Articles
Yesterday my son reminded me that November is almost here, and I realized it’s almost time for NaNoWrimo aka National Novel Writing Month! I know, some of you are thinking I have such a thoughtful son, right? Hah! He’s more concerned that I don’t forget his school play and less about me being ready for NaNoWriMo. But I digress. November sneaked up on me. I’m still...
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We often talk about what to expect from your editor during the editing process, but how many of us have thought about what the editor should be able to expect from the author at the same time? Sure, I know what some of you may be thinking. Authors pay editors to do the work, so why should they have any expectations at all? The words...
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Articles
What is a conjunction? Oh sure, you’ve heard the word over and over most of your life, but what exactly is a conjunction? If you’re of a certain age, you’ve probably watched “Schoolhouse Rock” and learned that a conjunction is a word that hooks up “words and phrases and clauses.” But in order to understand conjunctions, we need to understand what words, phrases, and clauses...
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So we’re back with part two of our misspelled and misused foreign phrases. I really hope you enjoyed part one and found some of the information helpful. Since I had so much fun with the word Kummerspeck, which, if you read part one, you’d know is German for the excess weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally translated, it’s grief bacon. Today’s phrase is l’esprit de...
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Character Consistency How many times have you been reading something and out of nowhere there’s an odd change to a character that comes with no explanation? Nothing inconsequential, of course—something substantial, like eye color or body type or a huge personality change that goes unexplained? Are you the type of reader who would notice that sort of thing? As an editor, I have to be. During...
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Dialogue Tags, Part II In my earlier article, Dialogue Tag Primer, we looked at the basics of punctuating dialogue tags, some commonly accepted rules to what constitutes a dialogue tag and what is a creative tag, and the challenge to generally use fewer tags in your writing. In this segment, we’ll talk more in depth about some other types of punctuation, how the placement of...
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Featured Writing Prompts & Exercises Welcome to the Write Divas Featured Writing Prompts & Exercises! Music is something that inspires a lot of writers. This week’s writing prompt is a picture we hope will inspire you. “Your words are like beautiful music. Weave a song.” We hope you enjoy this feature and feel free to share the results of your hard work. ~ The Divas
What Stops Me In My Tracks When I’m Reading? As I’ve said before, I read a lot. Not nearly as much as I’d like—and much of what I read is unpublished manuscripts—but there is little that makes me happier than relaxing with a book that whisks me away to an exciting new world, a future time, or a distant land. You see, the life of...
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That Book Won’t Write Itself, You Know Okay, I’ll admit, this article should be titled “That Article Won’t Write Itself, You Know,” as I sit at my computer and stare at a blank screen, three hundred other things distracting me from actually writing anything at all. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, pictures from the weekend—they all tease me with their instant entertainment, but none of them are...
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Divas Recommend: Ten Top Tips to Instantly Improve Your Writing by Julie Lawford I’m always looking for writing tips. Whether they’re for my personal use or to share with our readers, I like to recommend sites and authors/bloggers who give a fresh perspective and look at things from a new angle. This is why I’m recommending Julie Lawford’s article, Ten Top Tips to Instantly Improve Your...
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