Bev Robitai
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What gems are in YOUR Memory?

24/2/2015

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It may have been some childhood reading of prisoner of war stories that fuelled a question that has stayed with me for years. If I was incarcerated without recourse to any other form of entertainment, what cultural gems would I be able to access from my memory?

In Victorian times it was normal to have a repertoire of songs and poems which could be performed at will to delight friends and family in the parlour between games of Charades and pass-the-parcel.

I suspect many mature readers still recall poems learned by rote as children, like The Listeners by Walter de la Mare

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses   

Of the forest’s ferny floor:

And a bird flew up out of the turret,   

Above the Traveller’s head:

And he smote upon the door again a second time;   

‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.

How about Shelley’s Ozymandias?

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies,


Yes, I thought you’d know it.

Personally, I can recite the entire poem Silly Old Baboon by Spike Milligan as a party piece, along with Monty Python’s sketch about an elderly German gentleman with a name that takes a full twenty seconds to say. And I’ll never forget the antipodean bonds formed on my OE when a bunch of Kiwis all flawlessly recited ‘We are the blokes from down on the farm, we really know our cheese.’

Yep, that’ll keep me entertained when I’m banged up in solitary. Or when sunstrike wipes out any electronic play-back device.

But I fear our culture is declining. Those from later generations may not be lucky enough to have such literary gems in their heads and will have to make do with words like -

What do they make dreams for
When you got them jeans on
What do we need steam for
You the hottest bitch in this place
I feel so lucky
Hey, hey, hey
You wanna hug me
Hey, hey, hey
What rhymes with hug me?
Hey, hey, hey


Ah yes, the classy refrains from Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines. Give me Spike Milligan any day.

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How to Set out Your Word Doc for Maximum Efficiency – Part One

21/2/2015

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As an editor I see all kinds of book files from writers with varying degrees of presentation skill. Some have had typing training that is now obsolete, others are afraid of their computers, and almost all of them could save a lot of editing time if they’d started out writing their book with a few basic things in place. When a Word document is done correctly from the beginning, it’s very easy to make changes throughout the file later without throwing the whole book into chaos.

The first thing to do is make sure the main part of your text is in the ‘Normal’ style. You’ll find that on the top toolbar, highlighted with a yellow box if your text is ‘Normal’. If you can’t see a box saying Normal, try clicking on the Change Styles tab shown in the picture below and choose ‘Default’. The Normal box should appear as one of the Style options.



The beauty of setting up your main text properly is that you can change fonts, change sizes, change indents, paragraphs and justification all in one action in the Style menu.

It’s worth playing around with this feature to get a feel for it before you try it on something terribly important. Copy and paste a chunk of text into a fresh Word page. Make sure it’s ‘Normal’. Now select a couple of lines and change the font and size. Now go to the yellow-edged Normal box in the Style toolbar, the one that the red arrow is pointing to in the picture. Right-click to give a drop-down menu which has as its top line ‘update Normal to match selection’. Select that, and watch your whole page of text change font and size to match the chosen lines.



Easy-peasy! So much better than trying to highlight the whole book to change the font, or battling the Find and Replace menu to alter the format.

You use the same process to choose your paragraph type – whether indented (no space between paragraphs) or block paragraphs with no indent and a space between them. You don’t have to put in a space manually – Word will do it for you, and it can be undone easily if you change your mind and want to use indented paragraphs instead.



Here’s the tab to choose your paragraph style – this post is written in block style with a space after the paragraph, as is common in non-fiction writing. Most fiction is written with indented paragraphs with no space between. Add or remove the space to suit. And hey, look, here’s the line spacing option too. Really handy to alter it back and forth to see how it changes the page count and readability.

That’s enough to get your head around today. Come back next week for a look at headings, and some great labour-saving options that Word provides.

And remember, ‘normal’ is just a style – not a judgement of your brilliant, sparkling, innovative and far-from-normal writing!

Happy typing!





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plunging right into writing

6/2/2015

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OK, the decision has been made. It's time to get writing on this blog of mine. And not just because writing a blog post is easier than buckling down to start the next novel - no, that's not it at all. Hey, I'm a writer - I do stuff like this every day. Starting a new book? Ptcha! (dismissive noise) Setting up a cast of new characters and finding them something to do holds no terrors for me, no siree. Devising a fresh and ingenious narrative is my bread and butter. Why, there's absolutely nothing stopping me from opening a new file right now and making a start on the next Sunstrike novel. I could do it, you know. Just like that. *clicks fingers* But I want to get this blog started first.

Oh, wait - was that an email arriving? Excuse me while I check what it is. Someone may need instant action. No, false alarm. But since I've stopped, I'll just check Facebook while I'm there.

Twenty minutes later.
Ha ha! Oh man, that kitten was SOOOO cute! The way that fluffy little thing just stared into the camera and tipped over the glass. I'm still laughing.

Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes, getting on with writing. You have to be really disciplined to succeed at this game. It takes grit to sit down at the keyboard every day and just write, no matter what. You have to get the words down even if the story seems lame and you know it's not quite right. Then at least you'll have something to edit. Gotta have that first draft done before you can work on it. Every day, pick your time and stay at your desk until you've completed your allotted hours or the number of words you set as your target. No distractions. No excuses. Unless you need a snack, right? Writers are supposed to drink coffee, aren't they? You're allowed to stop for coffee.

Forty minutes later.
Can't believe how untidy the kitchen was but it's all tidy now, and I got a load of laundry started as well.

Yes, writing has to take priority in your life if you're going to take it seriously. You'll be giving up TV time, family time, even relaxation time in order to make space for it, but remember, if you write 1000 words every day you'll have a novel in less than three months! So no more excuses, just plunge right into your next piece of writing and make it happen. Stay with it, stay focussed. You'll be glad you did.

So, that's a blog post done and dusted. Hah! That wasn't hard at all. Don't know why I procrastinated about it for so long.

I could make a start on the novel now.
I could.

Oh thank god, it's lunchtime.
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