Forum: Writing Tips

If you write a lot and find yourself recycling words, you may leap to a thesaurus. Today most people write using a word processor, a substantial number using Microsoft Word. There is no question the usefulness of a thesaurus, but when using certain programs (MS Word) or simply being lazy, a thesaurus can actually be a bane rather than a boon. Anyone can use a thesaurus, and anyone can use one lazily. Like any resource, a thesaurus must be used wisely, used with some thought. Using a paper copy of a dictionary or thesaurus these days is unwise if you have access to the internet. If you're reading this now: CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE THE INTERNET! Stow your paper copies and travel with them, in case you end up atop a cold mountain where the idea of electricity is unfathomable, and there you wish to punch or scribble out your next (or first) literary masterpiece. But if you have internet, don't use printed dictionaries or thesauruses. Most dangerously comes the usage of MS Word's built-in thesaurus. With...

What do you think of my new writing/posting/ƒontmethod? I was bored and decided that the artistic look of my posts was bland. I needed something to spice them up, and contemplated what I would change. The changes are not all that sweeping, but it has resulted in an jnteresting method. It consists of the ƒollowing: * All first letters of a paragraph are capital, bold, and size 4 font. * All writing js done in jtalics. * All lowercase "i's" that start a word whose second letter js s or js longer than two letters are replaced by lowercase "j's." Example: What js the best letter to replace i with?

Farther is used when referencing physical distance. The root of the word is far, which is something to keep in mind when considering which word to use. "I followed the man farther down the street." Further refers to metaphorical or figurative distance. You don't move further down the street, you move farther down it. All the while, you can further believe you are wasting your time moving down the street. Consider the following example of a child in the car with a parent. Child: "How much farther do we have to go before we get there?" Parent: "If you complain further I will turn this car around . . ." While that explanation can take you far, some instances arise wherein the two can become somewhat confused, such as when reading a book. If you and a friend are reading the same book, do you tell them you are farther than them in it or further? The same rules apply but are not as obvious. Both can work in this situation but the usage depends on the meaning of what you convey. You are farther than...

When we study grammar we are reminded of how little we know. So many terms, so many rules. As complicate as grammar can be, once you get a grip on it, everything just falls into place. In another thread I define grammar and its elements, and a major player in grammar is syntax: the order, organization and proper construction of sentences. Sentences are made up of a number of elements, the clause being perhaps the first subdivision of one. When looking up rules, from punctuation to proper usage of pronouns, they tend to fall under the light of various clause conditions. If you don't know what a clause is you'll quickly become confused, maybe even take the advice wrong and muck up your thought. So let's look at the clause. CLAUSE A clause is the smallest grammatical unit of a sentence necessary to complete a proposition, a logical or philosophical thought (something with meaning, logical or philosophical). It is commonly confused with a phrase. Classical thought distinguishes between clauses and phrases,...

Most of us know the difference between a complete sentence and a fragment. According to a source at Empire State College in New York, complete sentences "convey complete thoughts" and sentence fragments "unless artfully used, suggest that your thinking is fragmented, because you're only presenting a piece of a complete thought. Most of the time you don't want to convey the impression that your thinking is incomplete." This guidance is simplified and genuine, neglecting an explanation of certain prescriptive syntactical rules. Connecticut Community College, however, offers a little more information. Now we're getting into rules like subject-verb relationship, and vocabulary, such as clauses and whether they are dependent or independent. This gets dizzying. Too many rules. And mind you, I'm not even scratching the surface. Although formal writing tends to shun the use of fragments, they serve a number of purposes both in fiction and nonfiction. Perhaps the most important purpose a fragment serves...

Avoiding vernacular in writing is an unwritten rule of which many follow and others consider. If we ignore the prescriptive rules of writing yet acknowledge their reasoning, we can come up with some simple guidelines to follow when considering the use of vernacular in our writing. I'm sure most of us know what vernacular is, but for those who may need clarification, I will define it. Vernacular: language or vocabulary peculiar to a class or group. The term vernacular can be replaced with colloquial, which includes vocabulary and phrases. For instance, the word online is vernacular used by anyone familiar with interfacing with the Internet. The well-known British word bollocks is colloquial to that region. Vernacular doesn't start and end with vocabulary, it also encompasses phrases. Every social pocket of the world has its own lingo. Words and phrases in London differ from those in Yorkshire; the same applies to Houston and Dallas in Texas; along parts of of the U.S. eastern seaboard,...

