It's been almost a year since my last (and first) update, but here I am at the keyboard again, reared and ready to get tapping away. So without further ado, today's topic 'Plumbs Defy: active verbs and why we use them'.
on the face of it 'Plumbs defy' has no no meaning, and in a literal sense it doesn't; but many people use it to reference the structure of how active verbs should be used. Here's how:
Instead of using 'plumbs defy' lets look at some examples of active sentences that makes a little more sense. 'Books open'. That's an active sentence. So is 'dogs walk' and 'birds fly'. Are you beginning to see a pattern develop? No. Okay, let me explain it to you.
Verbs are doing words right? Most people know this. But what is an active verb? An active verb is a verb in a sentence where the subject of the sentence is doing the action; As opposed to passive verbs that are are verbs in a sentence in which the subject has the action done to it.
Here are some examples of the difference between active sentences and passive sentences:
'Jacob jumped over the wall' is active.
'The wall was jumped over by Jacob' is passive.
'The tree fell and hit the ground' is active
'The ground was hit by the falling tree' is passive
Sentences that use active verbs deliver a much more powerful punch than those that use passive verbs, which can often make writing seem dull, energetic and impersonal. The reason I use 'plumbs defy'1 is because it's a very strange sentence, and therefore easy to remember.
[1]'plumbs defy' is taken from Stephen kings' book 'on writing'
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Friday, 19 September 2008
Exploits In Writing
So, this is the first in very many post that I will produce for the sake of myself or anyone else that wants to read them.
What these documents will entail are the exploits in writing in which I have chosen to embark on. Many parts of writing will be covered in these documents from the thoughts-to-brain, editing, creativeness and any other subjects within the huge topic of writing. So to start the writing process of I suppose I better tell you about me and why I have come to the conclusion that what I want to do with my life is write.
My name is Richard Hole and was born and still live in the city of Exeter, UK.I don't claim to be the most read-up person but this doesn't mean I don't read. As a small boy I used to love reading and I used to get agitated and even angry when my teachers in middle school would tell me that I could not read books on the next level[1]. Though this never stopped me from reading what I wanted at home. In fact the first ever novel I attempted to read was "The secret diary of Adrian Mole"; I say attempted because I never made it through to the end. Instead I was given a book for Christmas called "Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban", this was the start of my love for books and reading.
"He likes to read so he assumes he can write", is what I would expect to hear from someone at this point. I'm very well aware that there are people who think in this way; and yes a lot of them are good writers. But I know that If I want to be a good writer, I'm going to have to work my ass off. Firstly my spelling and grammar are anything but brilliant; and it would not surprise many people to learn that I didn't do very well in my English GCSEs though I never found the lessons hard, actually I fairly enjoyed them.
The aim of this blog is to help keep track of my writing exploits and post anything that I think is interesting or helpful (I may even publish a short story or two). So here I am at the beginning of my adventures in writing, staring into the abyss of writing and looking forward to what fossils can be found and even what horrors await. I hope that you will join me in my exploits too; after all things can get rather lonely in an abyss.
[1]In middle school we had different levels of reading. Each level would have a colour. The teachers chose what level your on therefore restricting the books that you could read.
What these documents will entail are the exploits in writing in which I have chosen to embark on. Many parts of writing will be covered in these documents from the thoughts-to-brain, editing, creativeness and any other subjects within the huge topic of writing. So to start the writing process of I suppose I better tell you about me and why I have come to the conclusion that what I want to do with my life is write.
My name is Richard Hole and was born and still live in the city of Exeter, UK.I don't claim to be the most read-up person but this doesn't mean I don't read. As a small boy I used to love reading and I used to get agitated and even angry when my teachers in middle school would tell me that I could not read books on the next level[1]. Though this never stopped me from reading what I wanted at home. In fact the first ever novel I attempted to read was "The secret diary of Adrian Mole"; I say attempted because I never made it through to the end. Instead I was given a book for Christmas called "Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban", this was the start of my love for books and reading.
"He likes to read so he assumes he can write", is what I would expect to hear from someone at this point. I'm very well aware that there are people who think in this way; and yes a lot of them are good writers. But I know that If I want to be a good writer, I'm going to have to work my ass off. Firstly my spelling and grammar are anything but brilliant; and it would not surprise many people to learn that I didn't do very well in my English GCSEs though I never found the lessons hard, actually I fairly enjoyed them.
The aim of this blog is to help keep track of my writing exploits and post anything that I think is interesting or helpful (I may even publish a short story or two). So here I am at the beginning of my adventures in writing, staring into the abyss of writing and looking forward to what fossils can be found and even what horrors await. I hope that you will join me in my exploits too; after all things can get rather lonely in an abyss.
[1]In middle school we had different levels of reading. Each level would have a colour. The teachers chose what level your on therefore restricting the books that you could read.
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