Category: Writing

Writing

Common Mistakes We Need To Correct

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Grammar Matters, Common Mistakes, Error Free Writing, Writers Tools, Writing helpmate, Professional Writing, Editing Writing, Making Right Sentences

Grammar Matters

While we would like to think that little mistakes don’t matter, they certainly do and could literally cost you an opportunity.

Imagine that you are sending a proposal to pitch to an editor for a certain writing job and it’s full of errors in them? I’ll leave the answer to you.

Wielding your words skillfully creates positive perceptions about you and what you’ve got to say, especially when trading your words is something that you do as a profession or something that you plan to take up doing.

Even after years of reading, writing, studying it in school, we still mess up now and again with our grammar and spellings and it’s not because we don’t know these things, but may simply be due to slip-ups that we don’t even recognize. This is why editors earn big bucks to help us tailor our words/story and circle out our errors that have blended into our work.

However, not all of us can afford the cost of professional editing – not yet at least, and whilst we work our way towards that time, we could keep our writing clean, professional and appealing by taking advantage of the opportunities available to us. These assistants help end mistakes that make us look sloppy.

Let’s look at a few of these mistakes 

Read more through this link.

 

Writing

Essential Writers Tips 6

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Write Dangerously

Telling your best story in the best possible way that you can is the goal of a writer and sometimes this might involve stepping away from conventional writing and taking a risk with your writing.

Risk taking writing pushes your writing out of the box that you’ve nicely fitted it into, to another level.

Grab their attention with that opening line and hold it as you take off from there. In these days of Kindle and fast read, the action gets fast real quick like a jet zooming to take off.

This doesn’t imply that a story shouldn’t have the best calm, soft and gentle opening that’s ever been written, of course, it could, but that opening should be tight and grasp its readers’ attention.

If you are opening up with a love scene, make it sizzle without being off-putting, plant innuendos that make a reader want to know more or even afraid to know more – take a risk and allow your characters to lead their story without stifling and reshaping their thoughts too much. Read More

Writing

ESSENTIAL WRITERS TIPS 5

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Writing, Essential Writers Tips, Fully Present, Experience, Open, Curious, Top Tips, Best Practice, Interactions

Be Open, Be Curious, Be Present

A mind closed in its way of thinking leaves little room for growth. To develop one’s writing capabilities involves keeping the mind open and curious to learn from everything that happens around us because everything is a possible material for your writing.

As a writer, in today’s world where technology has inadvertently affected direct human interactions, it’s become even more pertinent that we are fully present, curious and open to our surroundings. Read More

Writing

I write therefore I am

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Essential Writers Tips, Think Like Writer, Professional Writer, Best Practice, Bestseller, Huffington Post, Positive Attitude, Mind Strength, Self-Help, Growth, Success

I write, therefore I am

Identify with the craft and think like a writer. A lot of beginner writers and even some who have crafted words for  some time are always reluctant to introduce themselves as a writer.  Read more

Writing

CATCH THOSE GRAMMAR GREMLINS AND SQUIGGLY SPELLING ERRORS

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Grammar, Grammar Mistakes, Spelling Errors, Grammarly, Write Better, Proof Read Writing, Professional Writing, Writers

Nip Writing Mistakes In The Bud.

Would you be able to count how many times you’ve crafted a perfect article, published it, only to read it a few days later and gasp @$#@@, lo and behold, there it is eyeing you in a malevolent way – a Wrong Spelling, a Grammatical Error, all inserted by those hideous trolls? Quelle Horreur!

Now the ever-loving Grammar Police will be after you with vengeance. Yep! There are those who make it their business to catch spelling and grammar defaulters and you’ll be banished to the spelling room with a Nanny McPhee nightmare of a teacher. Beware!

Have I got your attention yet? Read More

 

Uncategorized · Writer's Quote Wednesday · Writing

Just hold on – Writers quote Wednesday challenge.

jacquelineobyikocha17 Comments

Love[1]

I believe and have faith in love
for in it lies immeasurable strength
Even on day’s when my faith in humanity
diminishes to micro pieces
that it won’t even match a mustard seed
On such days, I look up to the heavens
and facing the sky
I let the shadows fall behind.

There are moments when faith
is all that have
to propel me forward and hold me upright
On such days, I clasp my thin flicker of faith
like a loving companion and cloak
and allow its strength to seep into me
till my hope rises again.

There are moments
when the future might look bleak to us
when so much seems to be going wrong
in such moments
we turn to faith in hope
that the future will look brighter
if only we can hold on.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns – Anne Lamott

Faith does not make things easy, but makes them possible – Luke 1:37

Writing this week’s prompt ‘Faith’ for WQWWC after days of minds battered with all that’s happening around us is a welcome reprieve even though it’s a hard topic. A hard topic to write on when it’s seems as though the World is momentarily going berserk and my faith in humanity dwindles.

