Posted on September 18, 2017
If you’ve spent much time with the English language, you know it has its quirks and twists. In English, many words sound exactly alike but have huge differences in meaning. For example, the pain in my arm is not the same as the glass pane in my window. Two very different meanings, two words exactly […]
Posted on August 7, 2017
As part of our Writing Tips series, we’re going to add a new aspect today and begin a discussion of words that writers and authors often use improperly. Some of these posts will seem obvious to you, especially if you’re a native English speaker. But English is a language full of idioms and idiosyncracies that […]
Posted on July 17, 2017
I love the picture of these little guys. Just one thing on their mind at the moment. It’s spelled T-R-E-A-T. They’ve probably not noticed the dilemma. There are 4 of them and half as many bones. They’ll discover it soon enough and I’m sure they’ll have the manners to share with their companions. Aside from […]
Posted on July 3, 2017
One of the most difficult parts of any project is . . . getting started. You can have a long list of household chores and they don’t talk to you at all – until you sit down to write. Then all of a sudden they go crazy. “Hey, look at me. Shouldn’t you be doing […]
Posted on June 5, 2017
Verbs are the words in a sentence that show action. At the very least, a sentence needs a subject and a verb. “Authors write.” There you have it – a complete sentence. Authors are the subject – the noun (person, place or thing), performing the action. Write is the action that the author takes. Just […]
Posted on May 15, 2017
I don’t believe in writer’s block. After all, why should writers get special privileges to claim a category all to themselves? Have you ever heard of “cooking-supper block”, or “doing-the-laundry block”, or “anything-else-you’d-like-to-put-off block”? I often must create Excel spreadsheets. There’s no such thing as “creating-a-spreadsheet block”? I either dig in and create my Excel […]
Posted on May 1, 2017
One of the things that I notice with writers is that we use too many thats. Okay, that’s my contribution for the day. Unless you’re getting paid by the word, your writing should be tight. By that I mean, you should eliminate unnecessary words that don’t add strength to the power of the sentence. Now […]
Posted on April 17, 2017
This post begins a series on writing tips for authors and those wanting to improve their ability to communicate on the written page. In today’s quick-paced texting environment, good writing often takes a back seat to quick writing. That’s fine when you’re shouting out to your significant other to “get milk.” But when you sit […]