Retracing your steps

Retracing your steps Retracing your steps Retracing your steps By Hugh Ashton Its probably fair to say that no one enjoys editing and rewriting their own work. The first flush of creation is fun especially with fiction. Characters start to fill out and find their own voices. Neat little phrases that youve been saving up for some time pop out and appear in their appointed places, and the plot moves along nicely towards a satisfactory finish. And then the bubble pops. A friend, whose judgement you trust, reads the manuscript and tells you that the plot detail you really loved is actually impossible. Of course, this tiny little plot detail is the one on which the whole of the rest of the book hinges. So what you must do is rip up the story from that point on and rewrite it. Thats the kind of situation Im in now. At about the start of 2008 I finished the draft of a novel about the financial world in Tokyo. The dà ©nouement (what a nice word that is, especially with the accent!) includes an account of a massive earthquake that rocks Tokyo. What it does not include is any account of the Lehmans debacle and any book dealing with financial matters which has any pretense to realism should definitely include a reference to this event. So, seeing that the (long overdue) earthquake hasnt occurred, but the collapse of the banking world has, I am busy rewriting, and its sometimes a bit painful to be retreading these old paths. How is this different from the first burst of writing? On the one hand I know too much. I know how the storys going to end, and how its going to come about (I tend not to micro-plan stories in advance but I like the ending I have already). So its boring not to create it from scratch. On the other hand, I have a much clearer picture in my head of the characters than I did first time round. Theyre more real to me than they were, and as a result, their dialog, as well as their actions, makes more sense to the reader. Because I am closer to them, I also have an emotional involvement with them something that wasnt really there before and I think this makes a real difference to the writing. One reader of the first draft made the valid criticism that he didnt really feel he cared too much about what happened to the protagonist there wasnt enough there to hold psychological interest, though the story itself was interesting. I am trying to rewrite the last quarter of the book from scratch, rather than re-use previously written material, and this introduces an obvious advantage to the rewriting process the ability to revise and remove awkwardness in style and plot. But to me the major advantage, boring as it may be to actually perform the rewriting, is that I have become better acquainted with my characters, and I can breathe more life into them. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Idioms About Numbers50 Idioms About Arms, Hands, and Fingers30 Nautical Expressions

