Midweek Musings: Latest Stories on Medium.

A Walk To The Market 

The fruit and veg market is a completely different shopping experience than the average local shopping mall. There are no bright lights, and it’s a bit of a mess. There are no tempting advertisements designed to encourage spending. There is just the fruit and veg and people looking for a bargain.

It’s like a farmers market, but without the farmers.

The Dreaming Spires of Oxford 

Most of my friends were impressed when I told them that I was going to Oxford to study. Well, they were impressed until I told them that it wasn’t the actual Oxford University that I was going to, but the “other place” in Oxford, the polytechnic. “A polytechnic?” They would say, “There’s a polytechnic in Oxford?”

The Writing Journey: First, or Third-Person? That is the Question.

I had a moment yesterday, when I started to question what I was doing. It was very specific, concerning a project that I have been working on since late last year, when I decided to try my hand at writing fiction.

The end result is now within sight. I am writing the final chapter and conclusion. 

So, the end is within reach. 

However, yesterday I was on Twitter X, and noticed in my timeline there was a tweet asking about books written from a first-person perspective. The question was, what did people prefer, first or third person? Many replied, saying that they did not like first-person books at all. It seems to be like marmite, you either like it or you don't.

I had not given it much thought, but I was writing this book in first-person. I did so for the following reasons.

Writing and Reading: The Struggle to Find Time For Both.

I am struggling to find the time to read any of the books on my "to read" list. 

The struggle exists because most of my spare time I now spend writing, or researching for writing. 

 Image by wal 172619 from Pixabay

I have four writing projects in progress right now.

My Medium Writing Journey: The Little Bell Icon

My experiment with the writer's platform Medium continues.

Anyone who is a creative can become a slave to the little bell icon. That little bell icon. Twitter X has one, YouTube has one, Medium has one. I assume that all the social media platforms have them. It is a reminder of how popular, or not, you are.

 Image by Neal Brian from Pixabay

Let me explain.

Twitter X: Why I'm Not Celebrating My One Year Anniversary

There was a reply in my Twitter X notifications the other day, which told me that I should celebrate my one-year anniversary on the platform with a post.

Here's the message.

I chose not to use it. I couldn't see the point of it, as other than being a post, it did not offer any special privileges. I did not get the impression that it would be seen by many people. 

In fact, one of the reasons why I did not post it, was because of the Twitter X algorithm. To coincide with using the platform for one year, the algorithm had been playing games again. I had noticed a dramatic drop in the number of views on posts that I had sent. Apparently, and judging by the number of "do you see this post", many others have noticed this as well. Interaction numbers are well down, and there are times (many times) when you feel like you are talking to yourself. 

I was left wondering, what was "big" about it? I have gone from averaging about 50–100 views on a post, which isn't that many anyway, to 5-10. Perhaps they were all bots?

I only feel encouraged to post less, and go and do something more productive than scrolling the Twitter X feed, like actual writing.

Medium Update: Latest Article and Story.

The following article and story can be found on Medium.

The Grammar Check 

I have, what you might call, a love-hate relationship with grammar check software. We all make mistakes when we write. I know that I do. The mistakes are corrected during editing, but...

Welcome to The House of Fun 

My journey into Bedsitland had begun when I rented a small, partially furnished single room on the ground floor of a terraced house, close to where I had lived as a boy...

When I Was a Lad: Billy's Boots, a Blast From the Past.

I was on Twitter X the other day, when I came across a post about the comics that were a big part of life for children back in the 1970s. The question was asked, how many did you buy? There was a picture of the comics available at the time. Not sure if it was all of them, but there were a lot. Most of them were for boys, some, like Sally, Bunty and Diana, for girls.

Here it is.

It's an impressive number. The ones that I remember buying were the Beano and Dandy. I also remember Look-in, Joe 90, Marvel and Spider-man. Most of the names here are familiar to me, and the chances are that I occasionally bought them. It has to be said, though, that I couldn't afford to buy all the ones that I probably wanted. 

66666: The Number of the Book

Well, that looks ominous. 

I had finished writing, and I thought to myself, I will stop there for now. 

Then I looked at the word count.

Medium: Links to All Stories and Articles

Find links below to all current stories and articles that I have posted on Medium to date.

