This malady seems to afflict mostly fiction, although it does crop up in nonfiction and academic writing as well, from time to time. Recently this allergy has become prevalent enough that it must be diagnosed and treated, just in case it proves to be contagious. Simply put, the “Had Allergy” manifests as a mysterious aversion […]
How do I scream in print?
“….” by r0ck (Rakesh Ayilliath) is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Original question: When writing, should I describe a scream instead of having the character yell out, “Ahhhh!”? Ooooh, good question. The answer, of course, is “it depends.” First, it depends on the accepted styles of expression and the tropes of your genre. Pirates […]
When is TMI a Good Thing?
When it stands for “Trans-Mars Injection orbit” of course! Wouldn’t it be great if Relativity Space and Impulse came out of left field to beat Elon Musk (SpaceX) to Mars? Oooh, that would be fun to watch! In other news, what sometimes feels like “Too Much Information” is actually a good thing. In fact, it’s […]
Why do you do it?
There are only two fundamental reasons for writing anything. It’s either therapy or impact. If you are writing for impact, you are writing primarily for others. If you are writing for therapy, you are writing primarily for yourself. Anything written specifically for impact must focus on, and can only be judged by, its intended audience and the impact […]
The Elusive Logline
At a recent PRESS session, an author was trying to hammer their book description down into a proper logline. This can be more challenging than it might seem, especially because a book description and a logline differ in a subtle but fundamental way. A book description is just that: it describes, to a greater or […]
Academic Self-Editing: Quick Tips for Discussion Posts and Brief Essays
Most of my academic clients come to me for help with big things: a final paper, a thesis, a dissertation. But undergraduate and grad students, and even doctoral candidates, must deal with at least ten minor writing assignments for each big scary writing assignment that comes along. Those minor assignments (things like online discussion posts […]
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