Words of War for Spanish Students

Words of War for Spanish Students Looking for a different perspective on the news of the world? If so, check out one of the many Spanish-language news sources and get an idea of what people in Latin America or Spain or other Spanish-speaking places are reading. If the news is about war, you may find this vocabulary list helpful. War Vocabulary List Alphabetized in Spanish Words below are alphabetized in Spanish; see the next section for the same words alphabetized in English. el alto el fuego - cease-fireel arma, las armas - weapon, weaponslas armas de destruccià ³n masiva - weapons of mass destructionatacar - to attackel ataque - attackla baja - casualty (death)base (aà ©rea, military)  - (air, military) basela batalla - battlela baterà ­a - batteryel blanco (militar) - (military) targetla bomba - bombbombardear - to bombcivil - civilian (noun or adjective)el/la comandante - commanderel combate - combatel/la (no) combatiente  - (non)combatantel conflicto - conflictla Convencià ³n de Ginebra - Geneva Conventionel/la coronel - colonelel criminal de guerra - war criminallos derechos humanos - human rightsderribar - to shoot down, to bring downdestruir - destroyel ejà ©rcito - armyencontrarse cautivo - to be taken captiveestar en control, encontrarse en control - to be in controlla explosià ³n - explosionlas fuerzas aà ©reas - air forcelas fuerzas aliadas - allied forceslas fuerzas armadas (FF. AA.) - armed forcesel/l a general - generalel gobierno - governmentla granada - grenade la guerra - warel helicà ³ptero - helicopterherido - injuredherir - to injurelas hostilidades - hostilitieshumanitario - humanitarianla inteligencia militar - military intelligencela invasià ³n - invasionla marina - navymatar - to killmilitar - military (adjective)el/la militar - soldier, fighterel misil - missilela muerte - deathel objector de conciencia - conscientious objectorla ofensiva - offensivela patrulla (patrullar, estar de patrulla) - patrol (to patrol, to be on patrol)la paz - peaceel/la piloto - pilotel preso de guerra, el prisionero de guerra - prisoner of warla propaganda - propagandaresguardar - to protect againstla resistencia - resistancesacudir - to strike, to hitsangriento - bloodyel/la soldado - soldierel tanque, el carro de combate - tankel territorio - territoryel/la terrorista - terroristlas tropas - troops War Vocabulary Alphabetized in Enlish air force - las fuerzas aà ©reasallied forces - las fuerzas aliadasarmed forces - las fuerzas armadasarmy - el ejà ©rcito(air, military) base - base (aà ©rea, military)attack - el ataqueto attack - atacarbattery - la baterà ­abattle - la batallato be in control - estar en control, encontrarse en controlto be taken captive - encontrarse cautivobloody - sangrientobomb - la bombato bomb - bombardearcasualty - la baja (death), el/la herido (injured person)cease-fire - el alto el fuegocivilian (noun or adjective) - civilcolonel - el/la coronelcombat - el combate(non)combatant - el/la (no) combatientecommander - el/la comandanteconflict - el conflictoconscientious objector - el objector de concienciadeath - la muertedestroy - destruirexplosion - la explosià ³ngeneral - el/la generalGeneva Convention - la Convencià ³n de Ginebragovernment - el gobiernogrenade - la granadahelicopter - el helicà ³pterohostilities - las hostilidadeshumanitarian - humanit ariohuman rights - los derechos humanosto injure - herir injured - heridoinvasion - la invasià ³nto kill - matarmilitary (adjective) - militarmilitary intelligence - la inteligencia militarmissile - el misilnavy - la marinaoffensive - la ofensivapatrol (to patrol, to be on patrol) - la patrulla (patrullar, estar de patrulla)peace - la pazpilot - el/la pilotoprisoner of war - el preso de guerra, el prisionero de guerrapropaganda - la propagandato protect against - resguardarresistance - la resistenciato shoot down, to bring down - derribarsoldier, fighter - el/la militar, el/la soldadoto strike, to hit - sacudirtank - el tanque, el carro de combate(military) target - el blanco (militar)territory - el territorioterrorist - el/la terroristatroops - las tropaswar - la guerrawar criminal - el criminal de guerraweapon, weapons - el arma, las armasweapons of mass destruction - las armas de destruccià ³n masiva

The Effect of Shoe Heel Height And Floor Incline Research Paper

The Effect of Shoe Heel Height And Floor Incline - Research Paper Example Discovered on Egyptian wall paintings dating back to 3500 B.C., high heels were owned by the privileged people and were made by fastening together leather parts, which were set to characterize the emblem for life. The prehistoric citizens of Renaissance, Rome and Greece would put on (kothorni) or buskins shoes with wood or cork soles. These shoes inferred social prominence and significance on the stage of a theater and on the streets of a civilization. Roman women were straightforwardly acknowledged as prostitutes by their high heels. The Middle Ages saw the entrance of designs, or wooden soles, which kept both sexes’ costly shoes from being stained by street rubbish. In the 1400s, chopines were massively prevalent among European women. Venetian women, in particular, made these seven or even thirty inch high heels conspicuous on the perilous Italian streets. For the reason that promenading requisite canes or servants for sustenance, escape from the harem was unmanageable. Chop ines were sooner or later banned for being too hazardous. Fashion dominated functions upon the official invention of high heels by the diminutive imminent Queen of France, Catherine de Medici. So as to appear more astounding and bewitching than her fiancà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s concubine, Diana de Poitiers, Catherine dressed on a pair of 2 inch high heels for her wedding to the Duke of Orleans. She thrived with monarch after monarch ensuing her high heel tendency. High heels turned out to be so well-liked that the word well-heeled acknowledged a person of power or wealth. After Catherine de Medici put on her heels, high heels instigated their strenuous journey through history.  