If you like, you can leave a clap. Apparently, you can clap as much as you like (I think so)! 

You can also leave a comment.

My Journey to Bedsit-Land Part Two: Welcome to the House of Misfits 

My Journey to Bedsit-Land 

The Bully and my Aston Martin 

The Man with the Meat Cleaver

Walk More, Live Better: The Health Benefits of Going For a Walk 

Why I Write

 

What is Happening to Twitter X?

So, what is happening to Twitter X? I don't think that I will ever understand the way the algorithm of Twitter X works. I'm not the only one, given the comments from others that I find in my timeline.

Here are some things that I have noticed recently.

1) I keep seeing a lot of posts over and over again, often twenty-four to forty-eight hours old. There is no option on Twitter X to see posts in time or date order. There is also no option to see recent posts in chronological order. 

2) These old posts seem to be from the big accounts—users with tens of thousands of followers. By the time I see them, there are typically several thousand comments. It is not worth replying to, as no one will see it.

Medium: Trying Something New.

It has been a while since I posted, but I do have an excuse. Well, two excuses, actually. First, I have a book to write. Well, I'm trying to write. For now, the book is my priority, and it takes up a lot of time, as any aspiring author will know.

Next, I was in the process of writing a second book when I realised that these true stories might be more effective as articles. After reaching twenty-six thousand words, I have decided to set it aside.

Which led me to the website for writers and readers, Medium.

What is Medium?

I went to their website to find their definition of what they offer. 

Medium is a home for human stories and ideas. Here, anyone can share insightful perspectives, useful knowledge, and life wisdom with the world—without building a mailing list or a following first. The internet is noisy and chaotic. Medium is quiet yet full of insight. It’s simple, beautiful, collaborative, and helps you find the right audience for whatever you have to say.

https://medium.com/about

I decided that the best place to go to find out more was YouTube. I mean, you can usually find someone on YouTube who has made a video about their experience. I was right, but some videos looked like clickbait. They offered a magic formula. Just do what they do, and you can do the same.  

Well, no, I don’t think it is like that.

Saturday Night: Burning the Midnight Oil.

There are times when you just have to write. Last night a scene came to me out of the blue, and I just had to write it down because otherwise I would probably have forgotten it. So, around midnight, I ended up writing about 900 words of dialogue between the two main characters in the book that is my first attempt at fiction. 

I am finding that I am not writing the story from start to finish in one go, in that while I have the story in mind, a beginning, middle, and end, things tend to change as I go along. Then ideas for inclusion at any point in the story just tend to come to me. I start at the beginning of course, but at some stage, what I have already written, may need a re-write to include the new ideas. Seems like an anarchic way of doing things, but that is the way that I write. I suppose it is just the way that my mind works. It doesn't give me the whole story from the start!

That's what happened last night. The dialogue I wrote will be included in a later chapter that I am still some way off from writing. The scene is written now, and other than the inevitable editing, it is waiting to be included in that chapter, whenever I get to it.

I Guess That's Progress...

Ten Signs of an English Baby Boomer.

1) You ate sugar sandwiches, because jam was not available.

2) You had an aunt who would cut your hair.

3) The local library was the internet.

 4) You are old enough to remember when England won the World Cup.

5) You had to put money into a coin meter for electricity.

6) A cost of living crisis was the norm.

7) You watched television pictures of a man landing on the moon.

8) The girl next door was probably your best friend.

9) There were only two, then three television channels, and even then, the adults complained that there was nothing worth watching.

10) The toilet was outside, in the backyard. 

Such was life.

Charity shop book haul…yet another five for a pound haul (part two).

I went to the five for a pound charity shop this morning, and picked up another haul. However, this post is part two of my catch-up, pre-covid hauls. 

Another mixed bag, two non-fiction, three fiction, but as usual, good value for money at five for a pound!

Here's what I found.

Let's start with the fiction picks.

All the ratings are from the Goodreads website (as of writing). 

1) Don't Let Go, 2017, by Harlan Coben. 4.05 average review rating. 69358 ratings and 4613 GR reviews.

With unmatched suspense and emotional insight, Harlan Coben explores the big secrets and little lies that can destroy a relationship, a family, and even a town in this powerful new thriller.

Link: Don't Let Go 

2) Kill Baxter, 2014, by Charlie Human. 4.04 average review rating. 457 ratings and 39 GR reviews.

