Saturday 6 April 2013

FINISHING - A to Z CHALLENGED


Each post for the A to Z Challenge is the challenge I set for myself.

Becoming a page was the first
stage on the path to becoming
a knight
F is for FINISHING.
















When it comes to writing, I think F is for Finishing and not letting your focus fizzle out in the face of the shiny, new idea.

HAL LONGLEAT AND THE TROUBLE WITH TRUTH
Hal shook his head. He’d seen pages around. The ones at Brockley Castle served at Lord Courtney’s table, they learned to read with the priest and trained to fight on foot and on horseback too. Usually, pages arrived to begin training when they were seven years-old. He was already ten.
Hal frowned again. People were either servants or masters. Pages were the sons of knights and lords. He was a servant. That was his place in the world. 



Could YOU have been gifted with the ability to identify and eliminate weak and brittle phrases from your work? To the uninitiated, these interlopers look like quality imagery.

CLICHÉ RAIDERS: REWRITE!

•           fast and furious
•           fate worse than death
•           fighting fit
•           fish out of water
•           flog a dead horse
•           forlorn hope
•           fraught with danger/peril
•           frenzy of activity
•           from the sublime to the ridiculous
•           fullness of time, in the

FOR F, I CHOSE FINISHING. WHAT IS THE SUBJECT OF YOUR F POST?

16 comments:

  1. I can't tell you how many writers I know who have difficulty with this! Excellent topic! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi DL
      I know! It's terrible... I never plan to not finish, it's odd how that happens ;)

      Delete
  2. I think it is one of the hardest things to do, especially finishing properly and not endlessly tinkering around. Sorry I'm too tired to rewrite your cliches!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't plan anyone to re-write them here ;) They're only pointers for any writing, they are slippery critters that tend to turn up all over the place.

      Delete
  3. LOL - I am stuck on starting, finishing is a long time away for me. My F - follow your dreams.

    Thanks for checking out my AtoZ.
    Rhonda @Laugh-Quotes.com
    AtoZ #42

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Rhonda
      Starting is an exciting time - that's part of finishing's problem ;)

      Delete
  4. Oh, cliches. Fine in a first draft, then time to kill them off in editing.

    It's tough though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Steph
      They are so insidious. Finding a different phrasing is easy in the narrative. In dialogue, to convey ironic humour between characters, the old ones can be the best.

      Delete
  5. Finishing is definitely hard. I could tweak and polish forever if I didn't put my foot down and say "enough".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kellie
      Wasn't it Leonardo de Vinci who said no piece of art was ever truly finished?

      Delete
  6. Finishing is easy for me with writing is easy. It's starting that gets me down LOL. I'm posting about Flan today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Karen
      I find starting very easy. I love the idea of posting about Flan. Over on your blog, I've been reading lots of tasty recipes this month.

      Delete
  7. I love your choice of "Finishing" for F. What would a beginning be without a finish? My F is for Friends.
    Kathy @ Swagger Writers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kathy
      I love the idea of posting about Friends, they play an important part in real life and in fiction too ;)

      Delete
  8. Great post! And I loved the F-list of cliches. Writing strong is something I struggle with. Thank you!
    My F is Farai, a character in my novel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sangita
      The clichés are only the ones I thought were most likely to slip into my novel - there is a master list containing MANY more clichés to look out for - *eep!

      Delete