Yearly Archives: 2018

British English for American writers

This entry was posted in Writing and tagged international spelling vocabulary on by

Ghostwriters have to write in a voice different from their normal one, and sometimes even in a different dialect. When writing for a Canadian, British, or Australian site, you want to look like a native writer. It’s tricky to get it really right.

Each nation’s treatment of English is different. British, Australian, and New Zealand English are fairly close to one another (in spelling, not pronunciation!). Canadians use a version that’s somewhere between American and British English. I’ll focus mostly on the American and British versions here, for the sake of brevity.
(more…)

HTTPS (finally)!

This entry was posted in Writing on by

This site now is entirely behind HTTPS URLs, which I should have done a long time ago. You won’t get browser warnings of an “insecure” site, and you can submit Web forms with more confidence.

The old URLs will still work, redirecting to the corresponding HTTPS ones. You may want to update your bookmarks, though.

Yesterday’s Songs Transformed: Update 1

This entry was posted in My writing and tagged music writing Yesterday's Songs Transformed on by

Yesterday’s Songs Transformed is getting close to completion. I’m working on the introduction, which traditionally is one of the last things you write. It deals with the relationship of the book to Tomorrow’s Songs Today. TST is about filk music. YST grows out of my interest in filk. It puts the rewriting of song lyrics into a bigger context. I expect a large part of my audience to be people interested in filk, people who love the idea of replacing old lyrics with new ones. I also hope that other music lovers will get enjoyment out of it.
(more…)

Maximizing the value of each word

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged style writing on by

When I’m polishing text that I’ve written, I find myself thinking about the value each word contributes. Can I replace a long phrase with a short one with equal value? Can I use a high-value word in place of one that has relatively little?

By “value” I mean the precision and impact which each word contributes to the statement. A precise word has more value than one with a broad meaning. A straightforward word or phrase has more value than a cliché. A sentence with a high value per word has more impact than one that’s full of low-value words.
(more…)

Working with Finale and Open Office

This entry was posted in Editing Writing and tagged Finale music OpenOffice on by

A current project of mine is compiling and editing the songbook portion of the ConCertino 2018 program book. I’m using OpenOffice for the pages and Finale for the music notation.

This is the first time I’ve worked with the full version of Finale on a project. Previously I’d used the budget versions, called Finale Allegro and later Finale PrintMusic. When the publisher dropped PrintMusic and offered a cheap upgrade to Finale, I took them up on it. I didn’t think that the extra features would be that useful for my purposes, but they’ve turned out to be quite helpful.
(more…)

The right word 4

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged usage vocabulary on by

Of all the crimes against good writing, the worst is using the wrong word. A grammatical error looks sloppy, but as long as it doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence, people will get what you mean. Use the wrong word, though, and you fail to convey what you’re trying to say. That amounts to failing as a writer.

Usage errors fall into several categories. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it includes the types of errors that annoy me the most.
(more…)

W. A. Mozart, ghostwriter

This entry was posted in Writing on by

A stranger approached Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in July 1791. He wanted Mozart to write a Requiem for a patron and to finish it as quickly as possible. Mozart never finished it. On December 5, he died. Some people think he was poisoned.

The patron was named Count Franz von Walsegg. The Count wanted to pass off Mozart’s work as his own, in memory of his recently deceased wife. In other words, he hired one of the greatest composers in history as a ghostwriter of music. Mozart’s students, Franz Xaver Süssmayr and Joseph Eybler, finished the work. Walsegg made a partial payment to Mozart; it isn’t clear whether he paid for the completion. The condition of secrecy had been thoroughly ruined by that point. German Mozart postal commemorative
(more…)

The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist

This entry was posted in Reviews and tagged books justice Mississippi on by

Cover of The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist This is a blog about writing, and books are writing, so book reviews are on topic here, right? The book in question here is The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist, by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington. It’s an important book and one that may shock you. If I had more vivid powers of visualization, I might not have been able to get through it.

Before reading this book, I had plenty of reasons to believe the American criminal justice system is broken. Now I have more. The book focuses on Mississippi, which has a long record of being one of the worst states in that respect, especially if the accused is black. It focuses on two individuals, Doctors Steven Hayne and Michael West. Both helped to convict many people with what was believed to be their forensic expertise. Both have been pushed out of that role by the light shed on their work. Radley Balko has played a big role in accomplishing that. But the bigger issue is a legal system that allowed junk science to be used as evidence.
(more…)