One contradiction I discovered in The Elements of Style is in regards to the first item the book covers, possessive singular of nouns.
The book mentions that regardless what the noun’s last consonant is, you should always complete it with ’s. For example:
James’s friend
Burns’s poems
the witch’s malice
Joe’s book
I remember in high school, long after this book was initially published that I was taught that the above was wrong and that if the final consonant was an s then the only an apostrophe should be added. For example:
James’ friend
Burns’ poems
the witch’s malice
Joe’s book
Have times changed? A note to everyone that I live in Canada so I’m not sure of the English writing rules could be different here.
Something I have been thinking about lately are character strengths and weaknesses. Everyone who has gone through the path of learning to write has come across those character sheets. Well I am not referring to that.
Every character has a weakness depending on the situation he is in. If a character is shackled to a wall, his weakness is that he can’t magically open the shackles. If you plot that weakness against an antigonist wielding a whip who’s threatening to use it, you have the making of tension. (more…)
I find that the best non-fiction books to read are the ones that make you go “Ah, that makes sense.” The reason I bring this up is because a couple of published authors recommended the book. Supposedly, Stephen King recommends it as well.
The book I’m referring to is, The Elements of Style. It’s a great 100 page book that cost less than $10.00 US and is worth so much more. It makes references to a lot of words that are often used incorrectly and also how to do without them.
The book also covers punctuation such as my favorite, the semi-colon, the colon, the dash, etc. It fits in my back pocket and I carry it with me to read on the bus.
Everyone who wants to be a writer, in fact anyone who writes emails could benefit from this book. It’s great to read from beginning to end and also a great reference guide.
I found a great six sentence flash fiction site that accepts submissions. Check out Six Sentence. I’ve read some of the post and some are really poetic. A lot of it reads like PostSecret. Makes you wonder what people are thinking.
Today, I was contemplating starting a new on-going story blog. Something where I’d be writing a novelette or a novel on an on-going basis. Not forever, but until its conclusion.
This deadline thing is working out great and I think I have improved a lot in the past month completing the first short story and the one I am working on now. By writing an on-going blog story, I’d have to make sure that my story line was thought out well ahead so that I didn’t get myself in trouble.
It would have to be something engaging, that would keep readers coming back.
I love Stephen King, not only because he is such a good writer, but the author talks well. This is one of the few authors that people care about, that I would love to meet.
Below is an interview with George Stroumboulopoulos of CBC’s The Hour.
I had a really hard time coming up with an ending to this second short story. Now that I have finally found one, I’m ending up rewriting the rest of the story.
The synopsis is pretty much the same, but I had to change a few things around to make the story fit with the ending. I also had to rewrite a good chunck of the first scene in order to be able to write a cachy first line/paragraph.
So far things are going well. Hopefully I can get it done midnight Saturday.
The English language may be the most functional language in the world, but is it ever confusing sometimes. It took me a while to figure them all out. But now I have it straightened out.
