“I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.”
— James Michener
Tag: Writing
Make Your Heart Skip
What Is the Reward of Writing?
The Lens of the Mind
The Long and Thoreau of It
Contractions Have Their Place
Grammar Girl has an amazing article describing the history, use, and suggestions regarding contractions: “Use contractions in formal writing if it will sound stranger to avoid them than to use them.”
The Chicago Manual of Style says, “Most types of writing benefit from the use of contractions. If used thoughtfully, contractions in prose sound natural and relaxed and make reading more enjoyable.”
Do you remember the character Data from Star Trek? He could not use any form of contraction. Ever. And it set him apart as a non-human. Don’t do that to your writing. Make sure your reader knows there is a human behind the words. Don’t overdo it. There ain’t no reason to sound uneducated in your struggle of pen and paper.
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Gain Your Voice
Writers Aren’t People…Exactly
Mistakes Writers Make
Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do)
In her article, Patricia Holt hits all the major mistakes writers [new and old] make. The fixes are EASY to grasp. Read up!
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REPEATS
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FLAT WRITING
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EMPTY ADVERBS
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PHONY DIALOGUE
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NO-GOOD SUFFIXES
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“TO BE” WORDS
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LISTS
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SHOW, DON’T TELL
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AWKWARD PHRASING
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COMMAS
Editing Addict, LLC 