From Rick: I don’t know about you, but as a writer and an editor, I’m constantly beset with problems when dealing with compound words: should it be one word, two words, or a hyphenated word? We all know that “bedroom”
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 moreFrom Rick: This week I’m going to post something different from what I had planned in order to bring your attention to an article that is highly significant for all indie authors out there. It talks about some potentially serious
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: The publishing world has changed over the past few years, mostly in our favor. With the current coronavirus pandemic upon us, the world has changed in unexpected ways. I hope that all of my readers and their families
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: For the next three or four posts, I’m going to dive into some interesting aspects of word usage confusion (with a little grammar thrown in). Writers need to put their best foot forward in terms of understanding and
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 more