Why Words are Pretty Inadequate Most of the Time – Samuel Butler QUOTES FOR WRITERS
WE WANT WORDS to do more than they can. We try to do with them what comes to very much like trying to mend a watch with a pickaxe or … Continue reading
Read Iris Murdoch on words: “the ultimate…stuff of our moral being” QUOTES FOR WRITERS
THERE IS NO DOUBT which art is the most practically important for our survival and our salvation, and that is literature. Words constitute the ultimate texture and stuff of our … Continue reading
The power of words QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Words — so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how … Continue reading
Why we bother with words… the last item from the archive
I’ve discovered that three main theories attempt to explain why language developed. Supporters of the BOW-WOW theory are convinced that humans first began to communicate by imitating the sound of … Continue reading
Words are what matter…Ursula K. Le Guin QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Words are what matter. The sharing of words. The activation of imagination through the reading of words. The reason literacy is important is that literature is the operating instructions. The … Continue reading
“…writers who believe one word is as good as another…” Gore Vidal QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
For every Scott Fitzgerald concerned with the precise word and the selection of relevant incident, there are a hundred American writers, many well-regarded, who appear to believe that one word … Continue reading
DO YOU KNOW where the word spam comes from?
An actor named Kenneth Daigneau won a competition to name the new tinned meat product. His suggestion is supposed to be a blend of spiced and ham. Then, in the 1970s, the … Continue reading
8 Tips for Editing a Manuscript
Originally posted on Black Lilac Kitty Book Reviews:
A writer/author should make the manuscript the best it can be before sending it to the publisher. This goes for both traditional…
Why Talking Was Invented (maybe)
On Fridays I am returning to some of my favourite posts from the past. To paraphrase BBC radio: this is your chance to read again… This comes from April 2013 … Continue reading
“Language, as a vehicle, is a lemon…” Quotes for writers (and people who like quotes)
We writers aren’t sculpting in DNA, or even clay or mud, but words, sentences, paragraphs, syntax, voice; materials issued by tongue or fingertips but which upon release dissolve into the … Continue reading
RESPECT WORDS, WORDS, WORDS…Quotes for writers (and people who like quotes)
Every word is unique Respect words, be they printed or spoken Complex or simple, extravagant or lowly The manner in which they are delivered Speaks of us. HENRY PLUCKROSE in … Continue reading
Mums and magic, Dogs and super hero Dads feature in national writing competition for children
This is the third year of BBC Radio Two’s writing competition for children aged 13 and under. It’s called 500 Words and over 90,000 entries were received. 90,000! Lexicographers at … Continue reading
MONDAY creative writing exercise because it’s a good way to start the week: a happy exercise
It’s been a grim, grey winter. The longest I remember but today is a holiday in the UK and the sun is shining (two things that rarely coincide) so this … Continue reading
DID YOU KNOW that the word pupil…
… as in pupil of the eye was originally a metaphor, not a factual term. The Latin word pupilla means a little doll and was used because you can see … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 