Letter of advice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Letter of advice - Essay Example Sa number of obstacles to effective interpersonal communication that you have faced and may still face include reluctance to communicate, poor listening skills, predispositions about the subject, education and social background, age, gender, and cultural differences, language barrier, personality clashes, time pressures and unrealistic expectations. I feel that a major barrier to intimate relationships is unrealistic expectations that we have about our spouses. These is acquired from our upbringing, culture, romantic novels and movies or social media. When these expectations are not met, we feel disappointed and angry, then blame our spouses for the relationship troubles (Theravive, 2011). The solution is openness, honesty and active listening. Women and men communicate differently in relationships. Women communicate to connect with others. They relay emotions more readily and are more relationship-oriented. Their motivation is to build friendship and closeness and, thus, may appear too clingy or nagging. Men communicate to relay information. They dwell on topics that barely touch on emotions, thus, may appear to be aloof or uncaring. They see the practicality of issues and want to solve problems for their spouses. Bearing this in mind, the two of you can begin to understand the differences with which each gender approaches issues. For example, Sam can try to be more open about his emotions without appearing to be weak in your eyes, Sue. Also, Sue can try to be more patient and not take it personally when Sam tries to solve her problems. Culture refers to the values, behavior, and beliefs of a particular social group. These values can be about religion, race, nationality, social class and gender issues. They shape our thoughts, opinions, goals and perceptions. They are acquired during our formative years from our families, schooling and social environment. Intercultural relationships are beneficial because they offer

SWOT analysis of Japan Essay Example for Free

SWOT analysis of Japan Essay Japan Strength Abundant entertainment Tokyo provides a range of attractions for visitors looking for authentic Japanese culture, numerous shops, restaurants, museums, art galleries, and sightseeing, including modern buildings and historic architecture. Centre for business Tokyo is a global business hub, including international conventions. Tokyds stock exchange is one of the worlds big three stock exchange Weakness Expensive Though Japan has experienced deflation in recent years, prices in Tokyo are still much higher than in other Asian countries. Also public transportation and accommodation are expensive. Few Direct International Flights Most international flights arrive at Narita International Airport. Tourists are required to take a one hour train ride from the airport to get to the city. Only 11% of visitors arrive at Tokyo Haneda International Airport. Opportunities Growing Inbound A large increase in the number of international visitors is expected to grow over the next three years. Supported by growing economies, an increasing number of Asian travelers will spend on premium standards Luxury Hotels A fall in the price of land, a large increase in international travellers and M;A among domestic hotels that are facing financial difficulties will provide opportunities for global luxury hotel operators. Threats Low priced trips to neighbours Prices of travel packages to Japans neighbouring countries are falling. The number of direct flights from local airports to Seoul will increase. Weekend holidays to Seoul will become more appealing Declining Population Travelling within the USA is threatened by a decrease in the national population. decrease in the travelling population (people travelling to the country to have a hoilday).

I Know What You Did Last Summer :: essays research papers

1) Julie, Ray, Helen, and Barry are four close friends, Julie and Ray being a couple and Barry and Helen also being one. Being high school students, they went late one night up to a clearing in the forest to hang out. When driving home, they had been a little drunk and were still kissing, they ran over a ten year old kid, David Gregg, who was riding a bicycle. Ray had been driving. The four kept driving until they reached a telephone, where an anonymous ambulance was called for help for the child. The four formed a pact as to keep the incident between them and not to anyone else. Julie and Ray had been against it, but agreed and made it. After that happened, Julie and Ray isolated themselves from the rest of the group. Julie, normally a highly school activity involved social girl, turned to studying and working hard for her senior year, having a new boyfriend named Bud. Ray totally fled the scene, moving to be carefree in California for a year. Helen and Barry remained a couple, Bar ry going to the local University and Helen being the channel 5 Golden Girl, or weather reporter. The real plot of the story begins with Julie receiving a note at home simply stating: â€Å"I know what you did last summer.† She gets upset over it and after not talking to her for a year since the incident, calls Helen to talk to her. Helen arranges a meeting for the three, but they all convince each other that it was just a kid pulling a prank. That blows over until Ray finally shows up, and upon finding an apartment, is mailed the article about the incident. Ray and Julie take a drive to talk about the note and article, and Julie convinces Ray to take her to see David’s parents. Not confess, just meet and ask about. They arrived at the house and rung the doorbell a few times, only to meet Megan, the sister of David. She told Julie, while Ray was off â€Å"calling for help for their car†, that David’s mother was put in a hospital due to an unstable mental s tate, her father staying by her side. Her older brother was off and out of the house. Anyway, as they left, Ray notes that Megan was hanging up men’s shirts to dry and the house’s paint looked fairly new – and in places that Megan, who was short, couldn’t reach, even with a ladder.

