I’m distracted. My conscious thought is pinballing between dozens of logistics and social commitments, regrets and what ifs, bits and pieces of about six works in progress, the memory of an arcade pinball machine that my dad once brought home as a surprise, and wondering whether I brushed my hair today and what my kids are eating for dinner and how my mom … More Distracted Writing
For those of you who find yourselves either without a style guide, or too busy writing the next great American novel to get bogged down in the nit-picky details, I made you a handy-dandy, quick-reference chart for punctuating dialogue in fiction. Since most fiction is written in Chicago style (CMOS), that’s the style I used. … More Quick Reference Guide to Punctuating Dialogue in Fiction
Ciao, writer peeps! I still have this eye thing limiting my screen time. Surely, there’s a blog post in there about serious writers overcoming all obstacles to express their craft. But I didn’t write it. Since I love you and want you to succeed, though, I’m using my time to turn you on to Randy … More Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method
Purim begins Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at sunset and continues until sunset Thursday, March 24. Purim is a freewill offering holiday, not commanded by the LORD under the Law of Moses, but rather instituted by the Jews to commemorate deliverance from a planned systematic genocide, as recorded in the Bible book of Esther. (See Esther 9:27-28) Celebrating Purim includes four parts: … More Celebrating Purim includes these 4 things.
“Why don’t you go to another church?”
“Because I’m Catholic,” Harold answered.
“You’re not Catholic,” I argued, “if you don’t believe what they teach.”
Harold just smiled. “I’m Catholic.”
Harold and I were in high school, those extraordinary years of challenging our parents and forming opinions of our own. In some ways . . .
… More No one lied to us.
We writers refer to our writing personalities as voice, because readers “hear” us when they read our words. For the same reason, many of our writing mistakes can be corrected by simply listening to our own voices. With our ears. You can write every word, sentence, and paragraph grammatically correctly, and still have errors in your … More Avoid these 7 writing mistakes by listening.
If you’re a newbie writer, winning a writing contest can plump your portfolio, give you confidence, earn you a little money, and help get your foot in the door with publishers. But only if the contest is legit. … More Legitimate writing contests open doors for new writers.
