Submitted by Suraya Dewing on Friday 29 August 2014
One of the students I meet with at Kristin School asked if using adverbs was a good practice.
It was a good question because I frequently see writing that is heavy in its use of adverbs. As I read, I watch the energy seep away with each appearance.
This has undoubtedly led to Stephen King’s proclamation ‘the road to hell is paved with adverbs . . . .’
Submitted by Suraya Dewing on Thursday 21 August 2014
Isn’t it embarrassing when you discover that what you preach isn’t what you do. Recently I reviewed our communications. Many were written before we had the Style Guide™. However, there really is no excuse for sending out letters that do not reflect the excellence in style we say others should be aiming to achieve.
Every blog I write goes through the Style Guide and almost every other communication does also. In fact, I re-wrote copy on our website when I discovered it did not land in the grid.
Submitted by Suraya Dewing on Thursday 14 August 2014
How do you put the ‘wow’ factor into what you write? I have discovered that the Style Guide™ is fantastic for doing this. I have watched how writing takes on a warmer, more approachable tone as the writing is shifted from one part of the grid to another.
So let’s take a look at a simple paragraph.
“My hands reached across the desk and gripped the pen so hard it slipped and hit the ink well. Ink spilled everywhere. All of a sudden a blot of blue spread out in various hues of colour. The desk sat in the middle of the room and was very badly stained.”
Submitted by Suraya Dewing on Friday 8 August 2014
Imagination is deceptive: It looks like nothing’s happening
‘The doubters said, “Man cannot fly.” The doers said, “Maybe, but we’ll try.” And finally soared in the morning glow. While non-believers watched from below.’ Bruce Lee
Submitted by Suraya Dewing on Thursday 31 July 2014
At the beginning of 1980, I placed a bet with a workmate that before the turn of the century we would have world peace. I was so confident of this we placed a significant amount of money on the bet. I’m not a gambling person, but that was how confident I felt back then.
Submitted by Lrennes on Tuesday 29 July 2014
Having gained a degree of celebrity and notoriety, Kim Dotcom has managed to slip his way out (for now at least) of an extradition to the United States, he's now managed to slither his way into our political system. But why he's been put under such legal scrutiny in the first place is, I think, worth noting.
Submitted by Lrennes on Thursday 24 July 2014
Conspiracy theories tend to live and thrive in the gaps between certainties. Pearl Harbour, Area 51, 9/11, the Titanic, the Moon landing, the Illuminati and the New World Order, the Bermuda Triangle, JFK, Elvis Presley and Princess Diana, you name it, if there is an ounce of mystery there, there’s a conspiracy theory to fill the gap. So, as cringe-invoking as it is, we can only imagine how conspiracy theorists must have been excitedly drumming their contriving little fingers together with glee when Malaysian airlines flight MH370 seemed to essentially vanish into thin air.
Submitted by Suraya Dewing on Wednesday 23 July 2014
This blog is in honour of my mother-in-law who recently passed away.
Submitted by Suraya Dewing on Tuesday 15 July 2014
Being a girl is a risky business.
Nothing has brought this home to me more emphatically than the recent revelations of Rolf Harris’ assaults on young girls, which started in the 1960s.
Two things have shocked me about the Rolf Harris story. The first is that his assault on young girls was so blatant and public. The second is that it never stopped and that he is one of many people who have abused their position of power and celebrity.
Submitted by Suraya Dewing on Thursday 3 July 2014
Characters step into your imagination, they take up residence and before you know it you are telling their stories. You pick the moment or moments in their lives you are going to tell and you create the setting, situation and outcome. That is the magic of storytelling. You occupy someone else’s life and you tell their story and in a strange way some of that story becomes your own.
The master storyteller shares the journey in such a way that the reader feels as if there is no one else making the journey – just the reader and the writer.
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