It’s time for shorts and for many women that means taking a quick and painful look in the mirror. The majority of us aren’t completely happy with the way we look and can spend hours picking out areas that we long to improve. Unfortunately, genetics play a huge roll is body type and something you just can’t argue with what nature has to say. For women with short and wide legs, buying clothing can be a real task. Don’t lose you’re determination. Looking great is merely a matter of knowing what works for you. Here are 5 rules you should follow to make your legs look great in everything form tights and leggings to skirts and shorts.

Super model Agyness Deyn cut her hair into a striking platinum crop, inspired by 80s model Jenny Howarth and her career exploded to the upside.
Features in such magazines as vogue have done much to bring the crop to a new audience in late 2006 and early 2007 and fashion shows have also been highlighting the crop hairstyle.

In terms of fit, most men find the classic-fitting shorts agreeable, unless they count among those who tend to get hefty in a few weeks  Boys are also relatively easy to please as far as look and details are concerned.  As long as they can roam around freely and feel cool comfort,  most boys are not inclined to be picky about the things they wear. Their parents – who consider their favorite colors and patterns and ensure that their kids exude relaxed chic – oftentimes make the apparel buying decision for them.

One casual blazer to wear over a tee when you want to look businesslike. A basic black outerwear jacket with a fashionable cut to go with everything in cold climates, or a light suede or leather jacket for mild winters. In chilly locales, augment the jacket with a great knit hat, some colorful knit scarves, and one great pair of gloves.

Jeans, khakis, cropped and yoga pants in neutral colors that will mix well with your tops. Straight-leg pants are best but you can throw in a few flairs or baggies for diversion. Add a few short cotton or khaki a-line skirts for days you want to look more girlie. You can also add a longer print skirt, but make sure it’s easy care and looks good wrinkled. Indian print skirts are ideal for this purpose. Finally, find a few pairs of shorts with a comfortable fit.

Such a girly girl I was, well yes I really was and I enjoyed every moment of it. But comparing getting the gifts from everyone, smiling and opening them to stressful and crowded shopping between short lunch breaks makes Christmas a whole new deal. Keep on asking myself why such three wise men had to rush out and buy gifts to baby Jesus? Well, the thought is great and I have to admit that it feels wonderful to give but panicking over grandmas gift and all new babies presents without even thinking about what I’m going to wear.

Midline vertical details add height. For example, a row of vertical buttons leads the eye up and down, but a row of horizontal buttons draws the eye from side to side, making you appear shorter and wider.

Bekas Budak UKM did mention a few more concerns but I’m only interested in the first three as mentioned above. For non-Malaysians and non-Moslems who are reading this today, you first must understand that majority (+90%) of Malaysian Malay women are born Moslems. Moslem women are required to cover every part of their body except their face and hands (from the tip of their fingers to the wrist joints) when they have reached puberty. Moslem women are also prohibited from dressing in garments that would reveal their bodily shapes and curvatures. Wearing transparent or thin clothing is also strictly prohibited in Islam.

A newbie to a writers’ forum recently asked which is better: first or third person, and it sparked quite a discussion. Several writers – some published, others still working on a first manuscript – advised one or the other and listed reasons why.

The newbie said it was more natural for her to write in first person because it was how she viewed the world, but she noticed she was using the word ‘I’ too many times.

Another advised her to switch to third person because, she said, most publishers frowned on first person for exactly that reason.

“But first person is the only way I know how to connect to the reader,” the newbie wailed. “Third person is too distant.”

“Develop the craft of writing,” a seasoned pro chimed in, “then you can write from either.”

Is that true? Can we successfully write from either? If so, how do we know when to use one or the other?

When I wrote my first novel, Ten Times Guilty, I wanted to tell about a young, single mother who grew up believing she was worthless and how she learned to overcome her self-doubts and acknowledge her inner strength. First person would be natural to me, because, like most writers, when writing, I see the character in action.

However, there was a problem.

