From Rick: Before I begin this post, I want to say that I have significantly added to and updated the “Common Compound Words” file I mentioned in my 5/11/2020 post. If you already downloaded it, you’ll want to do so
Read moreFrom Rick: What do I mean by “Keep your writing real”? Before I answer that question, I want to point out that the question mark in that sentence above is correctly placed. Why? Because the question mark applies to the
Read moreFrom Rick: Continuing the grammar lessons that I started in late March, I want to talk about the words “there” and “more.” We rarely pay much attention to their role because they’re so common. The part of speech of “there”
Read moreUp, down, and -ward words From Rick: NOTICE: The Write Well, Write to Sell blog has MOVED! Please update your bookmarks to: writewell.ricktaubold.com At the old site (writewell.silverpen.org) there will be a forwarding link to the new site that we’ll
Read moreFrom Rick: Last time I asked you to decide which of the following two sentences is correct and promised the answer in my next post: —Dan logged on to his computer. —Dan logged onto his computer. The first sentence is
Read moreFrom Rick: In Part 2, I talked about two ways in which writers may overwrite: —unnecessary use of characters’ names —repeated words and phrases In this last part I’ll finish up this series by talking about three other ways writers
Read moreFrom Rick: Last time, I pointed out several ways in which writers overwrite their stories and novels: —unnecessary dialogue tags —wordiness in general —unnecessary repetition of information To that list I want to add: —unnecessary use of characters’ names —repeated
Read moreFrom Rick: Mark Twain’s essay “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” is famous both for its typical Twain humor and for Twain’s rules for good writing. I’ve mentioned this essay before. You can do a Google search for it, or you can
Read moreFrom Rick: I’m sure our blog readers will at once notice that the blog looks a lot different. I had to do an update to the software on the site and the old template I had used for many years
Read moreFrom Rick: This week’s post is going to be relatively short because it’s designed to make you think about your story, ask questions about it, and to help you analyze it for effectiveness. Keep in mind that because each story
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