Microsoft Word is probably most well-known but most word processors these days offer a spell-checker. The spell-checker in a word processor can be a boon and a bane, depending on what you are writing. What's important is knowing how to use it. I have a lot of writing experience. Before returning to university to attain a degree I wrote online in blogs, in forums, and I wrote a lot of articles for websites. Personally I have a love for writing, which is why I've done so much throughout my life. It also explains my fascination and obsession with spelling and grammar. When I returned to university in 2007 I was appalled to discover how poorly today's youth writes. I was exposed to some fascinating ideas, yet the students didn't know the difference between their and there, nor could they spell common, everyday words. More appalling is the fact these students all had access to spell-checkers but were too lazy to use them. For the most part spell-checkers are great. I write so often and so fast I often...

As homonyms, these two words are often confused in writing. It is rare that people use complement when they actually mean compliment, it is typically the other way around. There is, however, a simple way to resolve the issue and break the habit of using the wrong spelling. First we define the two. Compliment: an expression of praise or admiration. He complimented me on my dress, saying it brought out the color of my eyes. Complement: a quantity or amount that completes anything. The horned helmet complemented the warrior's armor. When I was a child I learned the difference between the spelling of principle and principal by simple association. I was taught that principal applies to a person (or position) by looking at the word pal found at the end. A principle is not a person, thus cannot be a pal. A principal is a person, and is your pal. Similarly, association can be made when considering the homonyms compliment and complement. The easiest way to remember the difference is by considering the...

I'm sure some of you writers are curious about the proper use of the indefinite article preceding the word history in written form. Is it a history or an history? More frequently professional writers are adopting an history, so there's some confusion floating around. In English speech (and especially writing) the indefinite article a precedes a noun beginning in a consonant and an preceding a noun beginning in a vowel. Consider an apple and a pear. The word history is borrowed into English but its usage begins with the glottal fricative /h/ (like in high), which is treated as a consonant and not a vowel. Although some British dialects omit /h/ from the word, according to English grammar and speech practices, it should be preceded by a and not an. It doesn't matter how it's processed in dialectal form, that is, how you actually say it matters not. In some parts of the U.S. the word barn is pronounce /ban/ (baan/bon), but that doesn't change how the word is spelled or read on the page. Enough of the...

It has become common practice by prescriptive grammarians and secondary school teachers to declare that sentences should not end in prepositions. It has been said this is a "rule" of English grammar, one for which all good writers and speakers should follow. The reality here is that this "rule" is fiction. It's complete bollocks. Everyone knows what a preposition is, for in order to construct a sentence in English other than in the nominative case a preposition must be used. In English a preposition is a word that typically expresses a temporal, spatial or other relationship connecting nouns with objects (and among other things). Examples of prepositions include: on, to, in, out, from, by, against. Thus, the sentence I go to the store includes the accusative preposition to, which expresses the spatial relationship between I and the store. In English it is perfectly fine to end a sentence with a preposition. However, in some cases the addition of the preposition is unnecessary, thus creating syntactic...

how to concoct a horror-yarn by smoke 'n mirrors... create a creature... hmmm, it refers to itself as The Contrivance. Figure-out if it murders humans... Probably. Leave its motives unclear for the moment. create a secondary horror to buttress the first... The Eye At The End Of The Street ('road' is too cliche-ridden). An unblinking floating-eye, which'll either be a spaceship (Earth's biology casting an 'eye'-effect, if the Contrivance is an alien) or a paranormal 'companion'. pick a location for maximum action and weirdest atmospherics... a semi-remote, half-forested subdivision of mostly empty houses due-to-a-depressed-economy. choose a muse-theme: a robot in a deserted house keeps making mysterious phonecalls to a little kid... A muse-theme should act like a health-replenishing 'game save' for your imagination to keep returning-to.

SNOWDRIFT SERANADA: In 1938, a press-agent convinces a movie-star and her orchestra to entertain at the Aspen SnowBall. -Causing a popular dance-band's act to be cancelled. So they masquerade as musicians-unionists to get their gig back. METROPOLITAN POP: In 1938 St. Louis, a doting father becomes convinced to promote a popular dance-band on his teenage-daughters' favorite radio-program. THOSE GUYS IN WASHINGTON: While entertaining at a famous DC hotel, members of a popular dance-band accidentally invent a sensational new softdrink-beverage. Armed with whizzbang marketing-gimmicks, they clash with Congress and patent-bureaucrats. SILK AND SATURN: Against her boyfriend's wishes, a wealthy Atlanta debutante agrees to book a popular dance-band in her father's night-club. Boyfriend-and-father hire a well-known British entertainer to jinx their performance with his world-famous magic-show. GOBS OF LONDON: The manager of a popular dance-band concocts a hoax that she's discovered a long-lost...