Having an idyllic weekend i.e. no kids, I was able to do all the man type stuff normally reserved for such rare times. Watch rugby, drink beer, wake up with a hangover at what ever time of the day I damn well please!
After chopping a ton of firewood I retired to my living room and the mansize TV and slapped on “The Longest Day”. There is a line in the movie “Blesse mon couer avec une langeur monotone” and in English “Wound my heart with a monotonous langour”. Blesse being the French word for wound (pronounce the last “e” as “ay” or in other words as you would Blessay.
Now Blessay is not in the English dictionary … yet!
My television fare into the late hours was Stephen Fry’s QI and as coincidence would have it, I had drifted over to his blog for a read as he is also one of my favourite authors. Blessay is Stephen’s corruption of Blog and Essay to describe his blogging efforts. If he’s using Blessay as a word, surely it can only be a matter of time before it finds its way into some Oxford type dictionary?
Essay or Blessay writing can be fun and simple to do. I write them virtually every day for my own amusement and to practice with a medium I think many writers employ as a development arena for good ideas.
Here is a summary of Supaproofread’s advice on writing essays and you can find the full info on their site here:
- Plan your work early – I think this is aimed at essay writers who are students working to assignments but I also find it applies when I have an idea; ideas zip around at neural speed so write it down as soon as you can before you lose it;
- Understand the question – my old law lecturer and I still meet up for the occasional brain cell hammering session and I mention him as he used to write “RTFQ” quite a lot on my papers – RTFQ stands for “Read The F*****g Question!” – if in doubt ask for clarification before you head off in the wrong direction;
- Organise your Research & Thoughts – again writing your ideas and reference materials down on a blank piece of paper will help you get everything into perspective and visualise how the essay will flow from point to point – I use a blank sheet of paper regularly and you will find me carrying around a hardback A4 notebook just for this purpose;
- Short is Sweet – unless your name is Stephen Fry, don’t use a long word when a short one will do. If you are familiar with a word and understand its application in your particular context, that’s fine but otherwise you are on a slippery slope which only results in loss of credibility and a poor reception for your work; and
- Stay On Topic – this is my own opinion, and it may seem obvious but veering away from topic is anaethema unless the direction you take is a logical extension of the ideas that have been developed and presented earlier. Sentences are units of sense, paragraphs also as they develop an idea which flows into the next while the essay stands as a coherent piece presenting your ideas as a unified whole – going off at a tangent is something reserved for geniuses or for your own fun so stick to your brief.