Quora knows best - For English learners and others

Quora.com

Transcript:

I think you shouldn't waste any time and start reading as much as you can. I hope, when you say that you want to be an author it doesn't mean you just want to be another book writer, think about it. Anyone write a book, but how many of them write a good book? Do you want to write a book that turns into a movie soon? I hope not. I hope, you have found the path with clearer idea and it's not just the frustration of work which is making you to write something.

If I say I want to be author, first thing I would do is read all great authors, then write material which of my choice, which I think has meaning and carries the perspective that should match with my target audience. It's important to have distinctive style, because when you read books, you don't have authors face but with the words and lines you can recognize who's the author. So, when someone shows you a sentence you can easily say 'Hey! that's Wodehouse'

Most important thing is discipline. Although, it varies from individual to individual but the golden rule is to set the target of writing every day. It doesn't matter if you write 500 or 5000 words. More you write, you will understand the flaws, you will come closer to idea of your plot or story. You will be comfortable with the words.

And last, be comfortable with the language you are writing.

It’s not a universal rule, but it is the neutral place from which comics lettering begins creatively and for the audience. I am not familiar enough with the origin. However, lettering by hand is labor intensive, consistency & clarity are rewarded and a foundation in communication is essential.

If you are tasked with lettering by hand and you want it to be consistent, to keep the readers eye flowing through the work, you had better make it as easy on you and the reader as you can. Comic publishing came out of the tradition of sweat shops and production speed was critical. If you add serif to a font it can help with readability, as does proper use of capital and lower case letters. Cursive works to add fluidity and character. However, all three are more labor intensive, especially if you are looking for consistency.

In addition, each has the potential to undermine the arts own use of line quality. The lettering is there to help the reader understand the story, not to slow the pace of the story. A legible underwhelming consistency serves this purpose.

If the letters look the same most of the time, are quickly executed, tend to serve the pace and readability of a comic, then it creates aspects of a visual lexicon. Fluency in reading comics is about reading Sequential Art and this comes with a verity of elements. One being the letters. As soon as you set up the unassuming norm that doesn't effect the reader much, you can do things to the lettering to effect the storytelling.

By making a word in BOLD it creates an accent, weight or metaphoric opportunity. You can change the word balloon to infer new information. You can color code the word or ballon to create identity connections with characters. You can add in serif, lower case or cursive to introduce layered context. You can also completely create new typography that serves sound effects or titles.

The more you use these elements the more they loose their effectiveness in telling the story. If you are sparing (like with most of comics other visual elements) the more power and clarity they hold for the reader and the quicker you can produce a comic by hand.

Many comics lettering is now done on the computer. This changes the laborious aspects some (not as much as we hope sometimes), but it doesn't change the lexicon already established much and the need for clarity and carful use of visual elements.

It may not be the perfect font, but it’s a practical tradition that will remain, as long as it serves the story, audience and creative process.

I hope someone knows the origin of who and why.

From quora.com

https://qr.ae/pG1qwN

https://qr.ae/pG1qw2

www.myfluentpodcast.com

vocabulary:

labor intensive (time-consuming, burdensome, laborious)

the tradition of sweat shops

capital and lower case letters.

Cursive works to add fluidity and character.

line quality

not to slow the pace of the story.

legible (readable, clear)

Fluency in reading comics is about reading Sequential Art and this comes with a verity of elements.

As soon as you set up the unassuming norm that doesn't effect the reader much, you can do things to the lettering to effect the storytelling.

By making a word in BOLD it creates an accent, weight or metaphoric opportunity.

You can change the word balloon to infer new information.

Quora.com

https://qr.ae/pG7y60

What impresses you the most?

Vasudey's answer:

As I reached office yesterday, I realized that I have forgotten my wallet.

After I reached back in the evening, I saw the wallet on bed and took a sigh of relief. I saw the biscuit packet and realized that the Hide n Seek biscuit packet on my bed which I had opened previous night had only 2 biscuits left in it whereas I remembered that it had around 8–10 biscuits left when I left in the morning. Nearby the packet was my wallet which had around 20000 rupees in it as I had to pay some bills. I immediately checked my wallet and all the money was there in it.

Next morning when our maid came to cook, she said, “Bhaiya, I was hungry yesterday, so I ate some biscuits while cleaning the room. Your wallet was in the hall so I also kept it in the room.”

I smiled at her and brought another packet of biscuits from the room and offered her. She was happy and so was I to witness her honesty.

She could had easily misplaced 20000 rupees or the whole wallet and I wouldn’t even know, but she chose trust over money.

