Editing – What is Editing and why must you do it? Part 1
Editing is an essential part of the writing process. None of us are perfect, so we need to edit. Editing improves the quality of writing. Editing also has various forms and stages. If you don't understand exactly what editing is then you won't get the best quality texts. Green Ink vs Red Ink when editing Types of Editing Not all of these, strictly speaking, are editing. They are all essential parts of the post production process for writing. Spell checking Development editing Copy editing Formatting Proofreading I've listed them in the order that I think that they need to be done when you've finished the first draft. I cycle through 1-3 until I am completely happy that I have a publishable product. Only at that point would I go through 4 & 5. Spell checking It should go without saying,…
The Nazi Hunters by Damien Lewis [Book Review]
The Nazi Hunters by Damien Lewis My rating: 4 of 5 stars A very well researched account, with a lot of detail on the SAS operations in the Vosges. While it does cover the post-war war crimes investigations most of the book is actually about the period leading to the war crimes. This is very interesting, and shows how they were operating and why so many SAS soldiers ended up in enemy hands. It also sort of explains the personal nature of the SAS War Crimes Unit's all consuming involvement in hunting down the perpetrators. The Nazi Hunters The defendants at the Nuremberg War Crime Trial in Nuremberg, Germany (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The Nazi Hunters is well researched, but it's wrapped in a little hyperbole about it being a previously untold and largely unknown story. During WW2 Hitler issued an…
Geas or How to tie your character in knots
In my fantasy world Skyss they use geas to control people. Not everyone is under a geas, but those in public office have it as place of their oath of allegiance. Similarly prisoners get a geas of public service compelling them to atone for their offences. Also I had my bad guy put one of my characters under a geas, just because it sort of made sense to the plot. What is a Geas? English:a design from the Book of Kells, fol. 29r. Traced outlines in black and white representing three intertwined dogs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) A geas (pronounced gesh) is a sort of unbreakable vow. It's a celtic thing that appears in Scots & Irish folklore and legends. It's a bit more than a curse, in the sense that there are positive benefits to accepting a geas. Being under…
Resolutions – Review of 2016’s Resolutions & Setting 2017’s
I seem to have started a tradition of posting my new year resolutions, so I'm going to continue this with my 2017 resolutions. But before you get the 2017 resolutions I think we should look at how well I've done on the 2016 resolutions. 2016 Resolutions There were three of these posted on 1 Jan 2016. Read 40 books, at least half on paper Write Lose weight 2016 Reading According to my Goodreads tracker I've read 47 books this year. I think that I might have missed one or two off, but it's certainly more than the original 40. Also I counted 26 that I read in hard copy. This was slightly easier because I've not been carrying my Kindle around with me. A lot of the reading has been at home or on holiday. Resolution exceeded! Writing I said I…
2016 Stats for Themself – a review of the blog
The Garden Bookshelf in my potting shed, which is the real life equivalent of Themself During 2016 my blogging was patchy, I had some spells of not blogging frequently (notably in November & December). However I managed to write 81 blog posts, of which 77 have been published. That's over 47,000 words of new blog posts, not to mention the pictures. Not all of my blog writing was for Themself, some of it went on Cold Steel and a little went on a new fork of my leadership and work-related material called Red Leader. I've not really had time to do much with Red Leader, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually. The two forks took some of the traffic away from Themself, but that gives this blog a little more focus, and it still has by far and away the most material of all…