The Chopping Board

You’ve finished writing a story, you’ve let it sit aside for a day or a week or maybe even a month, ignoring the dust accumulating on it, trying to distract yourself with new ideas and reading that pile of books you’ve left sitting on your desk for the last few months. But you know you’re going to have to come back to your story eventually. You know you’re going to have to place it on the chopping board.

You need to arm yourself with a few things – a red pen or a computer, a trusty beta-reader or editor, and a whole lot of grit. You may also want to throw in some chocolate to calm your nerves. You’re going to need it. Place your papers or your computer on the metaphorical chopping board and get ready to start cutting and dicing! It’s not as bad as it sounds really, and I should know because I’m done my fair share of cutting (yes I know that sounds bad), but you can’t deny that some of the things in that book have got to go.

A Reader’s Pet Peeves

I read a lot of books. I don’t stick to a particular genre or the authors I know about; rather, I go outside my comfort zone and pick books that seem to promise a new experience. However, I do avoid certain things when picking out my next read, and there are some aspects that undeniably turn me off… my pet peeves, if you may. In no particular order, here are some of them:

Widows and orphans – No, no… I’m not talking about real widows and orphans. In typesetting, widows are the lines which are separated from the rest of the paragraph and appear alone on the next page, and orphans are the words that are left alone on a line, sometimes all by themselves on a single page. These are kinda bothersome, especially when I’m writing!

Write me a meal.

I love descriptions of food. There are so many ways by which you can describe its appearance, flavour and smell, and when done well, a description can enable you to taste what you’re reading about. Just like it can make you picture a scene in front of you or experience a certain emotion. I want to write a novel about food someday, if only because I know I’d have a field day researching different meals. And I will. I’m already playing with a few elements in the back of my mind.

We start with appearance. When a dish is placed in front of you, it should be aesthetically pleasing, right? You could claim that something is delicious, but if it looks icky then you’d have to pay me to try it.  I want descriptions that can actually make my mouth water without the need to rely on pictures.