editing tips

Basics of writingStory Details

Analyzing your story, Part-5: questions and responses

From Rick: This time I’m going to wrap up my advice on analyzing your story. I certainly haven’t covered everything, but I have tried to cover most of the essentials for ensuring your story has the right impact on your

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Basics of writingEditing

Analyzing your story, Part-4: Keeping your story moving

From Rick: So far in this series, I’ve dealt with three aspects: (1) your story’s purpose in terms of what you want to convey to your reader (2) keeping the reader with you in terms of understanding the characters’ motives

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Confusing wordsGrammar

Compound word nightmares: open, closed, or hyphenated?

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”

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Basics of writingEditing

Grammar and style tips for authors: Part 1—recent changes

From Rick: Being an editor, it’s important that I keep up to date on the latest grammar and style changes in the language, particularly since it seems to be changing very rapidly. There are two authoritative references that all writers

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Basics of writingHow to write a story

Story structure models–PART 2

From Rick: In Part 1, I gave you some reference articles to read regarding various story structures. Before I get started, I want to make a couple of comments: (1) I do not use any of these methods directly when

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