You would find it hard to find three excellent writers who are more different than Seb Kirby, Lisa Jay Davis and Charity Parkerson. Seb writes thrillers and science fiction; Lisa published a bestselling memoir of her time as an event producer in Hollywood; and Charity writes erotica, romance and fantasy. But you’ll be surprised at […]
Writing is a job, or a vocation or maybe an addiction that requires you to do a lot of things besides writing. Then there are those of us who seem to find a lot of other things to do (hold on while I straighten that picture on the wall) before we can get around to […]
Why do writers write? I asked independent writers what they like best and least about writing. In this installment, Caleb Pirtle tells us what makes his writing day. Which element of fiction is most important to you as a writer: Characters are my primary focus in the writing of any novel. Most of the characters generally come and settle […]
Someone must have said that using lists makes your writing better. I say that because I see a lot of lists online and in print. It’s true that lists can make your message easier to understand. They help readers grasp not only information, but relationships between facts. But this improvement is often diminished by writers […]
Writing fiction is different from writing non-fiction. It’s harder. With non-fiction, you may answer a need: “How to hammer nails straight,” or “How to deceive yourself into believing that this diet will actually work next week.” In fiction, however, it’s completely up to the writer to make the reader need to read the content. And […]
There are a few things about punctuation that drive me up a wall. They’re tiny little mistakes, more violations of convention, really, and they don’t interfere with understanding the meaning of a text. But correcting them is so easy to do. In order to maintain your image as a communications professional, remember these finer points […]
“The skunk in the back yard last night stunk, didn’t it?” “No, it stank.” Or is stunk right? What about this one: “The ship sunk during the storm last night”? Is that correct? English. It can be beautiful, powerful, inspiring. It can also be maddeningly confusing and inconsistent. There are so many inconsistencies to trip […]