100 Whimsical Words by Mark Nichol The English language can be maddening to native speakers and learners alike, but is also delightfully rich, especially for those who seek to convey a lighthearted tone in their writing. Here are 100 words it’s difficult to employ without smiling. Though their meanings may be obscure, they each present a challenge — I mean an opportunity — for you to paint a vivid word picture. Imbue your musings with mirth by incorporating these terms: Think ..."Some time ago I received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed a perfect score. The instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and I was selected. I read the examination question: The student had answered, "Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to the street, and then bring the rope up, measuring the length of the rope. The student really had a strong case for full credit since he had really answered the question completely and correctly! I suggested that the student have another try. In the next minute, he dashed off his answer which read: "Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. At this point, I asked my colleague if he would give up. "Well," said the student, "there are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer. "Fine," I said, "and others?" "Of course.
45 ways to avoid using the word 'very' Writers Write is your one-stop resource for writers. Use these 45 ways to avoid using the word ‘very’ to improve your writing. Good writers avoid peppering their writing with qualifiers like ‘very’ and ‘really’. According to Collins Dictionary: ‘Padding is unnecessary words or information used to make a piece of writing or a speech longer. Adding modifiers, qualifiers, and unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, weakens your writing. This post gives you 45 ways to avoid using the padding word ‘very’. Three Telling Quotes About ‘Very’ “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. If you enjoyed this, you will love: Top Tip: If you want to learn how to write a book, sign up for our online course. by Amanda Patterson © Amanda Patterson
Video Games Represent the Most Powerful (and Potentially Dangerous) Era in Storytelling | Paul Runge Over the course of one weekend, I lost 12 hours, 42 minutes and 1 second. I don't know how it happened. It took me like a fever. I somehow slipped into watching a 56-part YouTube playthrough of The Last of Us, a video game recently released by Naughty Dog Inc. The game, which earned a 95 out of 100 on Metacritic, features a gnarly but loyal 48-year-old named Joel and a scrappy teenager named Ellie. In their world, there has been a viral catastrophe, and Ellie, somehow immune, represents the only possibility for a cure. It is, I should say, a truly top-notch game. The characters, story, and aesthetic are complex and well-composed, and as a result, everything about the game feels literally (and figuratively) 3D. Increasingly, this seems to be the objective of the gaming industry. So, do you buy it? Maybe you should, but not as it's stated above. Video Games as Expressive and Formative Here, I urge you to consider Zizek's proposition seriously; it's really not so esoteric. And I mean it.
Write Source - Writing Topics The best way to get into writing is simply to write . . . and write . . . and write . . . freely. This practice helps you develop a feel for writing. To get started, you’ll need a topic to write about. Below, you will find lists of ideas to serve as starting points for personal or journal writing. Click here for more information on Write One or Write Source 1 A special birthday I’d like to see . . . Friendly places My favorite foods I know a lot about . . . Click here for more information on Write Away or Write Source 2 Games I play with friends How to make new friends A joke that makes everybody laugh Something funny that happened to me What I know about dinosaurs An important person I know about Good things about my neighborhood My favorite foods After-school games Sometimes I wish . . . Click here for more information on Write on Track or Write Source 3 Staying at a friend’s house A special secret place When I was upside down What if we suddenly had to move? I’m principal for the day.
Infecting An Audience: Why Great Stories Spread In his 1897 book What is Art? the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy defined art as “an infection.” Good art, Tolstoy wrote, infects the audience with the storyteller’s emotion and ideas. The better the art, the stronger the infection--the more stealthily it works around whatever immunities we possess and plants the virus. Note that this goes against our culture’s dominant idea about stories. For instance, if psychologists get a bunch of people in the lab and just tell them all the reasons it is wrong to discriminate against homosexuals, they don’t make much progress. So stories have a unique ability to infect minds with ideas and attitudes that spread contagiously. And how do we make an audience lose themselves? But stories are not usually about meaningless problem solving. In a business setting, this makes story a natural vehicle for conveying our ideas, our values, our vision. The neuroeconomist Paul Zak studies how this works at a brain level. This all raises another question.
