How to Salvage A Manuscript

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author Catherine Castle, guest blogging at SMP Authors, How to Salvage a Manuscript, writing tips

 

I’m over at the SMP author site today with some tips on How To Salvage A Manuscript.

During a recent forage through an old Writer’s Encyclopedia for blog ideas, I came across an entry entitled “How to Salvage a Manuscript.” Great topic for a writer’s tip blog, I thought. Here’s what the book recommended, and I quote.

“A manuscript that has been returned to an author wrinkled or crumpled may be salvaged from the time and expense of retyping by ironing the pages.”

Not exactly what I had in mind when I thought about salvaging a manuscript. My mind was running more along the lines of fixing the story, not limp pages. I did get a good laugh, though, because eons ago, when you sent in paper submissions, I had some work come back looking worse for the wear. Funny thing is, I would have never thought about ironing the pages.

The article goes on to state that you should not use a steam iron on the pages, and you should iron the back side of the paper to keep the ink from smearing. Apparently, ironing will also take out paper clips crinkles. Who knew?

Upon further reflection, I recalled seeing an episode from Downton Abbey where one of the housemaids ironed Lord Grantham’s London Times so the pages would be crisp for the master of the house. Heaven forbid that they should give the lord of the manor limp newsprint! I thought the action odd, but my husband seemed to feel ironing the paper made perfect sense. Must be a male thing.

Anyway, I digress from the original theme of this post—salvaging a manuscript, sans the iron. When you think there’s no hope left for the story you’re working on consider trying the following. Click here to read the rest of the post

Homonym Hubbub

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Author Catherine Castle's blog, guest blogging at SMP Authors, hereronyms, homographs, homonyms, homophones, words that sound the same but mean something different, writing humor

I’m ranting about Homonyms over at the Soul Mate Publishing Author’s blog today. To see that post click here. Otherwise, park yourself on the internet parkway for a few minutes and enjoy a complimentary homonym sidebar and a tale filled with homonym gems right here on my blog.

In case you don’t know what a homonym is, here’s a brief description.

Homonyms are two or more words that share the same spelling, or the same pronunciation, or both, but have different meanings.

There are three sets of homonyms that people get confused about. They are:

• Homophones, which are words that sound alike and have different meanings. Some examples are aloud and allowed, fair and fare, loot and lute, maid and made, write and right, do, dew and due.
• Heteronyms, which are words that have the same spelling as another word but with a different pronunciation and meaning, such as: lead (the mineral) and lead (to guide), does (the verb) and does (two doe), wound (an injury) and wound (to wrap), produce (the verb) and produce (what you get from a farm), desert (to abandon) and desert (arid region) tear (to rip) and tear (cry), minute ( 60 seconds) and minute (tiny), moped (sad) and moped (a motorcycle).
• Homographs, which are homonyms that share the same spelling, but not the same meanings. You can park the car in the park, rock the baby while listening to rock music, watch the ocean wave wave at you, and have a row with your canoe mate as you row down the river with leaving your mate behind.

Ever one to take something to the next level, I decided to concoct a short paragraph filled with homonyms. How many can you find? The answer is below, so don’t peek.

The King, heir to the throne of Titan, tightened his grip on my hand, as we were thrown side to side on the bow of the ship as we departed for the isle of Ann for our bridal tour. During the outdoor wedding, the King of Titan asked that after I bow to him I wave in the air as I proceeded down the aisle to marry him at the altar and alter my name to Queen Mary. A strong breeze blew in from the coast and took the hem of my blue wedding dress to heights that distressed him. As he dressed me down for not securing it better, I fingered my brooch and tried to decide if I should broach the subject of his inconsiderateness. After all, I do not control the wind any better than he controls the manipulations his mother tries to wind around him. Tonight, at the Captain’s table we will drink ale, eat bread and boar, and I will sit next to the man I’m beginning to see as the most ill- bred boor our county has ever known. If it rains, and I ail because a sea wave causes the ship to roil and toss the royal wedding party about, he will probably find fault with that, too. The kernel of doubt about this relationship, that my uncle Colonel Frisk warned me of, may indeed be true. After today’s outburst, I fear the King may be trying to bridle me like his favorite stallion. As we set anchors aweigh and sails at full mast to travel away from our kingdom by the sea, and set sail for ports afar to see the wonders of the world, I fear my joyful reign as Queen may be a short-lived one.

