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Ho Ho How Do You Punctuate That?
It’s getting to be that time of year when children close their eyes and fantasize about an old, fat man breaking into their house while they sleep naïvely in false security in their bedrooms. “Ho! Ho!...
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Why I’m Giving to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and You Should Too
I am grateful to my clients and for my work at Dot and Dash, my author services company, and I’m thankful to be in a position where I can give back to my global community in a way that mirrors Dot...
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Stop Calling Women “Girls” (Including in Fiction Writing)
It’s not okay to call a woman a “girl” in most cases when writing fiction (and, you know, in life in general) Look at this woman / human / person / lady. It used to be that men got away with calling...
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Imply vs. Infer
It’s easy to understand why people get imply and infer confused. Their meanings are related and similar. In this post, I will explain what these two words mean and show you how you can remember the...
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How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo Success
Hundreds of thousands of people are signing up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this year, just like they do every year. And like every year, most people won’t hit the 50,000-word finish...
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How to Use a Coordinating Conjunction with a Comma in a Sentence
Coordinating conjunctions often connect two complete thoughts in a sentence. You can remember these words by the acronym FANBOYS, which stands for For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So. Let’s go over...
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The Difference Between Epidemic vs. Pandemic
Epidemic and pandemic have similar meanings, but there is a slight difference between the two. And that difference has to do with size. Epidemic An epidemic is a disease that affects many people at...
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Origin of “May you live in interesting times”
The coronavirus pandemic has caused me to think a lot lately about the saying “May you live in interesting times,” which is reported to be a Chinese curse. But just where does this adage really come...
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What is etymology and why is it important for writers?
“Etymology” is the study of the origin of words and phrases and how their meanings have changed throughout history. Etymology is important for many reasons. But, for writers, it helps establish...
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Bring vs. Take
When determining whether to use bring or take, consider movement. Use bring when moving something toward a specific place or person. Sally brings the potato salad to Jerry. Frieda is bringing her...
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