Few punctuation marks seem as misunderstood as quotation marks. Few punctuation marks seem as misunderstood as quotation marks. I see so many misuses of quotation marks in fiction and non-fiction, technical reports, brochures, advertising and just about everywhere else. The rules for quotation marks are fairly simple. Perhaps schools are not teaching how to use […]
Eliminate those awful passive sentences! I’ve been finding more passive sentences in my reading lately. Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, scholarly articles or marketing bumph, this is an easy problem to fix. And it is a problem. Passive sentences are longer and less interesting than active sentences. Let’s take a first-grade example: Passive: The […]
Have you noticed the new functionality? Written Words has moved from the worthy Blogger platform to WordPress. Along with that, as you can see, it sports a new, cleaner look and new functionality. I like the white space, the categories for blog posts and the ability to search through the blog. I hope you do, […]
Entering a new kind of world I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Austin Job by David Mark Brown. As soon as I started it, I realized that I should have read its predecessor,Fistful of Reefer, which creates and introduces the new sub-sub-genre of science fiction, reefer punk. According to the author’s introduction to The Austin Job, […]
This installment of Written Words has reviews of two very different types of books. First is Secrets by SL Pierce: a taut, fast-paced thriller. Pierce is a professional writer. Her skill and knowledge of putting together a good read is evident in all her books. She doesn’t waste words and knows how to make a […]
Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors by Benjamin X. Wretlind My rating: 5 of 5 stars Often, you can tell on the first page whether a writer knows what he or she is doing. There’s a flow, a grace to the way these writers construct their sentences that makes reading a joy. […]
Tom Gray has a cause. It looks like revenge, but it’s more than that: he wants to change a system that he thinks is rotten. He’s sure that most of the people of his country think it is, too, and the government is just too hidebound, incompetent and cowardly to do anything. So he takes […]