All too often I see people who seem to think “creative writing” is embellishing their words using bold, underline, and italics—for various combinations thereof. They also like to further emphasize words by TYPING IN UPPER CASE. Then there is abusive punctuation, such as using ellipses…needlessly…avoiding the chore of completing sentences or thoughts. Or how about […]
Cut Characters, Scenes, and Passages Can Become Future Projects Last week I shared my dismay over not saving all of my past work. Our past writing has potential value—be it for personal edification or for future projects—but in order to tap that value, we need to keep it. Taking that thought one step further, I […]
Simple Guidelines for Reviews That Are Honest, Fair, and Kind My last two posts shared my efforts at writing movie reviews and book reviews. This begs the question of how to write an appropriate review. Unfortunately, there is no universally agreed-upon set of rules. What one person advocates, another dismisses. What one reviewer says to […]
As I more seriously study the craft of writing, I’m dismayed to discover some of what I was taught in school during my formative years was wrong. Some of this misdirection was trivial, and some were likely correct at the time but have changed since then. However, my teachers’ misguided instructions formed habits that are […]
A Quick Look at Fourteen, or Maybe Fifteen, Marks and How to Use Them There are reportedly fourteen punctuation marks. Unfortunately, the lists I consulted do not completely agree. Some include “braces” while others list a “slash.” With consensus on the other thirteen, that makes a possible total of fifteen punctuation marks. Here are my […]
Once at a writers’ conference, I met with one of the speakers. I asked if he would provide feedback on an article I wrote. He readily agreed and carefully read my composition. After a few minutes, he informed me I had incorrectly formatted my dash. That was his only criticism. Then he listed what he […]
I struggle with spelling. I always have and despite some improvement as I write more, I fear I always will. I suspect the root cause of this dilemma is that when I read longer words, I don’t look at all its letters, but merely the first few, along with the overall shape and length of […]
An earlier post was titled “Write Every Day.” This advice was a bit hyperbolic. It was designed to garner attention and encourage aspiring writers to pursue writing diligently and take the craft seriously. Even so, it is far from an absolute law or inflexible rule. The points are: For some that may dictate writing every […]
Depending on one’s perspective, the “how” part of writing is either self-evident or an endless mystery. I offer a few initial thoughts on the topic of “how to write.” Writing Tools First is tools. Writing Mode Second is mode. That may sound funny, but here is what I mean: Writing Process Third is process. Here […]