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National Raspberry Day 2023
Today is National Raspberry Day, so 😝 pbbbbt!
Raspberries To Formal Wear
Just because it’s summertime doesn’t mean you can’t wear long pants and blazers – just make sure they’re breathable. ~Brad Goreski
You know what I say to that?
😝 pbbbbt! 😝
Hell to the no. I’m not in favor of that kind of attire unless the temperature is below 55°F.
Actually, I’m not into that kind of attire unless it is situationally appropriate. I’m GenX. The idea of wearing a suit was already out of date by the time I graduated high school.
Seeing some octogenarian out mowing his grass in a blazer and slacks was a sight that made me and my contemporaries shake our heads in confusion.
I avoid circumstances in which formal wear is required. I spent too many years wearing a tie when it was not necessary. Phooey. I’m glad to be out of that scenario.
Raspberries For Health
Raspberries benefit diabetes patients
Okay, that I can get behind. I was afraid to eat fruit because fructose is a kind of sugar, but it turns out that I need to focus more on glycemic index and glycemic load.
And how does one know? Thank goodness, there are people out there who catalog it in concise listings for you.
Of course, too much of a good thing stops being good. If you max out on berries, you’ll find that your tuchus starts going pbbbbt! and that’s not good…
Raspberries From Your Readers? 😝
If you are careful about the content and writing style, readers will not feel that you are in a hurry. ~Ravi Subramanian
There’s a lot of talk going around among authorly circles that people are afflicted with short attention spans these days.
That may be true, but avid readers don’t generally suffer from that condition.
The trick is to try to find a Goldilocks Zone for your writing. If you establish yourself as the author of fast-paced page turners, that’s what people are going to want. If you stage yourself as Leo Tolstoy Jr, you may still find writers who are willing to really dig in and see what you’ve got to offer.
Of course, if you’re going to produce ponderous tomes, you’d certainly better justify the readers’ investment of time and effort.
Sticking with genre guidelines is a good idea but if you’ve got rich content to share, you can reasonably justify approaching or slightly exceeding the recommended genre maximums.
I’m stuck between the need to provide detail that the reader might like to have and the spirit of brevity that dominates writing these days.
I want things to clip along and draw the reader in the wake of the story, but I don’t want people complaining that they think the whole thing is taking place in a white box.
It’s a point of craft I’m struggling with. It doesn’t matter so much on a first pass, but some people really insist on knowing exactly what length and shade of green the grass is.
I’m a guy. I don’t focus on all that. It feels like descriptions of this sort are only necessary if someplace or something is genuinely distinctive.
We know what a barbershop looks like. I can say barbershop and you will likely have the exact same image as me.
On the other hand, if I’m talking about a Dyrakkian battle cruiser, it’s fair to assume you have no idea what that looks like since I totally made it up.
Is it a big rocket? Is it spiny and strangely shaped like an anime alien invader craft? Is it triangular or round? How many weapons is it mounted with? All legitimate questions that a reader would have no idea of until I paint that picture.
For now, I’m just trying to get the basic story out. Didn’t help that my laptop croaked yesterday. Fortunately, my new PC arrived just in time.
That’s it for today. I’m hot and tired. I’m busy trying to set up my new PC and hoping to harvest some files from my mostly dead laptop. I hope you’re getting some R&R this weekend.