Good morning, everyone, I hope you have all had a momentous week. I want to mention something that is very important and very concerning in this week’s blog post about scam artists. I don’t know about you, but I am fed up with scammers trying to defraud me at every turn, whether it’s by text, email, phone calls or any other way, they just keep coming, and they do not stop trying, to get you to fall into their trap, but I know there are many vulnerable people out there that this has happened too. I thought that I would mention it as people need to be warned. I recently received a phone call this week from a scammer, trying to say that I had taken a policy out with them, which I knew I hadn’t but when I said no I don’t have one with them, they then retracted what they had said, by saying why? I always check first to see if the phone number is a known number, let’s just say it was a red flag.
A day later my daughter received a text message supposedly from her daughter which had said these specific words “Hi Mum, I’ve recently upgraded my o2 contract and got a new number ok x. Could you contact me on WhatsApp?” The major giveaway for us to know it was a scam was the fact that she doesn’t have any children. I had recently seen in the news about how scam artists are playing on parents’ emotions, knowing that any parent would do anything for their child, which makes them easy targets. I know for many, they have been swindled out of their hard-earned cash, which has certainly become a big problem.
Now on with the rest of my blog, They say knowledge is power, and words certainly have a lot of power, but they also say the pen is mightier than the sword which tells you that both thinking and writing have more influence on people, so I thought I would combine knowledge and writing into some interesting facts for you. Some you may already know, and some you will learn along the way. Enjoy.
The earliest writing is 5,500 years old. Even though we have drawn symbols since the Stone Age, the first true writing is generally believed to be Sumerian cuneiform, which developed around 3500 BCE from pictographs.
The first published novel written on a word processor was Len Deighton’s novel ‘Bomber’ in recent history.
Elizabethan scribe Peter Bales reportedly produced a complete, handwritten copy of the Bible so small it could fit inside a walnut shell.
It is believed that the first writing was a recipe for beer. However, the first true piece of literature was ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’. Now, you can get a version of it on the internet too.
The first known female writer is ‘Enheduanna’ she was also the earliest known poet ever recorded. ‘Enheduanna’ was the High Priestess of the goddess Inanna and the moon god Nanna (Sin). She lived in the Sumerian city-state of Ur over 4,200 years ago.
Aphra Behn was the First Professional English Woman Writer.
The first English women’s writing is usually dated to the later middle ages, to the likes of the 12th-century courtly writer Marie de France and 14th-century visionaries Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe.
When someone says they are suffering from ‘colygraphia’ they are really telling you they have ‘writer’s block and are finding it difficult to proceed with fresh new ideas to continue on their writing journey.
Poet Amy Lowell once bought a stash of 10,000 cigars, claiming she needed them to help her write.
John Steinbeck used up to 60 pencils per day. In the days before computers, it wasn’t uncommon for authors to write their books by hand. John Steinbeck could use up to 60 pencils per day when writing and reportedly used 300 pencils to complete his masterpiece, East of Eden. Each pencil could write up to 35 miles of writing.
When you talk about the English language, the shortest sentence in all its glory is simply just ‘I am.’
English playwright, author, and novelist Agatha Christie suffered from ‘dysgraphia’ – a disease that affects a person’s inability to write. She would therefore dictate to someone else to write for her.
While Mogigraphia is known as ‘writer’s cramp,’ it is used to describe a specific muscle cramp in the hands. ‘Graphospasm’ is a cramp from holding a pen or pencil for too long.
Vladimir Nabokov and Gertrude Stein both liked to write while sitting in a parked car.
The key difference they found was that professional writers used the speech-processing centre of the brain while amateur writers used the vision-processing regions more.
Some people believe that creative writers have a dominant right brain or a dominant hemisphere, but studies show that they use both sides of the brain.
Any new word can boost your ability to write better. It is a great way to express yourself and get into a good flow.
Graham Greene would write 500 words a day and then stop – even in the middle of a sentence.
When Dr Seuss was stuck writing his books, he would go to a secret closet filled with hundreds of hats and wear them till the words came.
Introverts make the best writers. There is a stereotype that writers are lonely, maladjusted introverts who don’t enjoy interacting with other people. While this stereotype isn’t completely true, studies have found that introverts are more creative and thus better creative writers. One of the reasons for this is likely that introversion gives someone more time to think alone and thinking alone helps to spark creativity.
Having sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling is the best-selling book series in history.
Brazilian author Ryoki Inoue holds the Guinness World Record for being the most prolific author, with 1,075 books published under many pseudonyms. Inoue would write all day and all night until he finished a book.
‘Scrabblement’ is a rare 17th-century word referring to ‘the writing of a rambling character like that of a madman.
Anthony Trollope began his writing day at 5.30 every morning. He would write 250 words every 15 minutes, pacing himself with a watch.
The oldest surviving speculative fiction poem is the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, written in Hieratic and ascribed a date around 2500 B.C.E.
Washington Irving had often been called “the Father of American Literature.” He is thought of, for instance, as the first American writer to make his living primarily through his creative work, and he is the first American acclaimed by the English literary establishment as worthy of recognition.
The English language changes at an astonishing rate. By one estimate, a new word is added to the dictionary every two hours. The conventions for how to use words also change at regular intervals.
German researcher Martin Lotze studied the brains of both professional athletes and professional writers and found that their brain activity was very similar during athletic competition and the writing process. Interestingly, Lotze found that professional writers and amateur writers had a key difference: Professional writers used the speech-processing centre of the brain to develop their stories, while amateur writers relied on their vision centres to imagine the story first.
Writing skills Truman Capote would often write while lying on his back, with a glass of sherry in one hand and a pencil in the other.
Ernest Hemingway and Truman Capote both sharpened pencils to help them think while they were writing.
Stay safe, and vigilant at all times, and always check the phone numbers. Everything you want to know about how to send scam emails, texts, phone calls etc. Click here
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Have a great week and I will see you next time.
Arias Writing Journal 