FREE Online Rhyming Dictionary 20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes I’ve edited a monthly magazine for more than six years, and it’s a job that’s come with more frustration than reward. If there’s one thing I am grateful for — and it sure isn’t the pay — it’s that my work has allowed endless time to hone my craft to Louis Skolnick levels of grammar geekery. As someone who slings red ink for a living, let me tell you: grammar is an ultra-micro component in the larger picture; it lies somewhere in the final steps of the editing trail; and as such it’s an overrated quasi-irrelevancy in the creative process, perpetuated into importance primarily by bitter nerds who accumulate tweed jackets and crippling inferiority complexes. Below are 20 common grammar mistakes I see routinely, not only in editorial queries and submissions, but in print: in HR manuals, blogs, magazines, newspapers, trade journals, and even best selling novels. Who and Whom This one opens a big can of worms. Which and That Lay and Lie This is the crown jewel of all grammatical errors. Moot Nor
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WriteWords - Writing Community - jobs, directory, forums, articles for writers Lyric Writing Exercises: a 5-Day Workshop Guest post by Maria Rainier If you’re anything like most songwriters, you’re all too familiar with that frustrating sensation of being stuck in a rut. You know it’s important to write something – anything – every day, but there are times when that just seems impossible. Maybe you don’t have enough energy, you might be too critical of your first attempts, or you could be missing out on the muse. Whatever the reason, you can still get your daily writing done in a productive way if you introduce new exercises into your routine. The next chance you get, try starting this five-day lyric writing exercise workshop – it’s the perfect way to begin a week of successful songwriting. Day 1: Research Mix & Match The first step is to give yourself something interesting to work with. Day 2: Collaborative Brainstorming Contact a friend by chat or email. Day 3: Titles & Nuggets Using what you’ve written from the previous two exercises (or relying on your notebook), construct some potential song titles.
Songwriting Exercises - Handout Songwriting Exercises by Joel Mabus Scaffolding Stuck? Try this exercise: A) Take some song you like — any song at all from any era, any style — just so long as it is familiar to you. B) Write a new lyric to that song. C) Take that new lyric and write completely new music to it. D) Edit. (Or you could do A-C-B-D — write the new music to the “scaffold” song and then write a new lyric.) What remains is a new song with only a hint of the “ghost” song that acted as a scaffold for the process. Listmaking Out of ideas? A list could become a song (remember “My Favorite Things” or Tom T Hall’s “I Love...”) or could be a starting pad for an essay song, enumerating facts or feelings. Focused Imaging Similar to listmaking, but more purposeful, is putting your imagination to work in creating a scene, place or mood. Imagine a perfect day in your childhood – or the day your childhood sweetheart left you. Out-of-context Images Brain dead? Do this a few times and you start to see language in a new light. Journal