(from the Chicago Manual of Style) From Rick: I decided to continue from last time with more of those sticky punctuation questions I found in the Chicago Manual of Style’s online Q&A. To avoid confusion, I’m going to pick up
Read more(from the Chicago Manual of Style) From Rick: This past Saturday I gave a presentation to my local writers group on “Sticky and Tricky Points of Punctuation.” As a result of that presentation, one of the members sent me an
Read moreFrom Rick: Most of us recognize that the comma is perhaps the most difficult piece of punctuation to get right because it has so many rules that apply to it. I prefer to call them conventions instead of rules because
Read moreFrom Rick: From time to time I receive questions about scenes and scene breaks. We’ve all heard the term “scene” used, but we don’t often hear it defined. Here’s one concise definition I found online: “A scene is a section
Read moreFrom Rick: This week’s post will be a short one from my perspective, but it will provide you with some good reading material and hopefully some good insights. We’re over ten years into indie publishing, and it’s safe to say
Read moreFrom Rick: How often in novels have you read descriptions like the following? (1) Nancy hung her jacket and hat in the closet across from the front door, and placed her black, knitted gloves inside the pocket. She sat on
Read moreFrom Rick: Last time I answered a question about whether the word “had” fell on the list of words we should avoid overusing in our writing, words like: really, just, actually, very, in fact, looked, seemed, looked like, there (as
Read moreFrom 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
Read moreFrom Rick: What’s the best way to promote your writing? As far as I know, it’s still word of mouth. In fact, that pretty much applies to promoting and marketing anything. Beyond that, I don’t pretend to have any answers
Read moreFirst person or third person: which is better? From Rick: A few years back, I did a post on the differences between a story, an anecdote, and an essay and how to tell which you’ve written. Classifying your piece properly
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