CREATE A LIFE OF YOUR OWN DESIGN
I’ve written about this before. There are writing “conventions” (not enforceable rules) that vary across the planet and are constantly evolving. Learn them. If you’re going to defy them, be prepared to justify your choices and accept the consequences (which may range from poor reviews and lack of sales to a Nobel prize for literature).…
I don’t know how actors do it. How does one so convincingly “become” someone else? And then, how do they shift right back into their own authentic alignment? We were enjoying a drink, live music and the sunshine in the parking lot of the Blues Can (apparently, COVID doesn’t frequent parking lots …). The guitar…
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Anyone can self-publish a book; it’s relatively easy and there is no vetting process. Consequently, over a million books are published online each year. Many millions of books, maybe billions, are available through online distributors, in bookstores and from libraries. Why should anyone choose…
The games people play now, every night and every day now, never meaning what they say now, never saying what they mean. I’ve always disliked the whole “pick a number from 0–10” to tell me how you’re feeling. Ridiculous. What 8 means to you may be different from what 8 means to me. Let’s…
It should be pretty easy to remember how to use an apostrophe since there are so few uses. An apostrophe is used to show possession and omission. Yet, this tiny punctuation hook seems to cause a lot of problems for writers. Pronouns do not need an apostrophe when showing possession. Your opinion is yours. For…
The purpose of a book review is to inform other potential readers/buyers about the book. Feedback is also helpful to the author: A good review can help increase sales; a poor review can have the opposite effect. To post a review on Amazon, you have to be an Amazon customer. Goodreads and other platforms (Barnes…
For many, writing a book is easy … writing it well isn’t. Like any pursuit, education and practice are essential to producing a good result. I’m a bit of a perfectionist. It took me about ten years (and about 40 years of education and practice before that …) but I finally finished and published my…
A writer is usually a voracious reader. At least they should be; that’s one way to learn the craft. If you’ve taken some training, good for you. But, you can’t just plop down a story without knowing how a story works if you haven’t at least absorbed that by osmosis from repeated reading. If you…
Having been educated in Canada, we learned proper Canadian spelling (years ago!) but were influenced by an onslaught of American writing since. We teeter on the precipice between the Motherland and Big Brother. Our spellcheck program may be loyal to one country and Grammarly to another. (What do those squiggly red lines under some words…
What the heck is a pilcrow? Every time you hit “Enter” on your keyboard, you create a pilcrow. You just can’t see it. To see it, look up to the middle of your toolbar in whatever document program you’re writing in, and click on the symbol like the one to the left of this post.…