Dialog Journals and Writing Good Dialog
By Peter Derk
Start a dialog journal, fix up your dialog, write better characters, and basically rule the world.
Jack of Shrugtown
I read my first Jack Reacher book, and there were so many shrugs. Jack Reacher has come to shrug and chew bubblegum, and he's all out of bubblegum.
Using Plain Language in Speculative Fiction
By Joshua Isard
Employ language that allows the audience to believe your characters believe what is happening.
What Joy Williams and Denis Johnson Can Teach Us About the Art of First Sentences
By Elle Nash
In:
Denis Johnson, Elizabeth Ellen, First Sentence, Joy Williams, Phrases, Sentences, Troy James Weaver, Word Play
Some lessons from two masters of the sentence.
The Haunting: How To Conquer The Shame Of Being A Writer
An essay about why the vocation of writing can sometimes feel shameful, and how to own that shame and then eventually conquer it.
Storyville: Putting Your Life in Your Fiction
Some helpful tips for working your life into your fiction.
Nothing New Under The Sun: The Origins of 5 Common Literary Allusions
Do you ever feel like you are reading the same things over and over again? Well, you are. Here are five familiar literary allusions explained.
Kill Those Modifiers!
The overuse of adjectives and adverbs can ruin sentences and flatten descriptive passages.
8 Words to Seek and Destroy in Your Writing
8 frequently abused words or phrases that gum up your content. Stars of the show include "suddenly," "then," "is," "started," "very," "that," "like," and "in order to."
The Secret Lives Of Little Words
In:
Craft, Dialogue, Discourse Analysis, Grammar, Grammar, Linguistics, List, Phrases, Sociolinguistics, Verbs, Voice, Word Play
What's that word doing there? When it comes to spoken language, nothing is accidental. Linguists are working on finding meaning in every 'oh,' 'um,' 'well,' and 'okay.' The results might surprise you.
Art and the Aphorism
Love them or hate them, writers can learn a lot about sentence structure and wordplay by experimenting with the timeless artform of the aphorism.
Writing In Parallel
One of the biggest mistakes committed by both beginning and experienced writers is a failure to craft sentences that transmit information clearly, evenly, and with an emphasis on what’s important.
As I Lay Mostly Dying
The baddest of the prose villains, that one word that, when mis-used, can single-handedly wreck an entire page of fiction for me, if not the whole piece: As.
Nuts and Bolts: Using Choruses
In:
Phrases
This verbal repetition can create a beat of bland time that lets your story breathe, or it can refresh previous plot points and trigger strong emotions. Steal this natural aspect of spoken rhetoric to enliven your prose.
Utility Phrases: When All Words Fail
In:
Phrases
What does your character say when he doesn't know what to say? Utility phrases fill a beat of bland time, possibly framing a gesture, possibly allowing the reader to recover from a shock, all the while developing characterization.
