Ah, research. I know it doesn’t necessarily sound fun (unless you’re one of those people, like me, who goes, “Oh, I don’t really know anything about evil spirits. Time to go to the library! Glee!”) but a little realism can
How to Finish a Novel
As you may or may not know, March is traditionally National Novel Editing Month (NaNoEdMo). If you participate officially, you need 50 hours of editing throughout the month to win. I find it’s easier for me to participate unofficially (and
Submission is Scary, but Everything Will Be Okay
Going along with writing fears and insecurity, we have submission. Oh, submission. Perhaps the scariest and most disheartening of all steps of the writing process. You’ve written a story, you’ve edited and polished, and finally you’re ready to let it
Take Charge of Your Writing
You know why most of us write, right? (ahahaha) Because we have a story we want to tell. We may or may not care if anyone else reads it, but we want to see what happens, how the characters change,
PPWC and Genre Panels
I seem to be having a bit of an issue getting back into the swing of things post-conference. Brain overload, perhaps? Anyway, my apologies for this entry being so late. Hopefully everything returns to normal tomorrow. PPWC was a good
Grammar Week Redux: Me vs. I in Lists
We’re not going to go a full grammar week this week, but I’ve had a couple of people ask me questions and I thought I would answer them periodically. We’ve all seen it (or had it done to us) a
Grammar Week: Whose vs Who’s and Other Confusing Possessives
I feel your pain. Even I have to think about these, most of the time, and I think grammar all the time. (“Hey, I just got an email from my grandmother, and she really should have used a comma there.
Grammar Week: Run-on Sentences and Comma Splices
The period is your friend, fellow writers. I know a comma is supposed to signify a pause, but let’s face it, a lot of times people just blow right through those babies, resulting in an on-going running commentary in one’s head that
Grammar Week: Speech Tags
Ah, speech tags. The lovely bit of any story that tells you who’s talking at any point in time. Easy peasy, right? No. Apparently not. Here’s the thing about speech tags. They’re supposed to blend into the background. If you
Weird Editing Requests
First of all, I would like to thank everyone for not pointing out the fact that April Fool’s Day is on Sunday, not Monday, and invalidating the entire first paragraph of Wednesday’s post. I appreciate it. This way I don’t