Did the Popular Culture of the 1960 Do More Harm Than Good? Essay

The 1960’s reflects a huge change in people’s lives, where young people started to rebel against the traditional norm, therefore starting the counterculture and social revolution. Not all of these were good and sensible; however in my opinion, these changes were essential to the development of technology, fashion and lifestyle, and they more than just made up for the harm caused. Arguably one of the most significant changes was the fact that those from the younger generation started to gain money, and status. Source A states, â€Å"Today’s youth has money, and teenagers have become a power. In their struggle to impose their wills upon an adult world, young men and women have always been blessed with energy, but never, until now, with wealth. After handing mum a pound or two, they are left with more spending money than most of their elders, crushed by adult obligations.† Never before had the youth been blessed with wealth; in US this may have been the result of its longest uninterrupted economical expansion in history. The youth were â€Å"a social group whose tastes are studied with respect – particularly by the entertainment industry† because they learnt in no time that young people were willing to spend their money as long as they were sold what they wanted. All television programmes and films were previously aimed at young children and middle-aged people. The film industry faced a turn in their original style as they realised the significance of the younger generation to the expansion of their success. This decade is said to be ‘the end of the Hollywood Studio system, and the era of independent, Underground Cinema’. Genres such as musicals, historical drama, psychological horror, comedy and science fiction became the new trend. There were other major sub-genres which were at its peak during this decade too, for example spy films were especially popular, and it is said that this was because of the combination of the audience’s fear of the Vietnam War, and their desire to see exciting and suspenseful films. The 1960’s had brought another huge change in music as well. Although the specific ‘date’ of the break between the 50’s music and the 60’s music is unclear, it is generally said to be ‘before the British invasion’ and ‘after the British invasion’ of American music. By the ‘British invasion’ we are referring to the numerous British artists and groups of admirers and emulators of American rock n’ roll, whose fame and popularity abruptly increased in the US during the early 1960’s. The most well-known and influential would probably be ‘The Beatles’, who had a huge impact not only on the ‘1960’s music’ but also on the ‘1960’s fashion’. They were hugely appreciated by the nation, and we can prove this through source B, part of a description of a certain day in 1964, written by actress Joanna Lumley in her autobiography; on â€Å"a hot summer’s evening†, â€Å"instead of the rush hour an extraordinary silence and emptiness had descended upon London, on England, on Britain†¦ No one was to be seen by the flower-stall, the newspaper stand†¦The nation held its br eath because that evening the four Beatles, all the Fab Four, were appearing live on ‘Juke Box Jury’†. From the way the actress depicts her trip to her â€Å"aunt’s flat† from the â€Å"tube station†, we can confirm how intrigued everyone was by the Beatles – enough to abandon their work and hold their breath just because they were appearing ‘live’ on a television show. This source is supported figuratively by fact that on its release in August 1963, â€Å"the band’s fourth single, ‘She Loves You’, achieved the fastest sales of any record in the UK up to that time, selling three-quarters of a million copies in under four weeks† (according to Wikipedia). They were typically regarded as â€Å"being cool, hip, smart, lippy, charming and funny†, and many people thought â€Å"It was very heaven to be alive† to be able to watch them. Source C informs us of how the attitude of the Beatlesâ €™ fans in the 1960’s were different to today’s who are â€Å"a little more reserved†, although he explains that the supporters were â€Å"never as crazy as they used to say it was† anyway. Paul McCartney, stated that â€Å"If you’d see a bunch of kids coming towards you, you could stop them. They’d only want your autograph; and you could chat†, and he was so sure of this because â€Å"the thing about fans was I used to do the same thing myself. I felt like I understood what they were on about†. The sources B and C support each other because the â€Å"bunch of kids† mentioned in source C could easily include Joanna Lumley, who is recalling her youth in source B, describing that â€Å"it was very heaven to be alive†. She is recollecting the memory of seeing the usual rush hour London deserted, and Paul McCartney says that