Top Web Annotation and Markup Tools Contextual feedback is crucial for remote teams working online to have fast and efficient feedback system. Asking and taking feedback is tedious and usually happens off-context using email and text message. There are some tools, however, that allow teams to discuss things and collaborate online in much better way. Web Annotation and Markup tools help you to comment, discuss and collaborate right on web pages or screenshots or PDFs. In this post, we’re showcasing the best yet freely available tools for contextual feedback. Read Also: 20 Free Tools to Annotate PDF Documents Scrible Scrible helps building your own online library of annotated articles or research materials and owing to the same, it’s a perfect tool for researchers and remote teams. Scrible offers bookmarklet and an extension for Chrome. "Bookmark Page" and "Share" buttons perform as expected and you can share the annotated page using Permalink in case you seek feedback. Pros: Cons: Diigo Pundit Annotator Hypothesis Notable
StoryCorps Hits 10th Birthday: A Mission Core to Humanity October 23, 2013; New York Times, “City Room” Ten years. 55,000 interviews. 90,000 participants. One mission: telling our stories. The storytelling started in a sparse booth in Grand Central Terminal, New York and grew to a nationwide initiative of ordinary people telling their personal stories. As StoryCorps turns 10 this year, it gives us an opportunity to reflect on the value of storytelling. For example, the New York Times reports, “There is the homeless woman who was so moved by her [StoryCorps] recording, calling it the most important thing she’d ever done in her life, that she tried to donate her food stamps to the staff members as her voluntary donation.” Donors and volunteers, too, have their stories. Nonprofit social service organizations spend a lot time and energy trying to solve problems.
100 Useful Web Tools for Writers | College Degrees All kinds of writers, including poets, biographers, journalists, biz tech writers, students, bloggers and technical writers, take a unique approach to their jobs, mixing creativity with sustainability. Whether you’re a freelance writer just scraping by or someone with a solid job and more regular hours, the Internet can provide you with unending support for your practical duties like billing, scheduling appointments, and of course getting paid; as well as for your more creative pursuits, like developing a plot, finding inspiration and playing around with words. Turn to this list for 100 useful Web tools that will help you with your career, your sanity and your creativity whenever your write. Getting Organized Thanks to the Internet, disorganized writers are no longer a cliche. Finding Inspiration Beat down writer’s block by using these online idea prompts and inspirational tools. Getting Gigs For many writers, finding a gig is the hardest part of their career. Networking and Marketing
Freelancers' Toolbox - 30+ Online Freelance Resources While writing about 100+ ways to make money online, we received lots of requests for more freelance resources. So in a break from our regularly scheduled programming, we bring you 30+ resources for freelance photographers, writers, and programmers, many of them decidedly web 1.0. Feel free to add more resources in the comments. iStockPhoto - the leading stock photos site. Fotolia - a "web 2.0" version of iStockPhoto. PhotoStock Plus - Sell your photos worldwide to a large variety of clients. eXpress Digital - Set up your own online store front for selling your photography. SmugMug - Take pictures, set your prices and earn a profit selling from your own virtual gallery. ImageKind - Setup a free online gallery and sell your art online as framed prints. Shutterstock - Submit your photos and get paid a commission every time they are downloaded. ImageCatalog - Earn a forty percent commission when someone downloads your photos. For Freelance Writers WritersWeekly - Popular freelance writing ezine.
30+ Tools For The Amateur Writer NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is almost upon us. On November 1st, brave souls everywhere will embark on a month long endeavor to write a story of at least 50,000 words. We've gathered 30+ tools to help those folks who want to try their hand at it. Collaborative Writing Coventi.com - A site offering several different packages, with the cheapest being free for the personal user. Google Docs - Part of the Google suite of products, which enables you to invite others to work with you on a document. Glypho.com - Put down the basic idea of your story, get a plot and character suggestions. Novlet.com - Collaborative writing where you write just a couple of paragraphs at a time. Portrayl.com - A site that lets you write one chapter at a time, and when done, release it as a PDF. SynchroEdit.com - A browser-based editor that allows multiple users to edit the same document at the same. WideWORD.net - Create a secure document online and then pick who can look at it and participate. See also: