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The Thought Show: Novelists in Numbers

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Novelists in numbers

02/11/2017 GMT

Novelists in Numbers

BBC World Service - The Thought Show, Novelists in Numbers

The words novelists use obsessively and why

The words novelists use obsessively and why, Plus, the antifascists taking on far right white supremacists in America, and why do some people feel they are a fraud?

Stephen King once said that wannabe authors should avoid using adverbs which end with ‘ly’ but does he follow his own advice? Data journalist Ben Blatt decided to find out. He also analysed texts written by some of the best known authors to discover the words they use obsessively.

This year has seen a sharp rise in the number of confrontations in America between far right white supremacists and a group known as antifa – the anti fascists. We look at these two groups in traditionally liberal towns like Berkeley, California and Portland, Oregon and ask who is winning and what they are fighting for.

Do you ever feel like a fraud?  Do you think that you don’t deserve your success and one day you’ll be found out? If so, you may suffer from Imposter Syndrome. It can afflict both men and women and people who belong to minority groups of whom there are stereotypes about competence also commonly experience imposter feelings. Afua Hirsch reports.


(Photo: American novelist Ernest Hemingway in 1954 on safari in Africa. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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