Finished my story for the month yesterday. I had a lot of fun writing it and it showed in the story. Most people who read it thought it hilarious.
Also almost finished on the background of my novel. This one is quite good, I think I have mentioned in some earlier post. Added a few more twists to make it better. It is a little tough to write, but if written properly, I think this one might get published.
I submitted the short story for critiquing in my writing group and got only two critiques. It is my understanding that people will not critique anything they find too bad or in which they find nothing to critique. I hope that this story falls in the second category, as it surely does not fall in the first.
Now I am seriously looking for short story markets to publish my story in. It is more difficult than I imagined. There are so many sites, but I have to go through their prior publications to decide whether my story fits or not. Not found anything fruitful till now. My first story, which I submitted to a generic website, has not even been read as of yet. So waiting for it. I don't mind even if it's rejected. Just let me know soon enough!
A bit of a meandering post, but there are quite a few things going on.
Thursday, January 28
Monday, January 25
I hate commas
Almost as much as I hate my net connection. Only difference is that in case of commas, at least I can do something.
The problem with commas is that if you look into the rules of commas, its a veritable grammar class. Now look at the following.
Commas have to be added to separate the apposition from the sentence. What in the effing heck is an apposition. It is 'A grammatical relation between a word and a noun phrase that follows'. Got it? Neither did I. In simple terms, it is a phrase which can be used in place of the noun.
Then the next thingamajig is that it is used to separate the dependent clause and the independent clause. You may or may not use it to separate two dependent clauses. e.g. you should put in in front of a but or an although, but an and may not require it. I didn't say the word conjunction.
Which brings me to my favorite term- comma splicing. You cannot use commas to separate two clauses when there is no conjunction linking them. This causes a comma to splice. giggle..giggle..giggle.. of course I don't pronounce it as splice, I pronounce it as thplithe.. Try it, it's much more fun this way. In such sentences where there is no if or but, you use a semicolon.
I am still a bit unsure about commas inside quotes, but it seems that when you don't end a quote with a question mark or an apostrophe, a comma is a must. However, if the quote ends the sentence, then it can be a full stop.
Finally, my outlook is that one should put in a comma wherever it will reduce or remove confusion. For other places, if you are in doubt, do not put a comma.
One of the better links is comma uwc. Have a look at it, it will answer some questions.
The problem with commas is that if you look into the rules of commas, its a veritable grammar class. Now look at the following.
Commas have to be added to separate the apposition from the sentence. What in the effing heck is an apposition. It is 'A grammatical relation between a word and a noun phrase that follows'. Got it? Neither did I. In simple terms, it is a phrase which can be used in place of the noun.
Then the next thingamajig is that it is used to separate the dependent clause and the independent clause. You may or may not use it to separate two dependent clauses. e.g. you should put in in front of a but or an although, but an and may not require it. I didn't say the word conjunction.
Which brings me to my favorite term- comma splicing. You cannot use commas to separate two clauses when there is no conjunction linking them. This causes a comma to splice. giggle..giggle..giggle.. of course I don't pronounce it as splice, I pronounce it as thplithe.. Try it, it's much more fun this way. In such sentences where there is no if or but, you use a semicolon.
I am still a bit unsure about commas inside quotes, but it seems that when you don't end a quote with a question mark or an apostrophe, a comma is a must. However, if the quote ends the sentence, then it can be a full stop.
Finally, my outlook is that one should put in a comma wherever it will reduce or remove confusion. For other places, if you are in doubt, do not put a comma.
One of the better links is comma uwc. Have a look at it, it will answer some questions.
Tuesday, January 19
Should I join a course
When I started playing cricket, I was bad at it. I am still not great at it, but when I stopped playing, I was playing at the best of my ability. What I have noticed about myself is that I need some guidance in the initial phase of anything I do. I cant get the ball rolling by myself, so someone needs to do it for me. Once I start though, I am limited only by my own abilities. For cricket, my guidance came from a P.G.Wodehouse book. Mike and Psmith, I think it was. He wrote about bowling that some character decided that bowling was about pace, break and accuracy. If you have all three, you will be a dangerous bowler. I made more improvement in my bowling in the six months after reading this book, than I had made for more than ten years before.
The same thing is true for anything else. I suck at table tennis as I haven't received any guidance at it.
