Verb tenses – Write Well, Write To Sell

Proper use and overuse of “had” in writing

07/27/202008/17/2020 Write Well, Write To Sell 840 Views 2 Comments bad writing advice, good writing techniques, novel writing, overuse of "had"

From Rick: Recently, a member of my local writers group mentioned having seen several articles that “had” was one of those words writers should avoid using. That got my attention. In my thirty-some years of writing experience, I have never

Basics of writing Verb tenses

Dived or dove: some confusing past tenses

04/22/201904/22/2019 Write Well, Write To Sell 361 Views 0 Comments dived or dove, rick taubold, shined or shone

From Rick: Last year I did a post on verbs whose present tense, past tense, and past participles were all the same (like read: I read a lot, I read a short story yesterday, I have read fifty books so

Basics of writing Verb tenses

Verbs with the same form in present and past tenses and past participle

06/18/2018 Write Well, Write To Sell 608 Views 0 Comments and participle forms, past, rick taubold, verb errors, verb with same present, verbs whose present and past tense are the same

From Rick: In my editing I sometimes encounter a case where the author gets a verb’s past tense wrong. Here are three errors I’ve encountered a few times. These are incorrect: He broadcasted his location over the radio. The weatherman

Basics of writing Verb tenses

Mastering verb tenses—Part 6: Verb tense shifts

02/19/2018 Write Well, Write To Sell 1021 Views 0 Comments good writing techniques, rick taubold, verb tense shifts, verb tenses in writing

From Rick: It’s been a while since I talked about verb tenses. The last article that dealt with them in part was back on April 11, 2016 as part of an article on Common Writing Mistakes-Part 1. Before that, I

Bad writing habits Basics of writing Verb tenses

Common writing mistakes—PART 1

04/11/201608/21/2017 Write Well, Write To Sell 433 Views 0 Comments bad writing habits, editing tips, good writing techniques, rick taubold, self-editing

From Rick: Continuing our series on problems writers encounter, I want to mention the most common mistakes I see among new writers in particular. We’ve covered some of these before, but I thought it would be helpful to see them

Basics of writing Verb tenses

Mastering verb tenses–Part 5

07/06/2015 Write Well, Write To Sell 427 Views 0 Comments good writing techniques, rick taubold, verb tenses in fiction, verb tenses in writing

From Rick: In Part 4 of this series (link below), I ended with an example that started with a past perfect tense and I said I would explain that in the next post. Well, this is the next post. MASTERING

Basics of writing Verb tenses

Mastering verb tenses–Part 4

06/29/201507/08/2015 Write Well, Write To Sell 464 Views 1 Comment good writing techniques, rick taubold, verb tenses

From Rick: I’ve previously done three posts on verb tenses. In this fourth one, I hope to teach you how to untangle the mystery of dealing with verb tenses and to boost your confidence with them. This is where we

Basics of writing Verb tenses

Getting tense over tenses (Verb tenses–Part 3)

05/11/201506/21/2015 Write Well, Write To Sell 584 Views 1 Comment fiction writing, good writing techniques, rick taubold, self-editing, verb tenses in fiction, verb tenses in writing

From Rick: I’ve done two previous posts on this subject (references at end of this post), but I’m going to approach it again a little differently than before. Why do verb tenses seem to confound writers so much? That’s a

Basics of writing Verb tenses

Mastering verb tenses in your writing–Part 2

09/29/201402/17/2021 Write Well, Write To Sell 448 Views 0 Comments fiction writing, good writing techniques, grammar basics, verb tenses, writing in present tense

From Rick: Last year I did a post on verb tenses. Recently a question came up regarding this subject, and I saw that the previous post had not covered this particular issue. MASTERING VERB TENSES IN YOUR WRITING–Part 1 In

Basics of writing Verb tenses

Mastering verb tenses in your writing–Part 1

06/24/201306/21/2015 Write Well, Write To Sell 574 Views 0 Comments good writing techniques, grammar basics of writing, rick taubold, verb tenses, writing basics

From Rick: Most people have a good intuitive feel for the use verb tenses, but many have trouble explaining them. For writers, verb tenses are extremely important, and their proper use can make the difference between a good piece and