The world has been massively unappreciative of sixteen-year-old Baxter Zevcenko. His bloodline may be a combination of ancient Boer mystic and giant shape-shifting crow, and he may have won an interdimensional battle and saved the world, but does anyone care? No.

Link: Kill Baxter

I must admit, I picked this book up because of the cover!

3) Rumpole On Trial, 2014, by John Mortimer. 4.22 average review rating. 752 ratings and 54 GR reviews.

As Rumpole wends his way from court to wine bar and to the matrimonial home in Froxbury Mansions, listeners find their hero jousting with the Devil as he defends eight-year-old Tracy Timson against the dire threats of the local authority, is wooed by a beautiful violin player, watches Sam Ballard peer into the future, and appears before the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Bar Council.

I don't know about the book, but that's a long sentence. 

Link: Rumpole On Trial 

Now, for the two non-fiction. These are both by (former?) actress, comedian, and latter-day author Ruby Wax.

4) A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, 2016. 3.77 average review rating. 3885 ratings and 300 GR reviews.

In A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, Ruby Wax shows us how to de-frazzle for good by making simple changes that give us time to breathe, reflect and live in the moment. It's an easy-to-understand introduction to mindfulness, weaved together with Ruby's trademark wit and humour. Let Ruby be your guide to a healthier, happier you. You've nothing to lose but your stress…

Link: Frazzled 

2) How to be Human, 2018. 3.71 average review rating. 3223 ratings and 281 GR reviews.

It took us 4 billion years to evolve to where we are now. No question, anyone reading this has won the evolutionary Hunger Games by the fact you're on all twos and not some fossil. This should make us all the happiest species alive - most of us aren't, what's gone wrong?

Link: How to be Human

Slight embarrassment on the back cover of this book is probably the quote recommending the book from Russell Brand. I suspect that later editions will probably change that.    

A book haul...Finding crime in the park.

This is one of my catch-up posts. I found these books in a local park about a month ago.

I mentioned in a previous post that a generous individual was leaving books in the park, usually four or five at a time. With the weather being rain, followed by more rain, to leave them in the park would only result in them getting soaked. I chose to rescue them. If I did not want them, I could always re-deliver them to a local charity shop.

I get the impression that the person leaving the books, likes a thriller, suspense, mystery, and crime. 

Here's what I found.

All the ratings are from the Goodreads website (as of writing). 

1) The Cuckoo's Calling, 2013, by Robert Galbraith (a pseudonym for J K Rowling).  3.89 average review rating. 579328 ratings and 37427 GR reviews.

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that.

Link: The Cuckoo's Calling 

2) Win, 2021, by Harlan Coben.  4.09 average review rating. 66715 ratings and 4865 GR reviews.

From a #1 New York Times bestselling author comes this thrilling story that shows what happens when a dead man's secrets fall into the hands of a vigilante anti-hero—drawing him down a dangerous road.

Link: Win

3) Pure Evil, 2023, by Lynda La Plante.  4.34 average review rating. 2546 ratings and 116 GR reviews.

ALL KILLERS WANT TO MAKE THE FRONT PAGE . . .

Link: Pure Evil

 

4) Victim Without a Face, 2014, by Stefan Ahnhem.  3.97 average review rating. 9311 ratings and 867 GR reviews.

Criminal investigator Fabian Risk has left Stockholm with his wife, Sonja, and their two children to start fresh in his hometown of Helsingborg. He has planned a six-week vacation before he starts a new job at the Homicide Department. But after only a few hours in their new home, he is asked to investigate a brutal murder.

Link: Victim Without a Face

 

 

The Writing Process: The Word Count.

I noticed on Twitter X recently that authors will occasionally mention their word count for the day. Some are quite impressive, writing several thousand words in a day. I'm not that productive, and I felt for some time that I was more of a binge writer than someone who could just write every day. However, I have tried to change this, and that was because of Covid.

When I tested positive for Covid, I decided that while under the weather, I would try to do two things. The first was to catch up on my reading. I have many books that I want to read, but just don't get around to it. Second, I was going to write more consistently. I ended up doing neither. I did some reading, but not much. Furthermore, I did no writing at all.  