My character, Tracy Michaels, was sexually assaulted, so police and hospital personnel were involved, and because the perp threatened her son’s life, Tracy took shelter in a safe house. Several people were important to the story, and I specifically wanted the detective to struggle with a traumatic event in his own life. So I wanted his own viewpoint. Plus, I toyed with including the assailant’s viewpoint as well.

To include more than one viewpoint, I had to write it in third person. By industry standards, the events in a first person manuscript is told exclusively through that one person’s eyes from the beginning to the end. As in real life, readers experience other character’s actions and reactions as interpreted by the main character. We can guess other people’s thoughts, their motivations, by what they say and how they act, but we can’t know.

Let’s say we’re writing a story in first person about a woman striving for an executive position, and she’s getting ready for a supposedly-civilized lunch with a competitor, Jack, a jealous man who’d tried to malign her to the top executives. When in first person, we’re inside her head and we’ll write it as “I” did this or that.

Example:

For the luncheon, I selected my power suit, the black worsted wool I’d splurged on three years for my first job interview. But while fastening the buttons on the jacket, I hesitated. Did I truly want to intimidate Jack? If I landed the executive position as I’d hoped, as I’d worked days, weeks, and months for, giving up free time with my friends to perfect yet another field report, I wanted his cooperation. His talent was unquestionable, and I hoped we could work together. I walked back to the closet and rummaged through my business clothes. The powder blue wouldn’t work; it was too soft. While I didn’t want to intimidate him, I still wanted to present myself as a commanding woman, someone who could handle the job, yet be open to suggestions.

Then, still in first person, we’re with her in the restaurant while she chats with Jack, orders and consumes the meal. But during coffee and dessert, she becomes violently ill and has to be rushed to the hospital. There we discover she’d ingested arsenic, and during questioning, we learn Jack had opportunity to sprinkle the poison on her food when she left the table to take a phone call. But we didn’t “see” him do it. Along with the police, we can only surmise – unless or until he confesses.

However, if we write in third person, we can have alternating chapters written from each character’s viewpoint. In the female’s chapter, we can still be inside her head while she dresses and be with her during the luncheon, only we’d write ‘she’ felt this or that way.

But now we can write Jack’s thoughts and feelings as well. We’d skip a line after writing from her viewpoint, or we can begin a new chapter devoted entirely to Jack. Either way, we can get inside his head and watch as he poisons her. We can make him a nut case, a sociopath who doesn’t blink an eye at the thought of murder, or we can portray him as sympathetic character. He’s worked hard, really wants that position, and he’ll be ridiculed by all the males in his high-powered family if he loses to a woman. He doesn’t necessarily want the position for its own sake; he only wants his father’s respect, something he never felt he had. We can be with him in that restaurant, watching for an opportunity to poison her. When her phone rings and she excuses herself from the table to take the call, we’re with him as he glances around to see if anyone’s watching, then feel that moment of anxiety as he quickly sprinkles the powder over her meal, and feel his elation when he replaces the vial in his pocket. He sits back and innocently waits for her to return.

For my latest novel, Beyond the Quiet, I wanted to tell Lisa Montgomery’s story, a widow who grieves over her husband’s death – until she discovers his secret. She struggles through grief, loss, betrayal, and bitterness, finally learning to cherish each moment and follow her long-buried dreams. It’s an intimate story about a quiet, passionless widow who becomes spirited enough to climb onto her lover’s shoulders for a piggyback ride in the nude, so I wrote it in first person.

So yes, I’d say we can successfully write in either first or third person. I had an agent for Beyond the Quiet, and neither she nor the acquiring editor for the publishing house questioned first person. It all depends on the story you want to tell and the skill you’ve developed in telling it.

© Brenda Hill

As writers, we dream of awed people asking about our books. And in our dreams, we dazzle them with a fascinating narrative that’ll keep them spellbound and eager to dash out to buy our books.

I had that dream too. Then I woke to a humiliating experience because I was unprepared. I didn’t have a tagline.

