January 8, 2020
Rule #1: There are no rules. There are guidelines. Traditional ways of writing. Requirements for certain forms of publishing or publishing houses. As a writer, you need to be aware of what’s expected, especially if you want to be published by a specific publisher (or publishers) or in a particular form (electronic or paper). Rule […]
May 3, 2017
We’ve all heard those words. Never … (you fill in the blank)! Stop…! Don’t…! They’re edicts we must follow. Right? Of course not. Never write sentence fragments Never start a sentence with and or but. Never end a sentence with a preposition. Beware of sentence fragments. Oh yes, the terrible sentence fragment. When I was […]
November 30, 2016
Recently I attended a Mid-Michigan RWA Chapter meeting where the program was on editing. The speaker, Dr. Diana Stout, MFA PhD, is one of MMRWA’s members and besides being a writer has taught college English for several years. During the meeting, she covered punctuation from comma rules to words to avoid. Lately, I’ve noticed an […]
August 26, 2015
Lately I’ve been seeing posts about prologues. Evidently some readers, agents, and editors hate them. Some well-know writers use them. Many readers skip the prologue and go straight to chapter one. New writers are often told to avoid using them, to label their prologues as chapter one. Who’s right? I’m one who believes there are […]
August 21, 2013
“There are three rules for writing a novel, unfortunately no one knows what they are.” W. Somerset Maugham. That might be so, but more than once I’ve heard a writing instructors say, or a writer say, “Never…” and then go on to give a rule. Although I’m very conscious of rules, and usually follow them, there’s something […]