Write Aligned

Someone in a writing group I'm in asked recently asked which one of these was correct: We were going to be alone during the ceremony. This would be my only chance to throw myself on his mercy. We were going to be alone during the ceremony. That would be my only chance to throw myself on his mercy. I thought it was an interesting question, so I took a bit of time replying. You might find this interesting too, as I haven't seen any other articles discussing this difference. In general, "this" is for things close to you, and "that" is for things further away from you. Or another way, "this" is something that you hold (in your hand or more figuratively) and "that" is something you point to. This applies to temporal distance too, e.g. "1983, now that was a great year" "I love 2017 - this is a really great year" "I can't wait until I'm living in 2037. That will be so much fun". When you a...

It’s fun creating a map for your fictional world. But making a map without a basic knowledge of geography can make it look like your world runs mostly on magic and unicorn farts. Assuming your physics work pretty much the same as Earth physics, here are some tips on how to make your rivers look realistic. Mountains, plains and forests can show up in all sorts of places, but rivers are the things that people seem to stuff up the most. 1. Rivers have to flow from a high point (mountains or hills) down to a low point. In the mountains, they are usually made up from lots of little rivers (tributaries) feeding into other tributaries, then joining and joining until they make a large river. When they join, they usually come together at a shallow angle, pointing downhill. Occasionally the source of a river may be a mountain spring, but usually it’s just lots of surface water from rain or melting snow collecting into little streams which keep joining up. 2. Rivers coming d...