Search options (Page 27 of 47)

No, vern, formula written romances are all the same. So are formula written mysteries. A + B =C. BORING. So, maybe it's sort of been done. Put your own spin on it.

By no means, Dill, was I commenting on your possible health benefits. It was an observation contrasting the two gender "circumcisions." One does have benefits, though not always. But neither does it harm a man unless it's a botched job, which is rare. The other is completely without benefit except to keep women in line, away from any possibility of unfaithfulness.

Elisheva, yes and no. Yes, in regards to length of chapters. Longer ones take more points, but longer ones are 5000+ words. 2000 is average. Actually, poems take a good number of points to post b/c, as I was told, reviewers have to work harder to understand poetry.

Wow! Finally! Nicely stated without the overtone of being (Even if you aren't) misogynistic. You are absolutely right about the world. We don't have to take a trip outside our living rooms. The reality comes to us via little screens, whether TV or computer or even iphones. So, yes! If you're writing about reality, tell it like it is. And if you're writing fiction or fantasy, do your damnedest to show the world you want to portray.

You want more? Research it for yourself. I've done enough. Frankly, this has gotten off topic. I believe the topic was about male to female ratios. To that, I say write what feels right.

Someone needs an education:

Here are just FIVE of us useless, irrational, emotionally disturbed FEMALES who invented some very important things.

5 Female Inventors Who Changed Life As We Know It
We all know the names of certain famous male inventors throughout history, from Galileo to Alexander Graham Bell to Steve Jobs, but many women have also contributed groundbreaking ideas to science, technology, and our daily lives. Here are five female inventors whose innovations, both large and small, have improved our world in various ways.

Margaret Knight (1838-1914)
Margaret Knight was nicknamed "the lady Edison for her prolific inventions which included a safety device for textile looms, shoe manufacturing machines, a rotary engine and internal combustion engine, among many others.
Margaret Knight was an exceptionally prolific inventor in the late 19th century; journalists occasionally compared her to her better-known male contemporaryThomas Edison by nicknaming her “the lady Edison” or “a woman Edison.” Knight was born in York, Maine and was still a young girl when she began working in a textile mill in New Hampshire. After seeing a fellow worker injured by a faulty piece of equipment, Knight came up with her first invention: a safety device for textile looms. She was awarded her first patent in 1871, for a machine that cut, folded and glued flat-bottomed paper shopping bags, thus eliminating the need for workers to assemble them slowly by hand. Knight received 27 patents in her lifetime, for inventions including shoe-manufacturing machines, a “dress shield” to protect garments from perspiration stains, a rotary engine and an internal combustion engine.
Margaret Knight's patent for a machine that cut, folded and glued flat-bottomed paper shopping bags, thus eliminating the need for workers to assemble them slowly by hand.

Melitta Bentz (1873-1950)
Melitta Bentz was a German housewife who invented a coffee filter system in 1908 and founded a business that still exists today.
Have you ever wondered who to thank when you’re getting your coffeemaker ready for your first cup of the day? Coffee beans have been made into beverages since the eleventh century, but a German housewife named Melitta Bentz updated brewing for the modern world. At the turn of the 20th century, the usual method was to tie up the coffee grounds in a small cloth bag and place the bag into a pot of boiling water; the result was a bitter, gritty drink. Bentz came up with a new method. She put a piece of thick, absorbent paper into a brass pot with a few holes punched in it and poured the coffee through this two-part contraption, which trapped the grounds and allowed the filtered liquid to seep through and drip into a waiting cup. She received a patent for her coffee filter system in 1908 and founded a business that still exists today.

Caresse Crosby (1891-1970)
Mary Phelps Jacob, who later became known as Caress Crosby, revolutionized women's undergarments with her invention of a "backless brassiere."
Sometimes it takes a woman to know what other women really need. In 1910, Mary Phelps Jacob — later known as Caresse Crosby— was a young, educated socialite living in New York City. One day, feeling frustrated by the bulky and restrictive corset that women customarily wore beneath their clothing, she asked her maid to bring her two handkerchiefs, some ribbons, and a few pins. From these items she fashioned a lighter, more flexible undergarment that she called a “backless brassiere.” In 1914 she received a patent for her idea and a few years later she founded the Fashion Form Brassière Company to manufacture and sell her invention. She eventually sold her patent to Warner Brothers Corset Company, which began producing bras in large quantities. Women have literally breathed easier ever since.
Feeling frustrated by the bulky and restrictive corset that women customarily wore beneath their clothing, Mary Phelps Jacob patented this design for a lighter, more flexible undergarment.

Katharine Burr Blodgett (1898-1979)
Physicist Katharine Blodgett in the General Electric research laboratory in 1938. One of her most influential inventions was non-reflective glass.
Scientist and inventor Katharine Blodgett was educated at Bryn Mawr College and the University of Chicago. Then she became a pioneer in several respects: she was the first woman to receive a Ph.D in physics at England’s Cambridge University and the first woman hired by General Electric. During World War II, Blodgett contributed important research to military needs like gas masks, smoke screens and a new technique for de-icing airplane wings. Her work in chemistry, specifically in surfaces at the molecular level, resulted in her most influential invention: non-reflective glass. Her “invisible” glass was initially used for lenses in cameras and movie projectors; it also had military applications such as wartime submarine periscopes. Today, non-reflective glass is still essential for eyeglasses, car windshields and computer screens.

Stephanie Kwolek (1923-2014)
In 1965, Stephanie Kwolek created an unusually lightweight and durable new fiber which was later developed by DuPont into the synthetic Kevlar, which is used in everything from military helmets and bulletproof vests to work-gloves, sports equipment, fiber-optic cables and building materials .
Shortly after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Stephanie Kwolek began working at the chemical company DuPont, where she would spend 40 years of her career. She was assigned to work on formulating new synthetic fibers, and in 1965 she made an especially important discovery. While working with a liquid crystal solution of large molecules called polymers, she created an unusually lightweight and durable new fiber. This material was later developed by DuPont into Kevlar, a tough yet versatile synthetic used in everything from military helmets and bulletproof vests to work-gloves, sports equipment, fiber-optic cables and building materials. Kwolek was awarded the National Medal of Technology for her research on synthetic fibers and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994

If you still cry, it's touched a real nerve. If the writer can't elicit emotion from the reader, then it's trash. Whether that emotion is grief, as in the excerpt I shared, or laughter or anger, doesn't matter. When I writer can feel the emotion of the character, that character becomes real. It's not mental illness--It's empathy. Get real! If you write a rape scene, and don't feel anger at even the fictitious villain, you need to re-examine yourself. If you write a scene in which your character has just made a crowd roar with laughter, and you don't think it's funny--It's not.

A writer is much like an actor. We get into character, often multiple characters. But when we walk away, we don't have multiple personalities. But while in the scene, we MUST feel the emotion we wish to convey. I'm proud to say that I've made myself cry, laugh, scream, sigh. So, if you think I'm crazy, just call me Sybil.

Ha! Just came up

Pets become like family. The loss of one is traumatic. Anyone who has ever had that kind of attachment won't say, "Just get another." Let's face it--Not everyone is capable of feeling any depth of emotion.

Fixed

I'd have to say the writer has written on level to elicit an emotional response--in this case, grief. At other times, I would hope to tug other emotions to the surface--joy, anger. If your writing doesn't get some sort of response from your reader, you need to go back to the first word and start over.

It's worked pretty well in the past. Let's hope it does again.