Myself. Yourself. Herself. Himself. Itself. Ourselves. Themselves. Yourselves. What are these words and how do we use them? They’re pronouns. (Quick refresher: Pronouns step in for nouns. They save us lots of boring repetition.) “Mrs. Smith baked a pie, and she shared it with her first grade class.” Without pronouns, look what happens to this…
If you do a search for “most common grammar errors,” the affect/effect duo is going to turn up. These two words are homophones. That means they sound alike. Well, they’re almost homophones; though not identical, they sound very much alike. We can see the difference in their spellings, but we don’t always hear it when…
A note from Daniel White Hodge, the editor of this page: “This dictionary isn’t so you can try to talk like someone you’re not. But it is a good reference for those who are seeking to understand a piece of youth culture today. No … every kid doesn’t use all of these words. But this…
Using Metaphors in Creative Writing What is a metaphor? The term metaphor meant in Greek “carry something across” or “transfer,” which suggests many of the more elaborate definitions below: Metaphor Table Definition Origin A comparison between two things, based on resemblance or similarity, without using “like” or “as” most dictionaries and textbooks The act of…
by Susan J. Letham Novice writers tend to feel awed by the concept of “voice.” Once you understand what writers mean by voice, it becomes easier to grasp. You wouldn’t mistake Goldie Hawn’s voice for Liz Taylor’s, even if you couldn’t see their faces, would you? And if I were to give you a text to read, you wouldn’t…
It seems the number one way you learn more about your characters is simply by writing about them. Unfortunately, when this process occurs while you’re writing your story, it can show. Awkward, uneven character development in your completed piece can be the result. One way to get around this is to write scenes with your…
Every manuscript needs to be edited, and not just by the author. Sure, self-editing is an important step in manuscript preparation, but it’s not the final step if you want to be proud of your published work. We authors simply can’t catch all of our own mistakes. We tend to read what we think is…
After two years of editing(!) Dani’s and my new book, Writing Young Adult Fiction, is about to be published. As one of our fans, I’d like to extend this special pre-publication offer to you: get the Kindle book for just $2.99, or get it for free when you purchase the paperback. My favorite part of the book…
The original url for this post was writetabulous.com I recently attended a writer’s workshop that was hosted by a local writers group. The presenter, Judy Olsen, talked about story patterns and how learning and using one of five basic constructs could make a world of difference in your writing success. Since I have never structured a book…
by Jo Anne Fontanilla Every story takes place at same point or points in space and in time. It is incumbent upon the writer of fiction to “place” his story in space and time, as early as possible in his narrative, so that you will begin making the proper associations with the setting. The setting…
by: Jo Anne Fontanilla Every story takes place at same point or points in space and in time. It is incumbent upon the writer of fiction to “place” his story in space and time, as early as possible in his narrative, so that you will begin making the proper associations with the setting. The setting…
Dialogue can be a bit intimidating. All that punctuation. But it’s really not that complicated. The usual practice is to put dialogue in quotes and place an attribution after it, separated with a comma inside the closing quote mark. The attribution will not be capitalized, because it’s part of the same sentence: “Hello,” he said….
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