My Oyster 123

Writing a book is tough. You have a long journey ahead and to help you on that journey, here’s a road map of the common pitfalls. Avoid the beginner mistakes and you will reach your destination much more quickly and easily than you would have otherwise.

Meaningless Phrases: Clichés are common phrases that are hackneyed and tired. They infuse your work with these same qualities. Awareness is the key here. Cut the clichés and replace the overused phrases with fresh language. Clichesite offers a long list of common clichés to help you identify and ferret out these phrases. They make your writing seem bland and leave it devoid of feeling. Your readers will thank you.

Author Intrusion: Many beginning writers make this common mistake. Characters need to stand apart from you. Don't create a bunch of clones of you that think your thoughts, have your habits, and spout your sayings. You need to create characters different from you. Try a character chart to flesh out a character with original ideas and thoughts. Here is a link to a character survey at Eclectics that will help you create an original character. Your readers will itch to turn the next page of your story.

Preaching and Teaching: Preaching is for the pulpit and teaching is for the classroom. Many writers want to preach and teach in their stories. No reader likes to be told the moral of the story. No one wants a lesson in virtue. Morals and lessons need to be shown to the readers. Readers want to experience the writer’s created world for themselves. You, as the writer, may have something important to say, but you must learn to trust your readers. Readers can figure things out. Get heavy handed with the preaching and teaching, and your readers will bristle fiercely at your sermonizing and yawn at your lessons.

Word abuse: Many writers use pet phrases over and over throughout a manuscript. Make a list of the words you use too much and perform a special edit of your work to “clean up” your personal word abuse. Another common form of word abuse is too many "to be" verbs (is, am, are, was, were, been, be, being), and not enough active verbs. Search out “to be” verbs and replace. Finally, a few words have lost meaning from overuse. Here is a list of common overused words: bad, good, big, fine, amazing, awesome, happy, nice, interesting, well, and just. Be kind to your readers and cut or replace overused words. - Molly Blaisdell

Quayside is an exclusive condominium beside Straits Quay with a resort like swimming pool and amenities. My aunt owns a unit there and she comes here to stay whenever she is out from Singapore. She has also bought a brand new Mercedes Benz E250 2 - 3 years back for her own use whenever she is out here for holidays in Penang. She is a property investor and makes money buying and selling properties. As a law graduate, she used to do conveyancing and prepared Sales & Purchase Agreement for clients. Hence, she will be the first person to know a good buy whenever any property is out for sale in Singapore. However, she is in her eighties now, retired and suffering from the early stages of dementia. As she is single and unmarried, she has asked my mother, her youngest sister to take care of her should she have advanced stage of Alzheimer's disease. My mum had promised to hire two nurses to take care of her in the later stages of her life when she is incapacitated.

I shall be flying via Firefly to KL tomorrow to Subang Airport which is very near my condo. I will be there on business and only come back on Friday night at around 9:00pm, departing 1 hour earlier. The return fare for 2 cost slightly over RM 1k just for a 2 day visit and we need to come back before Bersih 5 demonstration starts with Red shirts trying to stop them at whatever costs - even bloodshed. Well, as a citizen, I am concern over the developments of the country but sometimes this is much we can do and need to concentrate on our business than politics. I just wish for a peaceful assembly to show the world that we need a clean government.

Every month I give dad RM 550 plus RM 250 for the church and RM 50 for mum - totalling RM 850 per month! Thst is a lot of money but it does not seem enough for dad. He thinks I make too much money and should share more with him, giving hints now and then. I am not exactly a favourite daughter, so I give as much as my youngest sister who is favoured over me. My dad's favourite, my second younger sister is not longer contributing since she needs money to pursue her PhD programme in the UK. Right now the house is divided equally amongst the 3 of us siblings. But dad in his defense, told me he can change the percentage anytime! Such is the support I get from my family who squeezes money from me and does not give me the due respect as a daughter.

There is a new publishing company like Google Adsense and is a good alternative with many adverts on its banners placed at your sites. To join this network, click on http://ubercpm.com/index.php?rp=5377 where you can join immediately but never click on your own ads. It is good to leverage on your various blogs via this network should you be banned permanently from Adsense. I don't know how good the conversion rates are but you can withdraw via Paypal when you hit USD 10, unlike USD 100 for Adsense. Though it is lower income, but nevertheless, something is better than nothing at all, don't you agree? Don't be greedy and don't cheat. Honesty is the best policy!

Money is important but not everything. It can buy you comfort but not health, even though you can buy supplements and vitamins to prolong your life. It is a tool to exchange for food, clothing, transport and the like. With more money, you can live more comfortably during your retirement years and hopefully stretch the money to a lifetime. Everyone works hard for a golden retirement and not a woeful one where one has to beg in the streets like a vagrant. You want to be surrounded by loved ones and money can buy their love and loyalty.

Marriages break down and divorces happen all due to money problems and financial difficulties. But once the breadwinner starts to earn more money, then the wife may reconsider reconciling with her spouse. Hence, money speaks louder than relationships.

Blogging certainly takes effort and each post is painstakingly written with images processed for faster uploading after enhancements and resizing. You also need to be able to type fast and think on the spot as you type along. As I have changed the URL to the new blogs, they are basically still new and need time for being indexed by Google search engine. I have around 6 - 7 blogs that I update at least once per week to keep the contents fresh. Sometimes, you encounter writer's mental block and don't know what to blog on. But as long as it is not on politics, criticism, it is safe to write. Being in business, we keep ourselves free from issues surrounding the Malaysian government and don't comment on it. I can only pray for the country.