives?" I hear you protest (those of you who are still awake). Merriam-Webster puts … Continue reading Apostrophic Error’s.
A Money-saving Alternative to Acrobat.
Here's another second-hand tip Photo by maitree rimthong on Pexels.com I picked up this tip from Nicholas Rossis at http://nicholasrossis.me/2019/01/21/pdf-element-an-alternative-to-adobe-acrobat-dc/ I haven’t been following his blog for very long but I’m finding it an informative site that covers a wide range of topics. This particular post points to an affordable alternative to Adobe Acrobat called … Continue reading A Money-saving Alternative to Acrobat.
Staying Safe Online
I've been offline – last week we lost our internet from Friday until mid-Saturday, as our overloaded telegraph pole was replaced, and Things Went Wrong in the transfer. This was followed by a busy family weekend, and today I’ve been catching up with a weekend offline. One blog post, in particular, was a wake-up call, … Continue reading Staying Safe Online
Wordcounting, and other edits
I like editing. Back in the days when most of my writing output was instruction leaflets for library resources, I enjoyed re-organising paragraphs and sections to hold back information until the student needed it, rather than pre-loading with explanations they didn't need yet and wouldn’t understand. Now I've broadened my writing scope, I still enjoy … Continue reading Wordcounting, and other edits
The New WordPress Editor:
Introduction & Basic Functions (with Screenshots & Step-By-Step Instructions)
Maybe I move in the wrong circles, but all the posts I’ve seen so far about the new editor have detailed how to turn it off, so I found this advice on retrospectivlily.com encouraging as well as enlightening.
Hi, friends. Happy New Year! 🙂 Speaking of things that are new…
A new editor has come to WordPress, and while using it isn’t mandatory for now, we’ll all (presumably) be forced to switch at some point. [It’s actually a few months old but new to me.]
Anticipating that, I have been using the new editor for a couple weeks. At first, I hated it, because who likes change? Now that I’m used to it, I like it more than the old one (mostly).
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
The Foundational Difference Between the Old & New Editor
The old editor works like the average text document, such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. A blog post is essentially one text document filled with various components. All the options for formatting are arranged across the top. If you want to write a list, insert a blockquote, make a…
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Christmas Presence
This blog post contains no advice, offers or ‘value’ (a key concept in the blog guru’s toolkit ) ...merely a wish that your Christmas is all that you hope it to be. Feel free to stop reading there if you’re busy (and, aren’t we all?). I’d intended to post a couple of paragraphs but, like … Continue reading Christmas Presence
Christmas Starts Here
’Twas the night before Christmas when Santa’s new elf, in the vast, silent workshop, sat all by herself. She’d been fetching and carrying, sent to and fro making tea, running errands – the least of the low. And she’d mucked out the stables, not noticing that daft old Rudolph was munching her new elven … Continue reading Christmas Starts Here
Switching on the imagination
I sometimes feel that, as a fledgling writer, my advice on here is rather like the blind leading the blind (excuse cliche ). With that in mind, I share these thoughts from our writing group’s blog.
A spectacular Fenland Sunrise One of the most beautiful sunrises I have witnessed
Reading is a means of switching on the imagination. The pictures drawn in the mind, the voices heard and the drama that unfolds can be as real to a reader as anything encountered in life. In many ways it is a better reality, one that is acceptable on the reader’s terms, limited by what they want to take out of it or see within it.
As writers we grope around for the switch that lights the imagination of our readers. The words though must first paint pictures in our own minds, we are after all the first reader. Hopefully these pictures will be seen in the mind’s eye of our readers. We know they will see different pictures to ours, pictures on their terms. The voices too they hear will have different accents to the ones in…
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Leaving Us
‘What’s this on the carpet? Digger’s thrown up. Go on girl – in the garden.’ ‘What’s she been eating?’ my husband asks from the sofa. As if I’d know. ‘This is clear bile, but there’s a patch of something brown as well.’ I go to get water and paper roll from the kitchen, where I find … Continue reading Leaving Us
Danny Boy
As previously reported, I entered the recent 24-hour short story contest run by Angela Hoy's Writer's Weekly. com (https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/ ) – just to see if I could. Thinking up stories on the hop isn't my strong point. As promised in my earlier post, the story is reproduced below. On the date of the contest, (around 6pm … Continue reading Danny Boy
