Oct. 13th, 5 PM: Visit Klindst Booksellers, Oregon's oldest bookstore in continuous operation, for a reading and signing by Shaindel Beers.
Oct. 14th, 4 PM: Portland's own The Monkey and The Rat hosts Anne-Louise Sterry's launch of Aunt Lena's Cucina. Food, wine, music, AND mystery guest!
Oct. 16th, 7 PM: Author Stephanie Griest at the Fine Arts Studio Theater in Nebraska. Reception and book signing to follow! Click here for more info.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Photo Story Prompt: Riding a Bike
Write whatever comes to you--short or long, fiction or truth.
We'd love to see what you come up with! Post your story in a comment below, or e-mail it to photostory@indigoediting.com.
Feel free to comment on each other's stories and just generally enjoy the process of playing with the written word and the world it creates.
Happy writing!
Photo: "Riding a bike" by Mateusz Stachowski
We'd love to see what you come up with! Post your story in a comment below, or e-mail it to photostory@indigoediting.com.
Feel free to comment on each other's stories and just generally enjoy the process of playing with the written word and the world it creates.
Happy writing!
Photo: "Riding a bike" by Mateusz Stachowski
Monday, October 05, 2009
Editorial Tip of the Week: Trading Long Division for Word Division
We've all probably encountered and conquered (hopefully) the white space caused by writer's block. That stark, blank page that makes writers cry, cringe, run, or take a swig of their favorite alcoholic beverage. We all know the hardships of that white space. But what about the other types? Say you're writing a great line, something truly inspired of course, and you
suddenly are forced to drop onto the next line because of space. (Like that visual example, folks? Thought you would.) Now, there's that horrible jolting white space. You know it can be remedied with a simple hyphen, but how? Often something that seems simple may become complicated by a word like knowledge or criticism. Words as "tricksy" as they come.
What was that? Pull out Chicago? Okay, we're getting there already!
I'll have you know that sometimes even Chicago does not have all the answers. Shocking right? Deep breaths. "For end-of-line breaks, as for spelling and plural forms, Webster should be the primary guide. The dots between syllables in Webster indicate where breaks may be made; in words of three syllables or more, there is usually a choice of breaks."
However, there are some hard and fast rules that you can stick to. For instance, single-syllable words should never be divided. Also, "one-letter divisions are not permissible." So, if you were planning on writing like that a-gain, don't.
Chicago does let us know it has an opinion, even if they aren't the foremost guide. The manual recommends "dividing according to punctuation." In doing so, our tricksy term knowledge becomes knowl-edge as opposed to know-ledge.
The Big Orange also suggests dividing after a vowel as long as it does not affect the pronunciation. Thus, criticism should be "criti-cism" not "crit-icism."
For compound words, prefixes, and suffixes, you are actually encouraged to just do what feels right and divide at the "natural breaks." Any displeasure with this freedom becomes "dis-pleasure" not "displea-sure."
Now if you come across a gerund (didn't you know that was what a form derived from a verb that functions as a noun is called? hmmm...), you may divide "before the ing." "Dab-ing, run-ing, fiz-ling." You get the picture.
That is that. For continued fun with hyphens, see 7.30 - 7.45 in your Chicago manual and say bye-bye to ugly white space!
suddenly are forced to drop onto the next line because of space. (Like that visual example, folks? Thought you would.) Now, there's that horrible jolting white space. You know it can be remedied with a simple hyphen, but how? Often something that seems simple may become complicated by a word like knowledge or criticism. Words as "tricksy" as they come.
What was that? Pull out Chicago? Okay, we're getting there already!
I'll have you know that sometimes even Chicago does not have all the answers. Shocking right? Deep breaths. "For end-of-line breaks, as for spelling and plural forms, Webster should be the primary guide. The dots between syllables in Webster indicate where breaks may be made; in words of three syllables or more, there is usually a choice of breaks."
However, there are some hard and fast rules that you can stick to. For instance, single-syllable words should never be divided. Also, "one-letter divisions are not permissible." So, if you were planning on writing like that a-gain, don't.
Chicago does let us know it has an opinion, even if they aren't the foremost guide. The manual recommends "dividing according to punctuation." In doing so, our tricksy term knowledge becomes knowl-edge as opposed to know-ledge.
The Big Orange also suggests dividing after a vowel as long as it does not affect the pronunciation. Thus, criticism should be "criti-cism" not "crit-icism."
For compound words, prefixes, and suffixes, you are actually encouraged to just do what feels right and divide at the "natural breaks." Any displeasure with this freedom becomes "dis-pleasure" not "displea-sure."
Now if you come across a gerund (didn't you know that was what a form derived from a verb that functions as a noun is called? hmmm...), you may divide "before the ing." "Dab-ing, run-ing, fiz-ling." You get the picture.
That is that. For continued fun with hyphens, see 7.30 - 7.45 in your Chicago manual and say bye-bye to ugly white space!
Friday, October 02, 2009
Spotlighted Literary Events
Oct. 6, 7 PM: Songs of Ascension with Norman Fischer & Meredith Monk at Poets House, NY. Cost: $10 or Students/Seniors $7
Oct. 9, 6 PM: Come to Blackbird Wine Shop to taste wine and hear Oregon poets Peter Sears, Shaindel Beers, John Morrison and Pamela Steele.
Oct. 10-11: Wordstock 2009 is finally here! Come enjoy Portland's "annual festival of books, writers, and storytelling" at the Oregon Convention Center!
Oct. 9, 6 PM: Come to Blackbird Wine Shop to taste wine and hear Oregon poets Peter Sears, Shaindel Beers, John Morrison and Pamela Steele.
Oct. 10-11: Wordstock 2009 is finally here! Come enjoy Portland's "annual festival of books, writers, and storytelling" at the Oregon Convention Center!
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Photo Story Prompt: Sit and read
Write whatever comes to you--short or long, fiction or truth.
We'd love to see what you come up with! Post your story in a comment below, or e-mail it to photostory@indigoediting.com.
Feel free to comment on each other's stories and just generally enjoy the process of playing with the written word and the world it creates.
Happy writing!
Photo: "sit and read 2" by Sanja Gjenero
We'd love to see what you come up with! Post your story in a comment below, or e-mail it to photostory@indigoediting.com.
Feel free to comment on each other's stories and just generally enjoy the process of playing with the written word and the world it creates.
Happy writing!
Photo: "sit and read 2" by Sanja Gjenero
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