7th of February

On the 7th of February, many events have occurred in the past years. Ironically, the seventh of February also turns out to be my birthday. How hilarious. Back to our topic for today - events that occurred on the 7th of February.

Firstly, "Black Tuesday" occurred on the 7th of February 1967. It was summer in Australia. On that date, over 100 fires were burning across southern Tasmania. A combination of abundant forest litter, strong notherly winds up to 100km per hour and extremely hot air, created the ideal conditions for bushfires. The bushfires swept across the south-east coast of Tasmania and burnt through 264,270 hectares within five hours. Sixty two people lost their lives, and 1400 homes or buildings were destroyed. The fires killed thousands of chickens and sheep among other livestock. The Insurance Council of Australia estimated the 1967 damage at $14 million, with the 2011 estimated normalised cost of $610 million. It has been 48 years since that incident, the Australians still remember that tragic day. The people were in total shock and could not explain how they felt. Most of them had nowhere to go. This was the first and last of these severe bushfires in Tasmania. 

Second event that happened was on the 7th of February 1992. The Treaty of Maastricht was signed on the 7th February 1992. The Treaty on European Union(TEU) was signed in Maastricht on that date and entered into force on 1 November 1993. The Treaty of Maastricht went beyond its original economic objective where it was to also to strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the institutions; improve the effectiveness of the institutions; establish economic and monetary union; develop the Community social dimension and establish a common foreign and security policy. It marked a crucial milestone in the process of European development and integration. Seen from a chronological perspective, it elaborated and implemented concepts discussed in the previous Single European Act of 1986. Perhaps most importantly, it established the European Monetary Union (EMU) and the Treaty on European Union (TEU). It also paved the way for further developments.

Sadly those were the only two interesting events which actually happened on the 7 GH of February. The date is not as interesting as other dates. That is the end of this post. Once again, thanks for reading! We shall meet in the next post.

Mood

What is mood?

Feelings. I define them as how you feel after reading a few lines of a story, seeing a photo or listening to a song. It could be the mood of disgust when "Ms. Lina's face contorts after seeing the big fat rat scurrying around her kitchen" or the mood of joy when "Ariff grins from ear to ear as soon as he gets his final examination results that are straight As.". That is what mood is about.

How to put it in your writing?

Step 1 : Select different details to point out each time

Firstly, you pluck out those things to shape your mood. You select specific details support the mood you are after and helps you to  construct different images in your mind. If you are about to write a scene that is supposed to be scary, be mindful of the images and vocabulary you use to describe the setting. You should probably remove the cute and happy family of bunnies, in other words.

Step 2: Use of word pictures and comparisons

You should heavily use work pictures and comparisons in writing. This helps to accentuate the mood in the scene. For example, when describing a yard, you can just use simple similes instead of personification which could be too much at some point.

Step 3: Vocabulary

When writing a scene, choose your vocabulary carefully. Words like grave, bole, shrouded,withered cand creeping to describe a scene very mysteriously while using words like blossomed, furry, bashful and bounded helps you to paint a happy mood. Images of regret and loneliness is helped by the words wasted, brittle and cry to make a scene just pop with that depressing mood.

Step 4: Words that help you paint the picture

When writing a scene, you should subtly use words that "sounded to the eye" . For example, the word shimmered is used when the author wants people to think about shivered, using "cherry" to sound close to cheery and "lacy" to sound like lazy which is relaxed.

Description are like painting. With the right tools, you can convey the right message, image and feeling that the artist wants to create in the painting. It is the words that you choose in your description that helps to convey the mood you want to create for the scene. Use those tools careful and let your imagination run.