A tagline can be defined as:

A summary
A premise
A one-line slogan

While condensing a novel to, say, three dynamic paragraphs for a query or a back-cover blurb is torturous enough, cutting it even further into a catchy one- or two-liner tagline is nightmare material. Not only does it have to brief, but it must hint of the theme, tone, characters, problem, and you must make it interesting and powerful enough to entice readers into buying your book.

Simple, isn’t it?

Sure. As another writer said, “It’s like opening a vein.”

But it’s something, no matter how painstaking, you should do.

My determination to write a tagline was the result of a simple question:

“What is your book about?”

My first novel, Ten Times Guilty, had just been released, and I was admiring it over lunch at my local Denny’s, almost hugging it to me in glee, flying so high I felt sure I could touch the stars. When a woman on her way to the cashier saw my book and stopped to ask THE question, I hadn’t prepared something short and catchy, so I rambled on and on, trying to remember my three-paragraph blurb. But the more I talked, the less I remembered, so I started rambling. When I noticed her eyes starting to glaze, I babbled on, trying to ‘fix’ what I’d said by explaining even more.

Finally, she mumbled something and ran out the restaurant. I think, in her haste to escape me, she sailed right past the cashier. Staring after her, I felt so humiliated that I gathered my things and left as well. I waited a few moments at the door, though; I didn’t want that poor woman to think I was chasing after her.

Oh, talk about nightmarish times, but after that, I was determined to research taglines and learn how to write them. I wanted something I could spout when asked THE question, something that would cause them open their mouths in awe and demand, “Where can I get a copy? I MUST read your book.”

When I got online, I found some great taglines that I liked, so I copied them, and, using them as examples, I practiced writing my own. It took page after page after page of revisions, of writing the high points of my novel and cutting, condensing, and smoothing before I was satisfied. I never did reach the perfection of a one-liner, but I was happy with the final two sentences:

Ten Times Guilty…

…about a single mother’s struggle for worth after a vicious attack. It’s about a police sergeant seeking redemption for a crime he didn’t realize he had committed—until the victim died.

I’m still working on one for my new novel, Beyond the Quiet, due to be released in February 2009:

Lisa Montgomery thought her husband’s death was the worst that could happen—until she discovers his secret post office box.

Another attempt:

…it’s about a woman who struggles through grief, loss, betrayal, and rage, learning to cherish each moment and follow her long-buried dreams. It’s the story of how a quiet, passionless widow becomes spirited enough to climb onto her lover’s shoulders for a piggyback ride in the nude.

I’ll do more rewriting, but at least I have a starting point. Practice writing your own, so that you’ll look and sound like the professional you are when someone asks THE question.

Some examples I loved:

Wide Awake (1998)
Struggling to adjust to his beloved grandfather’s death, a boy seeks understanding of God, life and injustice.

When Secrets Kill (1997)
A man is suspected of killing his daughter’s birth mother, whose unexpected arrival shatters the family.

Notice how they’re short but punchy, and at the same time they’re very precise. And when writing your own, remember to include:

1) Who is the story about?
2) What do they want?
3) What is the problem or conflict?

Remember, as writers, we need to paint a picture with words.

Look at the following, two of the best taglines I’ve seen:

A minister’s wife confronts her long-buried past when her illegitimate daughter shows up after twenty years.

Can’t you just see the wife and want to know the story behind the tagline? Doesn’t that make you ask questions?

Why did she give up her daughter?
Is her husband a strict, non-conforming husband?
Does she live in a small-judgmental town?
And her daughter. How will her daughter feel?
Will she harshly judge her mother? Will she be warm to her mother or will she be resentful?

And this one:

Two brothers fight on opposite sides in the Civil War and come face to face on a battlefield.

Who doesn’t want to know what happens? That situation has everything for high drama, yet it has to be heartbreaking. A perfect tag.

So we all need to read them and study how they were done, and do the same with ours. And we can. After all, we’re writers.

© Brenda Hill