I’ve been working on my novel, and it ain’t easy. I’m a few thousand words in, but I’ve decided I need to sit down and create a more detailed storyline because I find myself all over the place in terms of tone and themes. There’s too much going on, and I need to get a… Continue Reading
Here’s a short story that comes complete with editing suggestions from professional editors. I read the story and made my own editing suggestions and then compared my ideas with those of the pros. As one might expect, there was some variation in opinion among the featured editors, but they agreed on the major problems with… Continue Reading
I’m back after a summer of baseball, beach days, and burnt marshmallow ice cream (from Ed’s — mmm) followed by ACL surgery as soon as the kids were back in school. It’s been 20 days since surgery, and, though I have a long road of physio ahead of me, things are getting back to normal.… Continue Reading
The sign in the above photo contains an error that I’m seeing, well, every day lately: everyday used as a noun. The store is “now open everyday.” But everyday is an adjective, as in everyday life, everyday clothes, everyday mistakes. Go forth with this wisdom, people, and correct the errors of our sorry textual ways.
Grammar Girl is a great resource for anyone who wants to improve their writing. She deftly answers pressing punctuation, grammar, and usage questions after doing plenty of supporting research. No persnickety pedant, she keeps her advice “quick and dirty,” giving her audience the tools they need to improve their writing. One of my pet peeves… Continue Reading
There are two editing books that deserve space (not that they require much of it, being the pithy publications that they are) on every editor’s shelf: Strunk and White’s Elements of Style and Carol Fisher Saller’s Subversive Copy Editor. Upon seeing The Subversive Copy Editor lying on our bed recently, my husband assumed that the… Continue Reading
Did you know that there is a difference between might and may? It’s straightforward enough: might is the past tense of may. I may go home soon. (present) I might have gone home sooner if the beer hadn’t been so good. (past) Easy enough, right? But sometimes I’ve been unsure about which word to use.… Continue Reading
Yesterday was the pub date for Shriver’s new novel, Big Brother. I went straight to the store and bought it. What a pleasure to be back in the presence of her insightful writing. A dozen pages in, she conveys so many ideas to which I find myself nodding my head in recognition and agreement, and… Continue Reading
I’m getting better at tailoring my resumé for specific companies and sending it out, but career counsellors still push the cold call. When you’re an introvert, the cold call is chilly indeed. I said last week that I would make my first cold call by Friday; it’s now Wednesday. The Wednesday after. I attempted to… Continue Reading