A collection of 9 posts
Writing is hard. It's even more difficult if we spiral down a rabbit hole of wasteful exploratory churn. Fortunately, modest planning techniques can help pilot the narrative back on course, no matter the medium: corporate presentation, how-to manual, flash fiction, novel, memoir, or even a sonnet.
I earned my Eagle Scout award in 1987. Those years seem so long ago, yet my scouting experience still impacts me in a very real way. Those were my formative years—good years surrounded by good people who helped make me . . . me.
The argument for two spaces between sentences in modern writing is akin to refusing to turn off caps lock when texting or sending an email. Or to butcher Orwell, "One space good, two spaces bad."
When does a decade begin and end? Answer: whereas a decade can reference any ten years, THE decade is a period spanning years "xxx0" to "xxx9". In fact, a new decade has just begun. But some confuse the beginning and ending years. If so, they are usually victims of a very common logic error.
As diverse as our food _seems_ to have become, in most respects our food choices have become far poorer, blander, and devoid of variety when compared to what was available in the past.
Writing a novel is hard. It is the writing community's marathon. But NaNoWriMo is a unique event that galvanizes the writing community and generates a creative energy that you, as a writer, can tap into to help propel your story forward. And yes maybe, write that novel. It certainly helped me.
The dash family of punctuation—minus, hyphen, en dash, em dash, and more.
Musings on the English language.
Be that person who comes to the aid of others. Act!