Then again, if we completely lose our faith, then all hope is truly lost and we’ll find ourselves living in a World that’s not only pessimistic and negative, but will become a highly toxic World.

So, I’ll hold onto my flicker of faith that love will always win and my faith comes from above.

P.S: You can join our online party this weekend. It’s always a good time:-)

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Stars, Five Stars, Logo, Icon, Symbol, Five, Rating

“Beautiful Poetry of Life and Love.” Amanda

Out of the silent breath

If you enjoy my works and would like to do so, you can fuel my creativity with a slice of cake or coffee😉

The Daily Post · Writing

My sister, my sister…

jacquelineobyikocha40 Comments

Sister[1]

This

is who 

you truly are.

That

rare gem 

of irrefutable value.

***

Imperfectly perfect soul

 of beautiful

human.

Your indelible cracks 

have made you

inestimable.

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

 

She is amazing at describing love and life in her poems. She creates such beautiful images with her words. Truly, she is a talented writer and I’m so excited to have her poetry book and to continue reading through it.

Out of the silent breath

Writer's Quote Wednesday · Writing

Feeding The Inspiration…The Writer’s Quote Wednesday Challenge

jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

This week’s prompt for Writers Quote Wednesday Challenge is ‘inspiration’ and I found an interesting quote below. The poem following the quote is my thought on how I feel sometimes about inspiration.

“The Page awaits the inspiration even as inspiration roams the world of man, seeking a page upon which to unfurl itself, body and soul, bare yet clothed in immortality if not immediacy. And the gods said, “Let there be a Page and many a Page,” and there was a Book. And we saw that the Book was good.” ― Chila Woychik

Like delicate butterflies darting around
inspirations float quickly past
that to catch and keep it
my pen has to be
as swift as a hawk.

They are like shiny dew drops
that evaporate in the morning sun
Therefore, I catch them
and store in my bottle of thoughts
to imbibe at my pleasure.

Surrounding us at every turn
some inspirations are little buds
that blossoms into full-fledged ideas
gathering momentum as it opens up
or shriveling to death from lack of nourishment.

What inspires one to write? I’m yet to find the answer. I just know that there are driving forces inside my head that makes me write what I write and I follow the voices.

Some ideas I bank for use at some point in time and some dance around in my head until they either go to sleep or I do something about them.

What I’ve also come to realise is that though sometimes we may lack the perfect inspiring moments to write, we should write nonetheless. Even if it’s fodder for our waste basket 🙂

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Writer's Quote Wednesday · Writing

Poisonous Obsession…Writers Quote Wednesday

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Chains, Caught, Psyche, Woman, Patient, Cry, Suffering

For this week’s Writers Quote Wednesday challenge, we have an interesting prompt ‘obsession.’

There are times I’ve questioned my reason for writing. Why am I so subsumed with this demanding mistress of mine? Could it be defined as an obsession?

….and I realize that to stop writing would be fatal! It’s like asking me to stop living. How will I speak when my voice is dimmed?

I can live with my irresistible passion, even if you call it an obsession, though I’ve written a poem about fatal obsession below.

“To be the object of someone’s obsession is horrible.” Tippi Hedren

They said their love was written in the stars
she reveled in her attractive man from Mars
he made her feel coveted like a prized possession
even when it became a smothering obsession
she excused it as the ultimate profession
of love, that turned fatal in slow progression.

From obsession to repression,
to recession and aggression…
a total mind game bent on suppression
to bring about her complete subservience
he pummelled her into manic depression
with his consistent intelligent oppression

His love became the poisonous dangling apple
that choked anyone who cared to take a nibble.

The End!

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Creative Writing · Fiction · Friday Fiction in Five Sentences · Writing

Curtain Call….Friday Fiction in Five Sentences.

jacquelineobyikocha4 Comments

creative-writing-1041597_1280

The cast takes a bow to the standing ovation of a delighted crowd for the brilliant performance of The Sweet Fairy.

Poppy flushes in excitement and pride. Her heart swells from the euphoric dopamine of being a lead for the very first time.

It’s an experience she wants to have over and over again.

For the very first time in her twelve years as an actor on Broadway, she get’s to be a lead.

No more supporting acts she vows silently to herself, her mind racing on how to continue ensuring that Loretta remains incapacitated with illness.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

The air is so crispy

The birds are quite chirpy

The magic of nature abounds

As I imbibe all the sounds.

**

*an excerpt of my poem*