I wrote a short story for the Sci-Fi London Festival 48 hour flash fiction challenge. I was given a title and a line of dialogue and had to come up with a 2000 word limit. Below is what I wrote - I haven't edited it since I submitted it, so I know there are some... Continue Reading →
Reflections on the A-Z Blog Challenge
The blog challenge was fun. I enjoyed finding words to fit each letter. As I was doing CampNaNo in April too I actually wrote all of the posts in mid-March and scheduled them in advance. This meant that I didn't have to remember to write them everyday. The downside of this was that I wasn't so engaged with... Continue Reading →
CampNaNo
I didn't win. But it showed me how much I can write. Though writing fast became my focus, not writing well. I know there are things I will have to edit because I didn't stop to check or look things up. But in a month I wrote over half of a novel. It's so much... Continue Reading →
Z
Z is for zeker, zeggen and zien. Zeker means certainly and is often used as a one word answer, or two words with yes first! Zeggen is to say and zien is to see. These are two verbs that are irregular and I often get their past tenses confused. Zaggen is saw and zeiden is... Continue Reading →
Y or IJ
The Dutch more commonly use the dipthong IJ instead of Y. In fact as rocket boy learns to write he will be taught to write what we would recognise as a small y, but puts dots on top of both parts to make it an ij, and that's the 25th letter of the alphabet. And... Continue Reading →
X
X is another word that isn't often used as an initial letter in Dutch.
W
W is for wellus Welus and nietus are often shouted back and forth between the children in a "yes it is", "No it isn't" fashion. I'm already tired of it and I'm sure it will continue for some years. Any tips for minimising this behaviour greatly appreciated!
V
V is for vervelent and verlegen These are two words which I have to really concentrate to get the right way round: vervelent is bad (as in badly behaved) and verlegen is shy. I'm sure one day I will get these the wrong way round and describe my shy child as bad!
U
U is for ui Ui is onion, and it's a really difficult word to say. It pluralises as uien, which is also tricky!