I live with my flatmates in a 3 bhk flat. All 3 of us go to work leaving the key with the guard. Sometimes, she comes while we are not at home, does her work and leaves. 3rd of every month if she doesn’t receives her salary, she asks us for the same.

Our maid (didi) is a young lady in mid 20s. She works in around 7 houses a day as she is the only bread earner in her family. Never do we ask her to cook a certain dish. She brings vegetables by herself, grocery by herself and prepares the delicious food. Never do we ask her to clean our rooms. She cleans the rooms, washrooms, balconies, everything by herself.

What really impresses me?

Her way of doing her work with all the heart, her honesty and the hardwork she puts in.

इज़्ज़त से कमाई बासी रोटी खाने का सुकून बेयिमानी से कमाई ५ स्टार होटेल से सौ गुना ज़्यादा है।

Hard and honest earned stale bread is 100 times more soothing than a 5 star meal earned by dishonesty.

In a world where being dishonest to climb up the ladder is an easier option, there are people who are happy moving slowly and steadily with all their hardships and a bag of honesty.

Vocabulary:

sigh of relief

hardships

climb up the ladder

Quora article: https://qr.ae/pGXMjW

Learn English with this text on YouTube: https://youtu.be/32Rn3RCk-d0

Full Transcript:

Like the rest of my family, I basically grew up expecting there to be a bottle of wine or two waiting for me every evening, plus some whisky or cognac afterwards as a night cap.

Most of my adult life, that’s how I lived.

From about age 20 to 45, I drank a bottle of wine every evening, plus some spirit. I thought it was what distinguishes a good life from a bad life, not because it was so much fun, but because there was a sense of sophistication and accomplishment that came with it. It had snob appeal.

Enter my Chinese wife, who realised I tend toward sleep apnea, and it freaked her out. You can only do so many nights of attempted resuscitations, thinking your husband just died in his sleep.

So I decided to go off it to see if it helped, and we got ourselves an overload of tea cups, tea pots, and tea varieties to fill the beverage gap.

The result was amazing.

Not only did the sleep apnea disappear, but I also slept vastly better, my stress levels plummeted, as did my weight, and my bills. After a year, I couldn’t believe how much money I had saved drinking tea instead of wine. We started flying away on holiday like we had not done before.

And I no longer wake up with a sad soundtrack on my mind every morning. For decades, I had believed that that’s what waking up is simply like. Instead, I actually wake up full of bright ideas and good thoughts now.

Now, I still like wine. But I see its downsides. So, on weekends, with family, I will have a bottle of wine. But it’s not a bottle a day anymore, and I can truly recommend the effects it has to give your body a respite with some proper sleep.

1. nightcap: A nightcap is a drink taken shortly before bedtime. For example, a small alcoholic drink or glass of warm milk can supposedly promote a good night's sleep
2. sophistication: the process or result of becoming cultured, knowledgeable, or disillusioned
3. apnea: transient cessation of respiration

downsides: the negative aspect of something otherwise regarded as good or desirable.

Minh Le's asnwer to:

Why don't I talk as much as other people?

Well, I also had this problem before. In every party and conversation, I had always been the most quite person because I didn't know what to say. I was afraid that people would find me boring because I didn't talk much. Then I realize that there're these three simple solutions to this problem.

Most people like to talk about themselves, what they like and dislike, their passions, etc. And it makes them feel best talking to someone who can listen. If you practice active listening, you will be able to understand people better which leads to your ability to ask open-end, interesting questions. That's how to keep a conversation going on interestingly. And by actively listening, it helps you to accumulate knowledge, experiences and stories from other people adding up to your life library and you'll be able to remember a lot of good stories well. Thus, those experiences you accumulate become your own stories to tell other people in upcoming conversations, meetings, etc. In order to become a good speaker, you first need to be a good listener.

Another way to increase your knowledge in general so you can have a wide range of topics to talk about is reading. Writers sometime put their whole lifetime experiences in a book of several hundred pages, by reading a book, you absorb all of those knowledge in just a much shorter time. The more you read, the more knowledgable you are, which makes you become much more intellectually interesting. It's always a better conversation talking with someone who reads a lot more than a person who read nothing. So take at least 30 minutes a day reading book as a habit, believe me, you won't regret reading too much.

Last thing, don't worry if you're not able to have much to talk about at the moment. Being a good conversationalist is all about story telling. If you pay extra attention to your everyday things and learn how to talk about them in an interesting way, that would be still much better than having an interesting story being told in a boring way. How you tell a story matters as much as your experiences and knowledge.

So, to sum up, you need first to be a good listener, do reading as a habit and then learn how to tell a story well. That's all you need to make a good talk.

https://qr.ae/pGXG0Z from www.Quora.com