Category Archives: Resources

Colorful, Catchy Narrative II

Radio Noir

In 2017 I posted one of my favorite articles on the gumshoe/street punk/police detective interactions on serial radio programs in the 1940s (read it). Not everyone owned a television set yet and home radio entertainment was a family event. Everything from sci-fi, comedy, horror, family, and mystery shows flowed into the ears of eager listeners.

I have Sirius radio in my car and listen to Radio Classics as I drive. I get a kick out of how the world was viewed then. And I admire the great writing of the programs I hear.

If you want to know how to give images to your work, to give your reader visuals of your story, listen to old radio broadcasts.

Following are great samples from one such program.

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Writers, Go to Your Library

Six Reasons to Digitally Connect to Your Local Library

By Annette Rey

I love books – books I can hold, books I can smell, pages I can turn. I even take joy in categorizing them and lining them on shelves. I enjoy looking at the titles on their spines, and they seem to watch me from their lofty perches as I remember discovering their delectable secrets that revealed themselves as I lightly tiptoed, and sometimes hungrily dashed forward, through their words.

I didn’t think I could enjoy reading books on an electronic device, but the ease and convenience of acquiring reading material won me over. There are other reasons to give this a try, specifically as related to retrieving books from your local library through apps designed for any device.

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Writers Need Writers

By Annette Rey

Lonely Tower Dwellers Get Boring

Most writers would be happy sitting in a lonely tower, watching life passing by below their only contact with the outside world. They dream of a world where creativity is the only currency, where the necessity of promotion, advertising, cover art, synopses, queries, and other thieves of time do not exist.

But, even Thoreau had to mix with society to achieve publication. And so, we must do the same.

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Colorful, Catchy Narrative

Radio Noir

By Annette Rey

This is a repost from April 2017 in case you missed it. It is one of my favorites.

Oh, for the days language was used that slapped the listener in the head, jangled his brain, and imparted a vivid visual view in a flash of a second. Machine gun language denoting so much information the listener is running a sentence behind the descriptive narrative. Radio language was used decoratively, stretching metaphors beyond the meaning of the technique.

When I’m driving, I listen to Sirius Classic Radio broadcasts from the 1930s and 1940s. This is how I can learn from, enjoy, and appreciate stimulating script writing.

I’d like to share the following excerpts with you.

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Writer’s Resource – Purdue OWL

Online Writing Lab

By Annette Rey

One of my reasons for writing this blog is to help writers understand that learning correct language usage should never stop. If we love to write, we should love the vehicle that takes our readers to places we want to transport them.

I especially sympathize with aspiring writers whose first language is not English. They need additional help navigating the complexities of the language.

The following site offers free access to instruction that will improve all of our efforts to polish our writing projects.

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Colorful, Catchy Narrative

Radio Noir

By Annette Rey

Oh, for the days language was used that slapped the listener in the head, jangled his brain, and imparted a vivid visual view in a flash of a second. Machine gun language denoting so much information the listener is running a sentence behind the descriptive narrative. Radio language was used decoratively, stretching metaphors beyond the meaning of the technique.

When I’m driving, I listen to Sirius Classic Radio broadcasts from the 1930s and 1940s. This is how I can learn from, enjoy, and appreciate stimulating script writing.

I’d like to share the following excerpts with you.

Continue reading →

The Search for Words

When You Cannot Remember the Word (Lethologica)

By Annette Rey

When you are writing, it seems inevitable, interruptions occur that waylay your train of thought; the jangling of the telephone, the doorbell rings, a family member talks to you. That’s bad enough.

What about the pauses in your writing when you can’t remember the right word you know should go right in that spot in your sentence? You’re on a roll and your fingers are moving deftly, except for that!

I have two very good tools to help shorten that unwanted pause, and to get your mind back on writing.

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Ten Reasons Why Writers Need The Great Courses on Writing

Include These Lessons in Your Writer’s Library

By Annette Rey

Would you like your writing to flow? If it doesn’t, you could use some help. All of us have developed bad habits over the years where it concerns our writing. Whether you are a new writer or have been at it a long time, you can improve your knowledge of the rules of writing, and how to use the English language.

Take a look with me at what The Great Courses has to offer.

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Writers Seek

100_7527A Trip to the Telephone Museum

By Annette Rey

It shouldn’t get boring to hear, “There is no such thing as writer’s block.” That should be good news to those of you who find it difficult to populate your screen with words.

One of the techniques to fill that screen is to change your physical environment and seek out resources with subject matter about which to write. The subject does not have to be an unusual one, but when you find one, pounce!

A trip to the Telephone Museum filled that bill.

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Grammar Matters

By Annette Rey

A myriad of grammar guides exist and I have half a dozen of them. The one I find most extensive and simply written is Who’s (oops) Whose Grammar Book Is This Anyway? By C. Edward Good. This book was originally published as A Grammar Book for You and I (oops! Me). This is my go-to resource for sentence construction.

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