Fiction: Petrify

This months Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Sean Jeating and is hosted at Elephant's Child's blog over here. This week's prompts are: consider, rather, superstitious, paraskevidekatriaphobia, table and/or bigots, different, gender, hyperbolise, teeth. Last week's prompts are: desert, dream, machos, planet, treatment, and/or bags, behind, four, infinity, walk. Charlotte (MotherOwl) has given us Pebble Grey as the colour of the month. I didn't use superstitious, bigots or paraskevidekatriaphobia - just couldn't find them fitting to the story.

Fiction: Petrify
Elma Knox's head started to ache which she knew wasn't a good sign. Across the table, her fiancé, Peter Small, was rambling on. Getting engaged had been a wonderful dream but now happiness was out of her reach. Sometimes she felt as if she was struck in the desert going in circles looking for water while rain fell upward.
    Tonight, the pair sat at their usual corner table with tall plants blocking them from other diners. Through the small gaps between the foliage, Elma watched other couples in their ordinary happiness and it made her wondered what was wrong with her and Peter. She played with the infinity pendant hanging from around her neck. When Peter had given her the pendant, he had seemed so sincere but now she wasn't so sure. Peter might had a bit of macho ego in him but his best talent was to hyperbolise his words.

Seven Things: Some Bookish Queries

01 - Does cursing make characters sound more like real people?
I find cursing to be very distracting in a story but if a character curse in anger, I can easily accept it but to use it just to make a character sound more realistic? No, just no. Excessive use of the F word certainly make me not like a character and also make me think they are not well educated but that's a cliche, right? I guess I'm more use to not cursing in books so it always takes a bit getting used to if there is excessive cursing.
    
02 - Do you read horror and how do you enjoy reading horror without scaring yourself?
I'm too much of a scaredy-cat to read horror. I avoid them because I know I can't handle it plus, having scary imagery in my head makes me an insomniac.

03 - Why do so many mystery/thriller books have prologues?
I have been reading mysteries/thrillers and have come across more prologues than any other genre. In most, the mysteries are almost always related to the past so we get this small past insight before the book starts and I don't know, it just seem unnecessary sometimes because almost every time, we never return to that scene.
    There was one book where the author included the prologue as the first chapter and I thought that was good but I was still reading a prologue in disguise which somehow didn't irk me as much.

04 - Do you read books in a series out of order?
I prefer to read books in a series in order because I'm like things in linear order. I did read a few books series out of order because I didn't know they were part of a series.
    Sometimes I think publishers and authors kind of disguise their books in a series and make readers think they are standalones. If you look at covers, they don't always say it's part of a series and if they do, they don't even bother with book 1 or book 12, something to indicate where that book stands in that series. It's like they don't care if readers read books out of order. I care. But I guess this will never get changed because publishers don't want turn people off who don't like book series.

05 - Should you hate popular books you didn't read?
Popular books are everywhere, shoving into everyone's faces (at least whose who hangs out at youtube a bit too much), it's only natural to grow some sort of emotions toward these books, right? Either that or I'm judgmental and that's allow. Maybe it's wrong to judge books I didn't read but I know them well enough to form opinions and most are negative opinions. So why I am wasting time hating books? I guess if you can't enjoy loving a book, you can you enjoy hating it, right? I also think you can't be a well-rounded reader if you don't hate some books.

06 - Do you get annoyed by Goodreads' reviews where some said  [This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers] and when you click on [Show full review], there's no spoilers?
What's up with that? It's annoying especially when I expect spoilers. Maybe some readers make a mistake and click on the wrong button? I don't use Goodreads so I don't know how this feature works but it would be nice if people don't overuse it.

07 - As a reader, do you think you have bad book taste?
Sometimes I think I must have terrible taste in books because there are so many books people love and I just don't and I don't see why they do. I like to believe I have good taste but I guess it's all depends on what one believes is good taste. But reading is a preference so even if a book is hated by millions, there would be one or two people who loved it so I don't think anyone's book taste is good or bad, just different from everyone else's.

Do you have some bookish thoughts to share?

IWSG Oct 2024: How can you tell if your writing have improved?

I'm going to skip this month's question and talk about improvement. To make my writing better, I read a ton of articles, blog posts, how-to books and watch a lot of youtube tutorial/info videos and continue to do so but it's hard to say whether they help or hinder because every idea or useful info can also make me question my writing and doubt my own skills and ability to judge correctly.
    Upon re-reading my old writings, I can tell I have improved because those old writings were really bad. At least in terms of grammar. But at the same time, I think my writing has gotten a bit less fanciful. Before, I seemed to write with a somewhat poetic style which may be because I had been writing poems but I don't know. I now write in a bit more direct way and I don't try as hard to make every sentence sound good but I still look up tons of words just to see if I am using them correctly. I like to think this change is an improvement but I'm not 100% sure.
    I guess the way to see if you have improved is to ask people to read your stuff and give their opinion but then you have to decide if you trust their opinion more or yours. If you ask an editor about your writing, you might get a more accurate answer but again, this depends on if you trust them or yourself more. In the end, it's your writing so you are the only one who can judge.

What about you? How can you tell if your writing have improved?

[More about the group over at the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog here]