So should I join a course for writing. Based on the above, I should. But the problem is not about guidance, it's about correct guidance. I have received more guidance for math than any person under the sun, but I still cant differentiate to save my life. I am an engineer. That is a big thing! And now, I am scared of it. So what if I joined a course, but I don't get the kind of help I need from it?
The same thing is true for anything else. I suck at table tennis as I haven't received any guidance at it.
So should I join a course for writing. Based on the above, I should. But the problem is not about guidance, it's about correct guidance. I have received more guidance for math than any person under the sun, but I still cant differentiate to save my life. I am an engineer. That is a big thing! And now, I am scared of it. So what if I joined a course, but I don't get the kind of help I need from it?
My first epiphany
Last night, during dinner, I realized one very important thing about writing.
Great writing is about great characters. You may be the best shower, (as in show, not tell, not the bathing kind), the best grammarian, the best with word play, but if your characters are not good, your writing will fall flat!
You need to create characters that people can relate with, empathize with. Your readers should get worried if the character gets into trouble. The moods of the character should reflect in the moods of the reader. Then and then only, will your writing be good writing.
Not that this is new information, but I got so involved in correcting my adverbs and activating my passives, that I could have stopped paying attention to this basic factor.
I can always correct my adverbs and correct my tenses, but if my characters are not good enough, I wont have to!
Great writing is about great characters. You may be the best shower, (as in show, not tell, not the bathing kind), the best grammarian, the best with word play, but if your characters are not good, your writing will fall flat!
You need to create characters that people can relate with, empathize with. Your readers should get worried if the character gets into trouble. The moods of the character should reflect in the moods of the reader. Then and then only, will your writing be good writing.
Not that this is new information, but I got so involved in correcting my adverbs and activating my passives, that I could have stopped paying attention to this basic factor.
I can always correct my adverbs and correct my tenses, but if my characters are not good enough, I wont have to!
Wednesday, January 13
Mistakes from a long time ago
My first blog this year. I looked at my first story which I wrote about an year and a half back and found quite a surfeit of mistakes in it. If I list them down,
1. The story is about 12 pages long. I can snip enough of it to reduce it to less than ten pages.
2. It has more adverbs than a manly man has hair. I found one sentence which had three adverbs in it.
3. A plethora of exclamation marks! I seem to have some sort of hidden love for them. Every third sentence seemed to end with an exclamation mark.
4. Overusage of actually, seemingly, and basically. Basically all of these words can actually be removed without changing the sentence in any way seemingly.
5. There are descriptions which can be improved, but I think that will change the style of the story and make the narration inconsistent. So dunno whether that would be an improvement. (I was going to type actually between would and be. I need to see whether I use actually too much even while talking.)
Overall, the story can use an overhaul. What I am pleased about is that I can understand what went wrong and in ways that went wrong.
Note to myself: You should keep all stories you write on the backburner for at least a month before going in for a final draft. You are more likely to see additional mistakes then.
Second note to myself: If you end up without writing a book, that will not be because you don't have the talent or the wherewithal to do so, but because you lack the desire and the intention to get off your stinking butt and write.
Third note to myself: The effing bastards on TV are not important. They have already made it big in life, while you are still sucking apples.
1. The story is about 12 pages long. I can snip enough of it to reduce it to less than ten pages.
2. It has more adverbs than a manly man has hair. I found one sentence which had three adverbs in it.
3. A plethora of exclamation marks! I seem to have some sort of hidden love for them. Every third sentence seemed to end with an exclamation mark.
4. Overusage of actually, seemingly, and basically. Basically all of these words can actually be removed without changing the sentence in any way seemingly.
5. There are descriptions which can be improved, but I think that will change the style of the story and make the narration inconsistent. So dunno whether that would be an improvement. (I was going to type actually between would and be. I need to see whether I use actually too much even while talking.)
Overall, the story can use an overhaul. What I am pleased about is that I can understand what went wrong and in ways that went wrong.
Note to myself: You should keep all stories you write on the backburner for at least a month before going in for a final draft. You are more likely to see additional mistakes then.
Second note to myself: If you end up without writing a book, that will not be because you don't have the talent or the wherewithal to do so, but because you lack the desire and the intention to get off your stinking butt and write.
Third note to myself: The effing bastards on TV are not important. They have already made it big in life, while you are still sucking apples.
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