Category Archives: Writing

Writing … Another Story

Occasionally, dreams provide us interesting starting nuggets for what could develop into full-blown stories. Of late, my life has been so full of conflict, betrayal, and disappointment, that it affected my sleep and resulted in an interesting dream. Here, I’m just going to write out the thoughts I had related to the dream, and flesh out the main character.

The dream was set in medieval Europe. I can only assume England, because everyone spoke English. But then, I only speak English. And I’m not familiar enough with European medieval clothing to be certain of the time, but I’m thinking late 14th – early 15th century.

The main character is a late teens-early 20’s man living at court. He’s no one of great importance in general, but as it happens he is related to the King and somewhere along the line of succession. For the most part, he’s invisible at court, however, hanging out with his friends and causing trouble. Basically of no great import to anyone.

Continue reading “Writing … Another Story”

Plagiarism and Copyright – Know the Rules

Plagiarism and Copyright

I prepared this text for my students to help them understand the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement as they work on videos as a class project. There is always confusion about what’s legal and what isn’t and what exactly constitutes plagiarism. I hope this is helpful for all.

How to avoid plagiarism in your work:
Plagiarism applies to ideas. If something is not your own original thought, then you cite the person or paper from which you got the idea. The complete reference for that paper or person must fo into the references cited.

How to avoid copyright infringement in your work:
Copyright applies to whole documents, images, and video. If you did not take the photo, draw the drawing, make the video etc., then it’s not yours to use unless you have permission. A CITATION IS NOT ENOUGH!Continue reading “Plagiarism and Copyright – Know the Rules”

Random Writing – Explosions

Sometimes, you just have to chase a plot bunny. Here’s where today’s has been leading me:

Explosions

Dan bent his stiff fingers around the ice covered sapling. He groaned as he squatted to lower himself down the muddy slope. His knee popped and he grunted, momentarily pausing while he lowered himself. The sapling bent and ice crackled. Dan’s foot slipped. He strained, pulling harder against the sapling. It snapped, sending him head first down the hill.Continue reading “Random Writing – Explosions”

The Night Before Easter

So it was late (or maybe early) and I’d finally gotten abed.
A noise rose outside that I thought might be in my head.
I stood from my bed and looked out below.
The yard once again is covered in snow.
I saw something move on a once-grassy slope.
Wouldn’t you know it? A sleigh drawn by jackalope.
A heard a faint cry and thought, ‘Oh how funny.
If he went down the chimney, we’ll have roast Easter Bunny.’
I guess that he didn’t, ’cause when I went down the stairs.
I found lots of stowed eggs, and candy, and bunny hairs.
I peeked back outside. The jackalopes were gone.
Instead where they were, there were tracks on my lawn.

Happy Easter

—

I wrote this poem in the (very) early hours of Easter, as I waited for the appearance of the aforementioned Bunny. This is what happens when I have coffee too late in the day.

Lorem Ipsum is Dead

For most folks, they’ve only seen the phrase ‘Lorem Ipsum’ when using a PowerPoint template for the first time.

Lorem Ipsum is a term to describe dummy text inserted to show what a printed page will look like when real text is there. There are lots of Lorem Ipsum generators out there. Some are ordinary, and some are… entertaining.

Since I’ve been looking at Lorem Ipsum generators today, as a means for those who’ve hand-written their NaNoWriMo novels (50k words, one month!) to get an electronic version for verification on the official NaNoWriMo website, I thought I’d share my favorites.

Dullsville Lorem Ipsum generator

If all you want is some innocuous filler text, this will do the job.

“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.”

Boooorrriiiing!Continue reading “Lorem Ipsum is Dead”