15 Grammar Goofs That Make You Look Silly. Grammar is one of the most debated subjects on the Internet.
Trolls, know-it-alls and helpful grammar gurus all bring it up if they should stumble upon a comment, post or article that doesn’t really measure up to the English grammar rules. For someone who is not born or raised in a country where English is the native language, it can be hard to get the message across when you have to stumble along with grammar that doesn’t really make sense. However, that is no reason for someone to write negative comments about your illiterate ramblings. We all try to express ourselves through the spoken and written words that we have been exposed to through our upbringing. Some people find it easier to learn a language than others, and that is just how it is. The Other Side of the Story: Need a Jump? Four Ways to Fix a Stalled Story. By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Getting stuck happens to everyone, and there are plenty of ways to get stuck.
The full on “ack, I can’t write a sentence” block, the “not sure where to go next” conundrum, the “I can’t figure out how to make this work” frustration. Some novels charge out of the gate like they’re on fire. Others make you fight them every word of the way. Then you have the ones that chug along great and then…stall. I recently dealt with one of those, especially in the third act. But they didn’t want to write. 10 ways not to be a travel writer – Lonely Planet blog. It’s the dream: travelling around the world and getting paid for it.
Every day, thousands of aspiring travel journalists start up blogs, pitch pieces to editors and put pen to paper (at least metaphorically) in the hopes of making travel a full-time job. Image by swimparallel, Flickr. 25 Virtues Writers Should Possess. 1.
A Wild And Unfettered Imagination This one goes up front: the bubbling turbid stew that comprises your brain-mind combo must possess an endless array of unexpected ideas. Your head should be an antenna receiving frequencies from the furthest-flung reaches of Known Creative Space. New in crime fiction: A guide to the latest mysteries and thrillers. Trick of the DarkBy Val McDermid, Bywater Books, 397 pages, $24.95 Twenty-five books into a career, and Val McDermid seems to be just reaching her stride.
Tools for Emerging Authors. Writing Tips and Tricks by OokamiKasumi on deviantART. OokamiKasumi's Journal: Pep Talk from Neil Gaiman. Chekhovs gun: a useful plot device. By Glen C.
Strathy Chekhov's Gun is a plot device whereby you introduce an item in the first part of your novel that doesn't seem important to the story at the time, but takes on greater significance later on. The principle was expressed by the great Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov, who said that if you put a gun on stage in the first act of a play, it should be fired in the second act. According to some sources, he also expressed this in the negative form as: don't put a gun on stage in the first act unless you intend to have it fired in the second.
Some writers try to follow this dictate very rigorously and avoid mentioning any object unless it will play a major role in the story, but that is really taking things too far. I believe Chekhov used the example of a gun because a gun isn't just any object. So if you do draw attention to an object, your readers will expect this object to appear again. Here are several ways you can employ Chekhov's Gun: Resolve to Be a More Productive Writer (Happy New Year)
25 Things Every Writer Should Know. (More) tips for writing well (Austin Govella at Thinking and Making) Published Wed, Jul 8, 2009 by Austin Govella.
Updated Wed, Jul 8, 2009. As an editor, I’ve noticed several recurring bad habits you heathens would do well to disabuse yourselves of immediately. Almost without exception, these bad habits instantiate themselves as a series of stock phrases and constructions that reflect a lack of focus, a lack of fully developed argument, or the kind of intellectual laziness that sets in as you slog through your first draft. Major Themes in Frankenstein. Character Trait Chart. Character Trait Chart and Personality Components It can sometimes be helpful to make a Trait Chart for each character.
This is especially helpful during the early stages of character development, before the character becomes as real to you as your mother. There are several charts of this sort available, some extremely detailed and some containing only facts and figures. 25 Things You Should Know About Character. Previous iterations of the “25 Things” series: 25 Things Every Writer Should Know.
25 Things You Should Know About Storytelling. 1.
Stories Have Power Outside the air we breathe and the blood in our bodies, the one thing that connects us modern humans today with the shamans and emperors and serfs and alien astronauts of our past is a heritage — a lineage — of stories. Stories move the world at the same time they explain our place in it.