How many homonyms did you catch?

There are 36 homonyms by my count. A couple are a bit on the stretched side, because I had to make the story work. The homonyms are:

Throne/thrown, Titan /tightened, bow/bow, bridal/bridle, wave/wave, marry/Mary, altar/alter, blue/blew, him/hem, dress/dressed, wind/wind, ale/ail, bred/bread, bore/boor, kernel/Colonel, aweigh/away, see/sea, rain/reign

Do you have a particular homonym that stumps you?

Five Things Writers Need to Seize to Succeed.

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Catherine Castle, guest blogging at SMP Authors, SMP Author blog, writers tips

I’m over at SMP authors today blogging about Carpe Diem (Seizing the Day)and five things writers need to seize to succeed. Join me and let me know what you’re planning to seize as a writer, or what great brass rings and things you’ve already grabbed from the writer’s merry-go-round.

In case you don’t want to click on the link, here’s a sample of the post.

As writers we need to seize several things if we are to accomplish our goals. We need to–

• Seize the dream. Without a dream we have nothing to strive for. I love the song from the musical South Pacific called Happy Talk. The lyrics ask if we don’t have a dream then how are we going to make a dream come true? Good question.

Now hop on over to read the rest.

Go Around Come Around Reading

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Buck Rogers, guest blogging at SMP Authors, Laura Ingalls Wilder, new to you books, remakes of books, Samuel Butler writing quote, Tarzan, writing quote about books

I’m blogging at the SMP author site today. So, please click on the link below to come join me.

“The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.”

— Samuel Butler.

 

I love this quote. Want to know why? Because it means my book is never going to be old. Somewhere, sometime, someone will discover The Nun and the Narc and all the books I will have published in the future, and I will be a newly discovered author, again and again. Who wouldn’t want that? I’d love to have my books go-around-and-come-around and be just out to someone time and time again. …

Click here to read the rest of the post.

 

 

 

 

 

What old-to-you-book have you made just out to someone you know?

A Synopsis Writing Tip of the Day

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Catherine Castle author, guest blogging at SMP Authors, Writing the Synopsis, writing tip

I’m over at SMP author blog today with a few interview questions about the writing a synopsis.  Why? you ask. Because I’m going to be speaking at the Midwest Writers Conference next year on this very subject and I want to know what you want to know about writing the dreaded synopsis.

Feel free to hop on over and answer the questions at the SMP author blog, or just leave me  a comment on this blog and let me know what you would like to know about writing a synopsis.

To start things off, here’s a quick tip you can use right now to help you write a synopsis:

 Editors don’t like it when you say, “If you want to know how the book ends, you’ll have to read my manuscript.” They want to know how the book ends and if it is a satisfying ending. So, reveal your book’s ending when you write your synopsis.

Guest Blogging Today at SMP Authors Blog and a Writing Tip

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Catherine Castle author, dialogue writing tip, guest blogging at SMP Authors, writing tip

I’m guest blogging at SMP Authors Blog today about my techie misadventures, of which I have  a lot. If you’re up for a little humor drop by. While I hope you’ll follow the SMP link to read my guest blog, I’m trying something different on those days I guest blog and leaving a writing tip on this site, too. If you like this idea, please leave me a comment so I know whether I should continue this option during my virtual book blog that will be coming up in the future.

TODAY’S WRITING TIP

One of my biggest bugaboos is the misuse of verbs as dialogue tags. When writing dialogue, don’t be afraid of the dialogue tag “he said.”  This tag practically disappears and jars readers much less than saying “That’s funny,” he laughed or “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. You can’t laugh or sob dialogue. However, you can laugh or sob so hard that you can’t speak, or you can laugh as you speak or sob. There’s a big difference between the use of a verb as a dialogue tag and a description of what’s going on.

Did you find this tip helpful?