Throw a Book Prompts

“Oh, Mariah, let us not quarrel. We will be married within the month. At least your papa’s house contains plenty of books. You may practise throwing them.”

London Girl

Listing the things that Prompt me to Throw a Book, is bound to cause offence, I fear. So I’ll start with a modicum of explanation.

I speak standard English. It has a decidedly Scottish intonation, but that’s accent and geography. I grew up in a Scottish industrial village and even in those primary years, I spoke standard English. I have no idea why as I mixed with everyone in the playground, street, store etc.

So, I do not react well to sloppy grammar and it will make me Throw a Book – metaphorically speaking.

Repetition is something else that flexes the muscles of my throwing arm. I am not intellectually challenged by much. I may not know what something means, but I do know how to find out. So, I do not require to be told and re-told that the heroine was never cuddled by her mother or the hero’s first wife went off with his best friend and first fortune over and over; and over again. As a reader, dear editors of popular fiction, I can do subtlety.

Book Throwing Prompt number three is swearing and cursing used to replace vocabulary. There is always a way to say what you need to say although it may take a little while to work out what that is. The more innocent cliché is in here, too. Yes, they make your piece flow and you’ll read through it without the writer’s eye tripping over anything, but equally, it’s unmemorable prose for the reader. I want to find images I haven’t thought of and descriptions I haven’t seen used before.

I could go on… You may, however, prefer to read what prompts other writers to throw books and here are a few. Start with Diane and follow on:

* Heidi M. Thomas http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com
* Anne Stenhouse at https://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com
* Diane Bator at http://dbator.blogspot.ca
* Fiona McGier at http://www.fionamcgier.com
* Margaret Fieland at http://margaretfieland.com/my_blog
* Ginger Simpson at http://mizging.blogspot.com
* Geeta Kakade at http://geetakakade.blogspot.com/
* Connie Vines at http://connievines.blogspot.com/
* Beverley Bateman – http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
* Rhobin Courtright – http://rhobinleecourtright.com