Today is the Winter Solstice, the darkest point of the year. With lockdown, I have started to feel a little trapped by the restrictions, but at least I can look forward to the days filling with more light. With the emergence of the new variant of the virus there will be lots to challenge us in the first few months of 2021. A bit more sunlight will at least help my mood when facing them.
BN9 - Back to The Blog
I’m increasingly disenchanted with social media, so I am back to the blog again. 2020 has been a tough year for me, and I will be making some changes in 2021. It feels a good time to update the blog and share my progress on the route.
BN8 - Steering the Craft - A 21st Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story
After successfully completing a six month short-fiction course last year, I am working on improving my writing in 2020. This is one of the books that I have used to kickstart this learning journey.
Le Guin has rewritten this seminal guide to improving your writing craft. Each chapter has an example and then exercises to help you practice what you have learnt. It’s a wonderful book and I would recommend it if you want to improve the quality of your work. She gives the reader recommendations on how to use the book as an individual or within a shared environment such as a writers group.
The book is broken down into ten chapters that cover the fundamentals of good writing:
The Sound of Your Writing
Punctuation and Grammar
Sentence Length and Complex Syntax
Repetition
Adjectives and Adverbs
Verbs: Person and Tense
Point of View and Voice
Changing Point of View
Indirect Narration, or What Tells
Crowding and Leaping