Does writing really have rules? Nope. Alright, hope you have a good week, I’ll be back… Oh, you want more of an answer? You don’t believe me when I say that there are no rules in writing? Ok, let me back up. Yes, you can find rules for English grammar …
I had a conversation with an author the other day about villain monologuing. He pointed out that plenty of fictional villains throughout the ages have revealed their plans to the heroes. I quoted Syndrome: Villain monologuing is one of those stereotypes that popular culture both accepts and ridicules at the …
Last weekend, I went to the Northern Colorado Writers Conference for the first time. I wish I’d known about it years ago! I’ve traveled to other cities for writing conferences, and it was super nice to be able to go to one just a short drive from my house. Didn’t have …
I’m going to tell you a secret: Editors aren’t perfect. *cue collective gasp* I know, I know. Now you’re asking, “Then why on earth should I be asking an imperfect editor to perfect my writing?” And, well, if absolute perfection is your goal, then I wish you godspeed on your …
I’ve thought about doing a full tutorial on how to use Microsoft Word’s “Track Changes” capability. And maybe eventually I’ll do a fuller post on that, but there are lots of other good tutorials out there. Also I don’t want to delve into the can of worms that is Microsoft …
As I was writing last week’s post about white room dialogue, I kept thinking about Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card—a book which famously (and thoroughly) breaks the rule about white room dialogue. So since my last post about a dialogue rule was followed by an example of breaking the …
Most writers fall into one of two camps: those who prefer to write dialogue and those who prefer description. Personally, my innate talents fall more on the dialogue side of the spectrum. As such, I have a tendency—if I’m not careful—to write “white room dialogue.” In general, this is a …
While planning my post on said bookisms, I began reading a series by Robert Asprin called Myth Adventures. My husband convinced me to read the first book, Another Fine Myth, and it was pretty easy to get hooked. One of the first things that grabbed my attention—other than the clever …
Often you will hear writers and editors talk about an aspect of dialogue called the said bookism. I first learned this term many years ago from the excellent writing podcast Writing Excuses. Since then, proper use of dialogue indicators has become one of my biggest editing crusades. Let’s talk about …
Back in January, my family took me to see The Man Who Invented Christmas at the cheap theater. I highly recommend this excellent movie. It was released last November and then unceremoniously booted from many theaters by The Last Jedi (which, let’s face it, was quite disappointing and really not …
