by Sue Horner | Feb 23, 2023 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Metaphors are marvellous when you want to explain something complicated, give an idea of size, make a point memorably – or just make someone smile. “An especially apt metaphor surprises and delights,” says author Jack Hart in A Writer’s Coach: An Editor’s Guide to...
by Sue Horner | Aug 13, 2021 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
If you like the idea of spinning a wordy, over-the-top sentence that would be proud to launch a bad novel, you must know about the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. I first found and wrote about this amusing contest in 2009, although it began in 1982. As the site says,...
by Sue Horner | Apr 1, 2021 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
After a year of pandemic life, many (all?) of us are burned out. Even where it’s allowed, we’re reluctant to go out for dinner. We can’t hug people. Vaccination plans are still shaky, and new fast-spreading variations of COVID-19 are popping up. It’s not real spring...
by Sue Horner | Mar 20, 2021 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
One of the joys of social media is how random posts pop up under your nose. That’s how I ran across @HistoryMuppet on Twitter. This is “a fan page run by Joshua Gillespie and dedicated to continuing the spirit and silliness of Jim Henson.” Take a look at this...
by Sue Horner | Jul 17, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Who doesn’t love a slice of deliberately bad writing? Yes, word nerds, gather ’round. It’s time to celebrate the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest, “where ‘www’ means ‘wretched writers welcome.’” The contest awards the best of the worst opening sentences, or what the...
by Sue Horner | Apr 18, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Maybe “The Weed Store” was taken. For years, beer drinkers in Ontario bought their 12-packs and two-fours (24-pack) at an outlet called Brewers Retail. Unofficially, people called it “the beer store,” and The Beer Store it officially became in a 1985 rebranding. Then...
by Sue Horner | Apr 6, 2017 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Post-it notes were flying in a session on creative problem-solving. Trevor McAlpine of Synergetic Management had members of IABC/Toronto’s Professional Independent Communicators covering the Post-its with ideas in a fast-paced session on creativity. The tactic was...
by Sue Horner | Feb 9, 2017 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I must have run across Roger von Oech at an IABC conference years ago. He’s an author and inventor who has been giving seminars, workshops and presentations on creativity since 1977, although he doesn’t specifically point to IABC on his website. His name came to light...
by Sue Horner | Oct 6, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
As my friend Sue once said, “Every time I start to lose a little faith in my fellow human beings, along come the Bulwer-Lytton awards.” This annual celebration of the best of the worst is the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Writers apply their talents to...
by Sue Horner | Aug 13, 2012 | Most popular posts, The Red Jacket Diaries blog
It was a dark and stormy night… So begins Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel Paul Clifford, the inspiration for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. In tribute, the contest gives awards for the “opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels,” or...
