error correction

Basics of writingFormattingWriting software

Setting intelligent MS word defaults for writers

From Rick: MS Word comes set with some really stupid defaults, at least for writers. While thy may seem good for the average person and for business, many of these defaults are counterproductive for writers, especially if you’re planning on

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Basics of writingConfusing words

English is hard–PART 2: Thesaurus evils

From Rick: Last time we talked about the confusion arising from look-alike and sound-alike words in English, along with identical-appearing words whose meaning varies with their pronunciation. ENGLISH IS HARD–PART 1 This time, I’m going to talk about the pitfalls

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Basics of writingConfusing wordsEditing

How NOT to be taken seriously as a writer

by Rick Taubold and Kellee Kranendonk From Rick: For this week’s blog, I decided to build on another great article Kellee wrote for Silver Blade magazine. What I’m going to do is use Kellee’s article as a base, selectively choosing

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Bad writing habitsEditing

Rules, rules, rules–I’m so sick of rules!

From Rick: On blog after blog about writing, writers are inundated with rules. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how much the so-called rules of good writing really matter. Thinking about that triggered another random thought. In the Broadway show, and

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Basics of writingEditing

Bad writing habits–examples

From Rick and Scott: Last week Scott talked about four bad habits of writers. The first was the use of habit words and phrases. Nearly every author is guilty of falling into the use of certain repetitive writing habits. The

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FormattingNovel writingSelf-Publishing

Formatting guidelines–PART 2 (Word options & clean ups)

From Rick: Last time, I covered some key formatting points for your manuscripts. In this part, I’m first going to show you how to set your MS Word defaults to sensible settings to help you avoid problems. The instructions are

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Basics of writingEditingFormatting

Manuscript formatting guidelines–PART 1

From Rick: We talk a lot about the specifics of grammar and craft in this blog, but one aspect of writing we’ve left out so far deals with the basics of formatting your story or manuscript. Just so we’re clear,

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EditingSelf-PublishingWriting software

Using automated grammar checking

Here begins a series on grammar checkers and editing software. We will be talking about other pieces of software on the market and the caveats of using them, along with our advice. We won’t necessarily be doing these articles one

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