For two to three weeks, I just waited for Covid to do its thing and then clear up. Fortunately, It did, but then I thought about all that wasted time. I did very little because I did not feel like doing anything, but this wasn't just procrastination. I did think about what I should be doing, and then I set a goal that I would write every day. So far, that is what I have been doing. In the past, I have never really thought about doing a daily word count, but now that is what I'm doing.

So, in the last four days, my numbers are 1050, 1183, 2286 and so far today, 1058.

This is writing on two WIP. One, is my first attempt at fiction. I will write more about this in due course. The second is non-fiction. 

Somebody posted on Twitter X the writer Ian Fleming's (he of James Bond fame), daily routine. Here it is.

Of course, it does help that he was a successful author and making decent money. For most of us, it is not realistic, but the general principle to write something each day if you can is a good one. 

What works about writing every day, if you can do it, is that the numbers soon add up. Average 1000 words a day, and that is 365,000 in a year, and potentially three or four books. Of course, you need to have the ideas, and then there is all the editing, the promoting, etc, etc. So, it is never that easy as life, and procrastination gets in the way. However, while there is not much I can do about life getting in the way at the moment, I can do more to avoid procrastination.

Charity shop book haul…yet another five for a pound haul (part one).

So, I'm now playing catch up. Having been under the weather for a while, there are a number of posts to catch up on, including several book hauls.

Let's see what I got this time from the charity shop that keeps giving with their five for a pound offer.

All the ratings are from the Goodreads website (as of writing).

1) The Fry Chronicles, an Autobiography by Stephen Fry. 3.84 average review rating, 22132 ratings, 1232 reviews.

“Stephen Fry arrived at Cambridge on probation: a convicted fraudster and thief, an addict, liar, fantasist and failed suicide, convinced that at any moment he would be found out and flung away.

Instead, university life offered him love, romance, and the chance to stand on a stage and entertain.”

Link: The Fry Chronicles 

2) Animal, The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sara Pascoe. 4.15 average review rating, 8839 ratings, 639 reviews.

“Women have so much going on, what with boobs and jealousy and menstruating and broodiness and sex and infidelity and pubes and wombs and jobs and memories and emotions and the past and the future and themselves and each other.

Here's a book that deals with all of it.”

Link: Animal, The Autobiography of a Female Body

3) Only Fools and Stories by David Jason. 4.24 average review rating, 805 ratings, 67 reviews.

“…in a follow-up autobiography, he tells us about the many other lives he has lived – his characters. From Del Boy to Granville, Pop Larkin to Frost, he takes us behind the scenes and under the skins of some of the best loved acts of his career.”

Link: Only Fools and Stories

The Blog: Giving it a New Look.

So, yesterday I decided to change the look of the blog layout and theme, and I think it now looks better. It has a cleaner look to it, no background picture. 

I also simplified the Son of My Father page, along the lines of chapter headings telling the story of what the book is about, so why not do it that way?

Here's a sample.

Chapter Nine — Son of My Father.

Chapter Ten — Big School.

Chapter Eleven — Related to a Film Star?

Chapter Twelve — The Family From Hell.

Chapter Thirteen — The Girl With Beautiful Eyes.

I also managed to write 2300 or so words yesterday of my new WIP (Really getting with it now, it does mean Work in Progress, doesn't it? Doesn't it?). 

I'm sure that one day I will be a proper writer.

Catching Up. Just a Short Post.

Well, I had covid, and I got over covid. At the time, I did plan to do some reading, maybe some writing, but in the end I really did not do too much of either. That means there is a lot to catch up on and the blog got left behind. 

So, here are a few posts to come.

Another charity shop book haul.

I found more books (twice) that someone left in my local wildlife park.

I have two book ideas in development. (If my mother was still alive, she would be saying, "Hark at you. Who do you think you are, Harlan Coben?")

Various Twitter X spats.

Blog shorts, like this one. 

Soon winter will be over, and the five o'clock darkness will disappear for another year.

Writing When Under the Weather: A Covid Post.

Things had started off so well. Last Tuesday, I wrote about 1500 words in my new WIP (Work In Progress). Listen to me using fancy terms to describe doing some writing. Still, I thought that 1500 words was a decent enough amount, and I was looking forward to getting more written the next day.  

