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 The *Big* Words: Five Tips On Making Jargon And Tech Work For Your Writing, Rather Than Against It
By Mike Cooper
With his new heist novel "The Downside" on shelves now, Mike Cooper offers some tips on how to prevent tech-heavy prose from making your story screech to a halt.
The Inauthenticity of a Fuckless World
People curse. If your stories don't curse too, how authentic are you being to the world you are creating?
One Word Leads To The Next: Unconventional Conjunctive Devices
In:
Choruses, conjunctions, Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, Literary Devices, rhymes, Vocabulary, Voice
An essay that explores unconventional conjunctive devices and how they can link a story together, making it more like a song or piece of music.
How to React When Someone Says They Don’t Read
A 2013 poll showed that 28 percent of adults asked had not read a book in the past year. What are some of the reasons behind a continuing aversion to reading, and what can readers do to help?
Kill Those Modifiers!
The overuse of adjectives and adverbs can ruin sentences and flatten descriptive passages.
Bringing the Lie to Life: What Your First Two Pages Can Tell You
Using particular details brings your lie to life.
Etymological Evolution: 12 Words Altered By Historical Misuse
Does the widespread misuse of certain words get your goat? Well suck it up, because that's one of the ways the English language evolves.
Storyville: The Horror of Editing and Revision
In:
editing, fiction writing, Grammar, Plot, Revision, Rewriting, Storyville, Structure, Vocabulary, Workshop
It's been said that the difference between a good writer and a great writer is editing. So let's hop to it.
20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes
A list of some of the most common grammatical errors that routinely make it into print.
“Scuse me while I kiss this guy.”: Malaprops, Puns, Spoonerisms, Eggcorns, and other hilarity-inducing word mix-ups
Words are flexible and a writer can have a lot of fun using these devices.
The Art Of The Rewrite
A true rewrite is not just editing, proofing or copy-editing, but a complete re-imagining of the work. Here’s a four-part process to fortify writers with a successful re-writing plan that works.
Strong Words: Pumping Up Your Writing With Better Vocabulary
In:
Craf, Vocabulary
Flexing your vocabulary muscle makes your writing better, stronger, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
