Tag Archives: writing

Writers Beware

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Allen

Writers, beware. Be mindful of what you read  The best way to write like the great masters of our craft is to read those masters, often — preferably out loud. Ideally, read them to groups of Actual People who are … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

An Author’s Statement

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Allen

In the last decade I’ve been writing mostly “fiction.” By that I mean not “non-fiction.” But genres are tricky, aren’t they? To write well, I advocate giving up all genres, and ignoring all the rules and admonitions (like this one), … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Swahili

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Allen

According to Google Translate, working from the English, the phrase “Unapaswa kula mavi ya tembo!” translates from Swahili into “You should eat elephant dung.” My Ugandan and Kenyan friends won’t tell me if that’s correct, so I’m not sure if … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Enhanced Text — Helpful or Annoying?

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Allen

What I’m referring to by “enhanced text” is the practice of highlighting text in some way for the purpose of clarifying its meaning. It’s something I tend to do in blogs and emails, but I try not to do it … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Clarification #409 – slash and backslash

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Allen

There is an old punctuation mark (some prefer to call it a symbol) popularly known as the slash. Its most frequent uses are to separate alternatives (this/that) or to signify a simple fraction (1/2). Sometimes it’s used to represent a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Descent of English

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Allen

Once in a while, against my better judgement, I get upset by the mis-use of English—not just in conversation, where perfection is rarely expected or appropriate, but in carefully scripted presentations, news copy, narrations and voice-overs, articles, books, etc. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Samuel Beckett vs. The Audience

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Allen

I just considered (after decades of reading and thinking about Godot) that Vladimir’s nickname could be read “Did I?” – this seems sufficiently appropriate for the “mental” one of the pair that I wonder if Beckett might have intended that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Writing Tools – Adobe InDesign

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Allen

Adobe InDesign probably shouldn’t be thought of as a writing tool, but for some of us it’s very much a tool for writers. InDesign provides facilities for very powerful and flexible publication development in many areas, certainly far beyond books … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment