General Chat

or even bull****, Stella! pmsl

canoedling...?

I've written a poem, and it was the 'canoe' that prompted it :))

I didn't write that, I copied it, and that's what it said.

OK, your piece must include a horse, a canoe and a frozen lake. (each is an element, not elements OF them) *sigh*

It's a bit challenging this week isn't it LOL

ok , i have descriptive words for all three elements..i now have to work out how they will fit together in a poem...

maybe tomorrow...lol

Ah, that is better TW.

Can I say something without sounding like a school marm.
When I receive the individual pieces I copy and paste them into a word file. Word then highlights any spelling or grammatical mistakes. I guess that spellings are picked up and most of them will be typos anyway.
But, one thing that crops up is that when you put in punctuation such as a comma or inverted commas there should also be a space. (e.g. after a comma, there should be a space before the next word. Before inverted commas "there should be a space after the last word" and after the last inverted commas). Not drastic but if you were submitting it anywhere it may get rejected on that.

Ithink that is very helpful to know Ann, and for myself what i once knew because of writing daily, I have now forgotten lol. Like this for example.....

"The semicolon (;) has only one major use. It is used to join two complete sentences into a single written sentence when all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The two sentences are felt to be too closely related to be separated by a full stop;
(2) There is no connecting word which would require a comma, such as and or but;
(3) The special conditions requiring a colon are absent.
Here is a famous example:
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
A semicolon can always, in principle, be replaced either by a full stop (yielding two separate sentences) or by the word and (possibly preceded by a joining comma). Thus Dickens might have written:

"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times."
or
"It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. "

No that doesn't sound school marmish at all Ann. I am guilty of slapdash punctuation and you are right, when we DO send our stuff for publication (!), it will have to be perfectly typed and punctuated.

I would like a few more tips and help on this thread, if possible. Just little pointers:-) BC XX

Edit. Thanks Rose, that's what I meant, but also tips on actual writing.

thank you Rose, you will notice I don't use semi colons or colons because I never mastered their use.

This is where I found the explanation below

http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node00.html

It's a guide to punctuation. I will have a read!

thanks Rose.

In my punctuation module, the use of a semi-colon in place of a comma is a matter of preference. A comma can do the job just as well as a semi-colon in splitting the sentence. But it reads better sometimes by the use of the semi-colon, especially if the two parts of the sentence, though clearly related, sound like two separate sentences.

But if you choose to use semi-colon or a comma, you shouldn't be penalised for it as both are correct.

have just spent half an hour listening to " The Ancient Mariner " with my eyes closed.... it is so powerful and colourful in it's imagery...

the story is so surreal..it never fails to hold my interest...

thanks guys for all your feed back
it was greatfully receieved,
and i know im terrible for punctuation,
must slow down abit,
im very impatient, but i dont read as fast as i write,

it takes me forever to read something, and i sometimes miss read words,
i find im having to go back over stuff i read,

will take it all on board,
thanks, and will take more times
xxx

Julie Ann, do you do what I do, and I think others do too. After you have written your piece, leave it a couple of days then read it out loud. you can often see then where you need punctuation if you haven't added it already. Another way I have found is, it is easier to read something if you print it off. sometimes it is easy to miss things on the screen. But you are doing fine, I liked what you have written.

Talking of poetry as stella was, did anyone see the In it to win it quiz last night when that fellow said Kubla Khan was written by Wordsworth. Even my non reading not interested in poetry other half knew it was Coleridge.

Can anyone tell me how I get a horse over a frozen lake in a canoe ? LOL

Ta Teresa !

>>>>>>goes off to muse over the predicament...

Maggie

Maggie Lol Maybe the canoe is on the horses back?


Stella, I haven't read The Ancient Mariner since I left school, it was never a favourite of mine. I have just looked at it on line and read two thirds of it. Wonder how long he took to write it? And I didn't know this came from it either:

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

All I could remember of it was the Albatrosse.

thanks ann
i should print it off,
i would find it easier,

when me and hubby were first togther i started to keep a diary, which was actually a A4 folder full of notes, daily,
i loved writing,
when i read it all back many years later i laughed at the young , what seemed like, silly stuff i wrote,
but showed what day to day things we did, or wrote, lol

i usually jsut spill out whats in my head on paper,
then get distracted so dont sit and re read over except once,

thanks though for your kind comments,
i take um on board
xx

It's got your brains ticking over hasn't it? LOL.

I'm growing an idea as we speak, but not sure how I can make it work. I need to think a little more.


Julie, no writer just reels off a brilliant story first time. They all do lots of reviewing, editing, adding, cutting. Stephen King says, final draft is first draft minus 10%.

As Ann said, reading aloud is really useful, don't worry about neighbours thinking you've gone mad. But when you are reading aloud, you actually HEAR the story being read, you do read slower, and you will pick up where you might need to add a comma etc etc. You will also pick out the mistakes by reading aloud too.

Read it from a printed version not on the screen, then you can just mark with a pen any adjustments needed.

Also, with reading aloud, sometimes you may trip over words as you go. This may be remedied by re-wording a sentence until it does read smoothly. That helps enormously with grammar!