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*Lemon* A continuing series of extracts from my commonplace book *Lemon*




"Folk magic is all about replicating the experience with things that look similar - maybe you could try oscillating an olive?"



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From the work groupchat. IDK how we even got onto the subject...
One oscillating Olive, as requested:

Dave Ryan Author Icon - Top marks *Delight* !
*Lemon* A continuing series of extracts from my commonplace book *Lemon*




"… There is one special piece of magic that trumps all that [other writing advice] and we're going to tell you right now:

Sit your arse on a chair and put words on a page."



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From the irreverent but excellent newsletter I subscribe to from the UK-based "Writers' HQ."
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*Lemon* A continuing series of extracts from my commonplace book *Lemon*




This particular blunder is known as "deus ex machina", which is French for "Are you fucking kidding me?"



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Someone on here recommended How Not to Write A Novel, by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman. If this quote tickles you, then I would highly recommend the book!!
I stopped reading a book recently; it was very early on when I ran into this sentence:

She had not to be recidivist to her own inclination.

... And I had no idea what it meant, so I didn't get past that point!
  •   3 comments
Seriously, that kind of pretentious writing is annoying. I probably wouldn't finish that book either.
I'm glad to hear you weren't recidivist to your own inclination to persist with this unprofitable literary exercise and instead terminated with due haste your interaction with this circumlocutory and unedifying tract.*


* I think I got that usage the right way round. *Bigsmile*
It's a shame, because it was on a topic I'm really interested in (the history of Zimbabwe), and there aren't that many books on it. So I just flipped to the Bibliography section and wrote down a bunch of further reading in the hope it would be better!
Damn, had a busy weekend and I didn't have time to do my weekly timeslot for reviewing here - and I found I really missed it! *HeartBroken*
After many years of leaving it languishing, I've updated my bio:

citruspocket Author Icon
Fridays are my days off novel editing and a chance to flick through my other WIPs, do a bit of light revision, or perhaps even find something that sparks off something new! Anyway, the result today is this very short comedic piece -

 
STATIC
500 Things Open in new Window. (E)
Reflecting on how I might be interpreted in generations to come is ... concerning.
#2342385 by citruspocket Author IconMail Icon


Reviews welcome, if you're in that sort of mood.
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*Lemon* A continuing series of extracts from my commonplace book *Lemon*



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Onslaught
Camel
Blenheim
Tartan
Wolf
Thunderbolt
Blackcat
Doom
Cobra



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Can anyone guess which category of things I saw quite unexpectedly at lunchtime the other day?
Damn, I lost all my streaks after a few busy IRL days (going into the office, and also dealing with the toilet seat breaking *rofl*

I'm going into London today, though, and time on trains has given me time to catch up, and I even wrote a bit of flash fiction on my first train inspired by a picture I snapped last week, which turned out unexpectedly maudlin... I did enjoy not knowing where that piece was going to go, though!
*Lemon* A continuing series of extracts from my commonplace book *Lemon*




"My job is to write a book increasingly less badly over time."
- Mohsin Hamid


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I relate to this one, hard!

*Lemon* A continuing series of extracts from my commonplace book *Lemon*



Fell into a nice mini rabbit hole this morning - I wanted a synonym for ad-hoc (because it's dreadfully formal and old-fashioned in my opinion, although in quite regular use at my place of work which shows you how old-fashioned it is...) and although I didn't use it, jury-rigged also came up as another term in the same area - so I read a bit about how that is a naval term for fixing up boats with only the materials you have on board.

The "similar terms" section was also interesting and led me to find out that bodging is a) British slang - friends from other countries, have you heard of it???? and b) Originally from woodturning, when "chair-bodgering" was to use green unseasoned wood to make chair legs and similar.

Oh, and the similar German term is apparently Trick 17 which sounds really cool to me but I don't quite understand how it's used or where it comes from!
  •   1 comment
Thanks for sharing this!
I love words and everything about them, and I love learning new ones and discovering their origins.
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*Lemon* A continuing series of extracts from my commonplace book *Lemon*


"To write good description, therefore, you have to love the world, to gaze at it as at a lover's face, forgetful of yourself immersed."

- Adam Foulds, after T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets"

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I'm gradually reading through a Guardian "masterclass" on writing a novel which I printed out years ago - there are a lot of good nuggets in there!
Happy WDC Anniversary to you *Smile* *Heartp* *Pencil*
Thank you so much *Heart*
Thank you for the reviews, notes and emails about my WDC anniversary - you truly are a lovely bunch *HeartT* Hopefully I'll stick around for the next 14 years!
Happy WDC anniversary.
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