August 20

Birthdays: H.P. Lovecraft (1890), Jacqueline Susann (1918), Jeff Brown (1926), Edgar A. Guest (1881), Sue Alexander (1933), Lionel G. Garcia (1935), Heather McHugh (1948), Kevin Baker (1958), Diedre Madden (1960), Greg Bear (1951), James Rollins (1961)

Tip: Weak words: Shakespeare didn’t call Katherina a “mean woman”. He called her a “shrew”. When a cat is chasing a mouse, it doesn’t “jump suddenly”; it “pounces”. A starving person “wolfs” his food. The words shrew, pounce and wolf are stronger than the lukewarm phrases they replace. Check your work for weak words.

Thought for the day: “When I write I do five drafts. The first is on inexpensive white paper. I don’t try for style, I just spill it all out. The second draft is on yellow paper, that’s when I work on characterisations. The third is pink, I work on story motivations. Then blue, that’s where I cut, cut, cut.” – Jacqueline Susann

Jumpstart: The moon has disappeared from the sky. What happened? What effect does it have?