I found this quiz while I was going through my Feedly and I decided to test myself. I haven’t formally taken grammar since 8th grade, and I wanted to see if my grasp of it was still in as good of shape as I thought. I think 90% right counts as a win. Is that […]
How One Builds Story Structure: Important, It Is!
I use Grammarly’s grammar checker online because Yoda-speak is only for centuries-old Jedi Masters. I’ve been thinking a lot about structure since I started my edit-in-progress. For one thing, the chapter order has been weighing heavily on my mind. Normally, chronology would be my concern when it comes to ordering pieces of a story, but […]
Get Out of Your Head: It’s Nice Out Here
I can sum up why beta readers are awesome in less than ten words: they pull you back into the real world. Sometimes when you’re writing, you get way too caught up in your own imagination and your own plans to pay attention to the details. This is actually a good thing – it means […]
Writing Pet Peeves Part 2: Style
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about grammar pet peeves. Worse for me, I think, are style pet peeves. I’m hard to please. I’m a philosophy major and a literature buff, so writing style in anything I read, fiction or nonfiction, matters. I am not adamant about some errant grammar choices, but for […]
Grammar Pet Peeves and Exceptions to the Rules
When it comes to grammar, I’m not quite as nit-picky as I am about spelling. Homonyms: it’s important to get those straight. Syntax is important because it can change the meaning of the sentence if the words are out of order. But I will end a sentence with a preposition. I will use “who” instead […]