Back in November, I wrote a post about Two Kittens Riding a Goat. Yes…it *was* safe for work! Jeez! Theoatmeal.com had done a lovely visual guide to using apostrophes.

Well, they’ve done it again, only this time, they are helping all of us understand semi-colons.

Click here to see what in the world hairy knuckles have to do with semi-colons.

Have a great Friday and a wonderful, whimsical weekend. <–(intentional use of alliteration)

This morning I was discussing my latest audiobook experience with my husband. I very much like the story, but my one complaint is the frequent use of alliteration. Alliteration, of course, is the use of the same sound at the beginning of words in close quarters. Such as, beautiful bouncing baby boy.

A lot of authors use it and many how-to books and writing coaches encourage it as a useful tool in your writing. So what’s so annoying about it? Now get ready, because I don’t usually get too opinionated here. For me personally, it makes the words stand out too much. In some cases, that’s fine. A lot of entertainers or character names have alliteration. See also, Mickey Mouse, Lucy Lawless and Nicholas Nickelby. (How’s that for a strange cross section of people?)

Anyway, in those cases, it works great! You want your name to stand out, so by all means, alliterate away! But mid-paragraph descriptions in novels, I just don’t think it works.  Example: “She walked up the steep, seemingly solid staircase.” Besides the fact that that is one of the worst sentences I’ve ever written, I think the nest of S’s is distracting. Instead of thinking about the staircase, or the peril the character may or may not be in, I’m thinking, “Wow. That’s a lot of S’s.” Two might be good, but three plus and you’re walking that lame, laborious line.

As my husband pointed out, it also works for tabloid headlines, because again, you want those to stand out.

Bat Boy Becomes a Baseball Player!

You get the idea.

Will I stop reading a book if it has alliteration? Of course not. For me, it’s all about story. But…is it annoying for me personally? Yes.

What are your thoughts? Do you consciously use alliteration? When reading, does it distract you or am I alone in this thing? (I could be! I won’t hold it against you if I am.) As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

When writing fiction, one of the key elements is location and setting. Setting is more than just the city. It’s the environment, the weather, smells, sounds, etc. This has always been one of my weak points, but I’m working on it.

My work in progress, “Shaping Fate,” takes place in London, 1349. At this time, London was gripped by the Black Plague. Believe it or not, it took me a while to figure out “when” to set the story. I knew my protagonist, William, was English, I also knew he wouldn’t be in England for a long time, but I couldn’t figure out the best era in London’s history to tell the story. Two of the themes in “Shaping Fate” are death and rebirth, but the plague still didn’t come to my mind.

One day, I had the good fortune to be watching the BBC’s “A History of Britain” series on the History Channel and there it was! The plague! It decimated Europe, especially the cities, where it was passed quickly from person to person, but from the ashes rose a new breed of Europeans who helped to usher in the Renaissance. The setting for my story was made and I never looked back.

There are tons of great books out there too about this specific period of time and what things were like for these people. It’s a fascinating period and has proven to be a wonderful backdrop for my story.

How do you pick setting? Is it one of the first things that come to you or do you try and find one that fits into your story?

Happy Tuesday, everybody. Tuesday…I’ve never really liked Tuesday. It’s just there. It’s not the middle or the end of the week and doesn’t have the distinction of being the first day of the week, it’s just…there.

Anyway, forgive the rant. I had the pleasure of seeing “Lemonade” last week. I mentioned this movie in a previous post. In my opinion, it was very well done. It’s inspiring to hear all the different stories and see people who go out there and do something they’ve always wanted to do after losing their job.

The good news is…you can watch the movie too. It’s on Hulu now. It’s only 35 minutes long, so if you have a spare half-hour or so, I recommend you check it out.

Click here to see the movie in its entirety.

Is there a piece of art, or music or writing that you wish you had done or been a part of?

I thought about this recently while talking with a friend who said they wish they could have been involved in the Star Wars movies. That got me thinking, well, me too. Who wouldn’t  want to say they had a part in one of the cinematic phenomenons of our time? And then I started thinking about other movies that would have been fun to be a part of, or books I’d written, songs I’d sung, etc., because it IS an amazing feeling to be a part of something truly great and something you are proud of.

Of COURSE our projects are ones that we are happy to be a part of, and it one day, it will be OUR projects that people wish they were a part of, but for now, what is that guitar riff that you wish you had played, or that line you wish you’d written?And no fair saying “Harry Potter” or something that just made a lot of money. You have to pick something that you are passionate about even if not a single dollar was made.

There are a few on my list, but I’ll keep it brief. For music, I’ve got to say I wish I could have done something with Queen, or with David Bowie. I’m not a songwriter or a musician, so I have no clue how I would be involved in a project with them, but they are artists I would have liked to work with. I have worked with an incredibly talented musician, Martin Page, but not in a musical way, more in a marketing kind of way, so who knows. Maybe David Bowie will call. If you’re not familiar with Martin’s work, I strongly encourage you to check him out. Working with Martin has been very rewarding, so I can check that off my list.

For fiction writing though it’s a tough one because it’s such a solitary pursuit. I would have liked to have met Ernest Hemingway, although I don’t think I could have stuck to his eating red onions and drinking red wine for breakfast regiment. When I do that, my writing is nowhere near as good as his.

I could go on and on, but what are some of your ‘dream’ projects or people?

Ok, so I took a break. A long one. And I’m starting my new year when most people are already starting to sag with their New Year’s resolutions, which they so diligently started on January 1st…or maybe 2nd depending on how much partying went on.

I admit, it’s taken me longer to get out of vacation mode than I had intended, but here we are. Now it’s time to get crackin’.

So how is everybody else doing on their goals? Anybody planning on joining me on the Artist’s Way journey? Well, you’ll all be joining me in one way or another, because I’ll be keeping you posted on my progress. Muaaa aaa aahhhhh!

Anyway, I hope you are having a brilliant 2010 so far. Any news or updates?