The next morning I didn't feel right, a bit achy, a tickle in the throat, although that had been there for about a week. A bit of a cough. At first, I thought, maybe it's a cold? Then, as the mind likes to play tricks, I was reminded of the aches and thought, could it be flu? I doubted it, but it didn't feel exactly like a cold. Feeling lethargic, as the day went on, writing was put on one side. Then I thought, could it be Covid?

I'd avoided it so far. I also had some test packs and decided that I might as well use one, at least it would eliminate covid, as I expected it to be negative (don't know why). So, I did the test. The instructions indicated what a positive test would be, and it would take up to fifteen minutes to confirm either way. It actually took about half that time. Two red bars indicating positive. Oh dear. I began to wonder where I had picked it up. In the previous week, I hadn't been around that many people, so I didn't need to contact anyone to warn them. 

Now, it's the sixth day, and the only good thing about the last week is that I did get some reading done, although most of the time I felt too lethargic or listless to even read. I didn't even think about doing any writing, although having Covid has given me an idea to develop within the story that I was writing. In one of those strange coincidences, the last thing I had written was how my main character would need to be careful to avoid catching something serious, given the options for treatment were no longer available.

So, this is the first I've written for a while. It would have been nice to report that in the downtime of being sick, I had written a lot, but that's not the case. I'm now getting back into it, and hopefully, as things improve from here, I will get a move on and write more.

The twelve posts of Christmas...day twelve.

The Twelve Days are 25 December – 5 January, with the last day being Twelfth Night (Epiphany Eve), and this is the final post of this series.

Many people will use the start of a new year to make a change in their life, a resolution.

I did not make any, other than to keep on writing, or try to. My current project is a work of fiction. It is a new experience for me to write fiction, but as a friend of mine use to say, you will never know if you don't try.

That concludes the twelve posts of Christmas for this year.

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas!
 

 

The twelve posts of Christmas...day eleven. Em dash, en dash or hyphen?

On Twitter X yesterday, someone mentioned the use of em dash in their writing, I wondered what it was. I had to look it up.

A dash is longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. The most common types of dashes are the en dash (–) and the em dash (—).

A hyphen (-) is a punctuation mark that’s used to join words or parts of words. It’s not interchangeable with other types of dashes.

Grammarist.com 

Clearly, this was something that I should have known, as for years I have occasionally used a dash. It seems I may have been using it wrong, or using the wrong one. 

I blame the education system, and the keyboard on my PC! My school because I must have been taught this, but it clearly didn't stay in my mind. I was probably not paying attention. I also blame the keyboard, because there are no dedicated em dash or en dash keys.  There is a hyphen key, and that is what I have been using, more or less, regardless of whether it needed the em or en dash, which I had totally forgotten about. Naughty boy, but why had I totally forgotten about it? It may be because it is rarely used—and I rarely use it. Accept, I just did. Was that too dramatic, and did I use it right!?

Rule #1

Use an em dash to highlight dramatic interrupting ideas, summaries, and abrupt changes of thought.

Grammarist.com 

 

The twelve posts of Christmas...day ten. The Original Twelve Days of Christmas.

 

The twelve posts of Christmas...day nine. When you get the writing itch, you have to scratch it, part two.

I didn't mean for there to be a part two to the writing itch post. 

I hadn't planned it, but maybe it is something to do with the time of year, but I don't have the urge to write right now. For the moment, there is no itch. 

I wrote in a previous post about binge writing, doing it when inspired, when the ideas flow. The alternative being those that set themselves a goal of writing every day. The goal of setting a number of words to write each day looks a good one, as five hundred words a day gives you five thousand after ten days and fifty thousand in a hundred days.   That's a short read book every three months, or a long read in five or six months, but are the words any good? Are the words that come from writing every day inspired ones?

I think I might be a binge writer, someone who needs to be inspired to do it at the time, but I sometimes wonder if it is procrastination and laziness? I would like to try and find a balance between the two. 

An idea has just come to me to write a short story a month, a thousand words a day, but then I think, what about the longer story I am trying to write right now? Can I do both? Can I find the time and inspiration to do both? The short story idea will probably have to wait.

So, that's all for this post. At least I have written something and the Grammarly language tool is telling me it's fine. Not fine in the sense that it is any good, but fine as in, yay, no errors found.

Thanks for reading!