Style of Writing

Poetry, haiku, fiction, non-fiction and all the sub-genres of those styles.  Read everything you can.  Haunt your local library, bookstores, grocery shelves and drugstore books. The more you read, the more you will know what you like.  Start writing.  If line paper is too much to write on or blank screens too intimidating, then writing on the backs of envelopes, on drawing paper, on those pesky notepads we keep lists on for shopping.  Writing is just another way of organizing lists.  Writing connects your hands with two important pieces...your guts and your head.

Yours in Style

Then Again and Until Then

Then again, checking the web is one of the best ways to find out if other people are interested in what you are thinking.  Google is an amazing research aide.  And your mind and common sense are your best friends in the search for your next best job.  Take photos of pictures you like, take photos of snails, snow, ice formations, cats, dogs, birds and store them on your computer as a slide show.  That way the computer remembers them and will flash them up on the screen whenever you are ... waiting ... for the next thing to do.

Until then
peace

Moreover

Passive voice plagues me in real life too.  I talk using active verbs but in every other aspect of my life -- from finding jobs or making critical decisions about money -- I go absolutely passive.  That's not a solution.  It is a mess.  Does anyone else have that problem?  Perhaps we all need a 12 step support group to haul ourselves out of the habit of going limp.....

Comments anyone?

Just asking and putting passive voice issues out there

I have a real problem with passive voice writing.  Ghost writing (perhaps with real ghosts) would be easier.  Passive voice (for those who want to know) is using non-active verbs.  If there is anyone out there who can help me, just write in the comment section.  I struggle with this every time I write.  Maybe other people do too but I don't know them (or you) and would like an idea of how you fixed the problem.  One of the best books I have read about a writer with writers' block (and including ghosts) is "Golems of Gotham" by Thane Rosenbaum.  Terrific, funny, dark book with perhaps (in my own opinion) a need for editing out some of the thumping on a theme to make sure we 'get' what the author means.  But I let it slide since Rosenbaum is a lawyer and humanist and his training is making sure his audience understands what he is saying (even if he is repeating himself).  But other than that it is a terrific book.  Really wonderful.

At least he avoids my passive voice issue and for that alone is worth reading.

Until then, peace

Snow storms and Serenity

Snow-Maggedon, no....Winter cyclone is a better description.    We have 3 feet on the ground now and tonight we should be getting another 20 inches of the white stuff.  Plus we are getting winds with the current storm.  Oh ouch.  I love snow -- just not this much.  Here is a snapshot of my last few days:  Clean off my car, Dig out my space, help neighbors dig through the ice berg the snow plow left that blocked all of our cars and go to bed and then wake up to do it all over again the next day.  Good exercise but wow.

Hang in there all you snow shovellers and meanwhile read up on these winter cyclones from The Weather Channel.  I promise you they are pretty interesting.

Hunting winter storms: NOAA dispatches aircraft used for ... - RestoreJan 19, 2010 ... Listen live to Atlanta's breaking news, severe weather, ... to help forecast winter cyclones - Kirk Mellish's Weather Commentary .... Join Channel 2 Action News anchors John Pruitt and Monica Pearson at 5, 6, and 11pm. ...


wsbradio.com/...weather.../hunting-winter-storms-noaa-dis.html - Cached -

Cheap Thrills Not Available this Week for Teens

This week was a stretch for all of us.  I think is was worse for drivers since there were no roads cleared enough to drive on.

The Fine Art of ...

Planting ... it is finally Spring this year. No more teasing, no more confusion. Cool nights, warm days, good basking weather. Good growing weather. Much as I envy my neighbors who rush around mulching and putting in annuals, I don't have a green thumb. I plant words instead and watch them grow into ideas and then into something more when I write. I plot, plant, rake the weeds, water and fertilize them with links to what others have written on similar topics. At the moment, on paper, I have a pretty good garden.

Ok, Words

Ok, folks, truth time. The reason I am a bug about words is that I misuse them intentionally too. In a sense of whimsy I reassign meanings to established words. My favorite was turning the word loom into luminous (or perhaps loominous) to describe a woman who was much taller than me at 8 years old. I don't think my mom ever got over that useage. But creative as I am with words, I am uncomfortable with words like "surge" and others of that ilk.

Transcendentalists

Here is a link on transcendentalist poets just so we are all on the same page. I know I hate it when people use terms I am not familiar with and so here you go.
http://www.transcendentalists.com/what.htm

Murine -- Is not Always Eyewash

I just found a nifty new word...murine. After some fiddling about with the google questions -- I use it like the magic 8 ball -- I found that murine is actually a subcatagory of house mouse or wood rat used in lab tests. Here is a link to murine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murinae
And here is a picture of a cute mouse -- I am a fan of mice actually even though I have cats. I like this little fellow and feel bad that rats, mice and other animals are used for laboratory purposes. It seems a shame to kill to test something out. So I am rooting for whatever we can do to find alternative ways to test products before they go onto the market. In my own little way, I try to buy items that clearly state they were not tested on animals. But that phrase 'not tested on animals' in and of itself troubles me. Humans are the only animal that refuses to recognize themselves as animals. And as all the self help books say, until you admit to yourself what you are you cannot find either help or serenity.