“Voice” can keep me reading your book even if I balk at plot glitches. But what is “voice”? Can I define it? Can anyone? I share what “voice” in a writer’s work feels like to me!
Tag: Learning to write
THIS WEEK’S SUMMARY AT COLLEGE COMPOSITION WEEKLY!
From the new issue of College English: Jenny Rice argues for a new understanding of “expertise”
to engage writing students in problem-posing and solving.
BATTLE IS LOST: Welcome to “Singular They”!
A sad day for grammar purists: The Washington Post will allow “singular they”!
Can I use “they”?Today at Just Can’t Help Writing! Build Character with Stage Business!
Make your “props” talk
! Every “sip of coffee” can pass on news to your readers about who your characters are and what conflicts they face!
Should Indie Writers WANT Two-Star Reviews?
New at Just Can’t Help Writing: I argue that something’s lost when people refrain from writing negative reviews for fear of hurting authors’ feelings. What do you think?
THIS WEEK AT COLLEGE COMPOSITION WEEKLY!
Tinberg, Howard. Transfer at Community Colleges. Teaching English in the Two-Year College, Sept. 2015. http://wp.me/p5NPq1-3L
TODAY AT JUST CAN’T HELP WRITING: CHECK OUT THIS POST ON CADENCE AND BEATS IN YOUR WRITING!
Writers in the Storm features guest blogger Margie Lawson‘s excellent discussion of how to use rhythm and cadence to enhance the flow of your prose. I provide some additional resources and links to my earlier posts on Novel First Lines and punctuation. Let me know what rhetorical devices you use! http://tinyurl.com/pq7bjkd
NEW AT JUST CAN’T HELP WRITING!
NOTE TO SELF: Four editing rules to follow THIS TIME!
Do you have self-editing rules like these? Do you have any I ought to apply?
New Posts on Just Can’t Help Writing: More “Grammar” and How to Protect Your Ebook Rights
How much “Grammar” Do You Really Need, Part III: I summarize Joe Williams’ categories of errors (those we notice, those we don’t notice, those we notice when they’re actually correct, and those that we ought not to bother with. . . .). My own categories (upcoming): those you can ignore, those you can’t ignore, those you should gamble on.
Questions to Ask Agents, specifically about how to retain your ebook rights: I’m investigating the claims of Dean Wesley Smith that “life-of-copyright” is the new industry standard, meaning that we can never recover our rights regardless of the publisher’s intentions for our books. This article sheds some light on pro-active steps to take if you manage to acquire an agent.
New Post at Just Can’t Help Writing
In which I continue to make my case that we may not need as much “grammar” as we think. This post: I introduce Joseph M. Williams’s article, “The Phenomenology of Error,” in which he takes apart some of the “language mavens” for committing the very errors they warn us against. Fun! http://wp.me/1KFmw