â€Å"There’d be a lot of screaming†, which both portrays that of the excitement of the audience. Not only did their songs influence the rest of the singers that followed, it even reached into the ‘fashion’ world. People imitated their Beatle haircut (also known as the mop-top because of its resemblance to a mop), causing some toy manufacturers to begin producing Beatle wigs. It is said that in the Brezhnev-dominated Soviet Union, mimicking The Beatles’ hairstyle was seen as an extremely rebellious act. Young people were called â€Å"hairies† by their elders, and were arrested and forced to have their hair cut in police stations. The Beatles would wear Edwardian collarless suits, occasionally in black but later in grey, adopted from the Mod youth cult which was at its peak in the UK at that time. Some very famous artists and groups include Elvis Presley, The Supremes, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, James Brown, The Temptations, Janis Joplin and The Who. T wo very popular fashion items introduced to the ‘Swinging London’ in the 1960s include Mary Quant’s mini-skirt and Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat. Women’s false eyelashes and their varied arrangement of their hair were a prominent trend throughout the decade. The two most famous super models then were Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton, both very thin. 91-pound Twiggy was the iconic figure of the fashion industry, her name originating from her waif and twig-like appearance. Although it was the fashion industry, pop culture and magazines that actually promoted the ‘drive’ for thin figure, people sometimes blame her for causing making women self-conscious about their bodies, striving to achieve bodies as thin and stream-lined as hers, sometimes going over the top to do so. The biggest problem concerning models at that time, however, was that of sexual exploitation. It may be thought of as rare for models to have sex with their clients, but according to fashion models who had spoken out about the problem, it actually was a daily occurrence. The ‘Hippie Movement’ began as a youth movement in the early 1960’s, escalating later on to a larger-scale, more formal sub-culture as it spread to other countries across the world. ‘Hippie’ is said to be originally derived from the word ‘hip’, which comes the Black culture and denotes ‘awareness’. Being a hippy meant questioning authority and its power, desire for peace and the rejecting of middle-class materialism and the whole military-industrial complex in favour of a more spiritual, more environmentally conscious approach. They played a very important role in the Vietnam War, for they voiced their anti-war sentiments, protesting both violently and non-violently in order to change the world’s view on certain things, including war civil rights. The increase of rather ‘accepting’ people also meant that racism was getting less severe. Despite all these wonderful changes, some people weren’t too happy about the popular culture in the 1960’s. Mary Whitehouse, a British campaigner against the ‘permissive society’ and the â€Å"founder of the Women of Britain Clean Up TV Campaign†, was one whose motivation was strongly derived from her traditional Christian beliefs. Source D shows part of an article in the Daily Mail, 1964, where she states that â€Å"Authors who speak out strongly for the established Christian faith and write plays which inspire a sense of purpose and hope find it extraordinarily difficult to get their work accepted†, explaining further that this â€Å"became necessary because of the built-in censorship which the BBC exerts against much which is good and clean in our national culture†. In reality, she is implying how the BBC is barricading the majority of what is â€Å"good and clean† in the Britain culture, discretely pointing out the changes th at has started to occur in the decade which revolves around the theme ‘popular culture’. Her opposition to the popular culture in the 1960’s is also supported by other issues that started to emerge typically at this time concerning fashion, music and culture – these range from minor ones such as the spread of Beatlemania, known as the â€Å"social disease with no cure†, to extreme diet and anorexia and sexual exploitation. With this knowledge however, I personally think that there have been enough positive changes to make up for all the negative outcomes. Bearing in mind the fact that the youth had rapidly started losing their respect towards the elderly, and how the youth-dominated culture had resulted in many bad catastrophes, I believe that this decade of popular culture had given youth opportunities that would never have been available to them before, had effectively taught us to ‘learn from our mistakes’ and ‘improve our lives’ thereafter, and have consequently done more good than harm.