Write about what you know — that’s one of the fundamental nuggets of wisdom for writers. “But I don’t know anything worth writing about!” you protest. You don’t? Anything is worth writing about if the writer finds something engaging about the subject. Try these writing exercises based on firsthand observation: 1. Read the titles of … Read more
If you’re having trouble developing sentences with sufficient variety to keep your writing fresh, take a ride on A WHITE BUS. No, I’m not shouting at you; A WHITE BUS is a mnemonic initialism that reminds you about a set of conjunctions with which you can begin dependent clauses. (A dependent clause is a phrase … Read more
One easy solution for getting sentences off to a strong start is to make them more active by eliminating what is called an expletive, or a dummy subject, such as “There is” or “There are.” It is not necessary to eradicate all expletives from your writing, but minimize them by identifying the real subject of … Read more
Ex- marks the spot. Go beyond, go out on a limb, go outside your comfort zone. Get some extra excitement by using these vivid verbs starting with the syllable ex-: 1. Exacerbate: to make worse 2. Exact: to call for and obtain (“exact revenge”) 3. Exaggerate: to overemphasize or overstate 4. Exalt: to glorify or … Read more
I was reading Natalie Goldberg’s 2005 edition of her classic writing guide Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, and as I worked my way through its sixty-four short chapters, I became less and less enchanted by her ruminations and suggestions as a sort of fatigue set in. Then I realized I had been … Read more
Em dashes are woefully underused and misused. Here are five sentences that would be much improved by their proper use, or by proper use of other punctuation in cooperation with them. Determine how each sentence would benefit from changes in punctuation and compare your revisions with my suggested solutions at the bottom of the page: … Read more
Many quotations attributed to famous people are at best paraphrases — though often superior to the original. Others might be subtly altered in the retelling, sometimes with little impact on their effect, at other times irresponsibly changing the meaning. Here is a selection of well-known sayings or writings that aren’t quite accurate (followed by a … Read more
What’s the big idea? Or, more appropriately, what kind of idea is it? Many ways of expressing the idea of an idea await your consideration; here’s an extensive but not necessarily comprehensive list (including other connotations and meanings of the various synonyms): 1. Abstraction: a theoretical idea; also, the process of abstracting, the condition of … Read more
Writing is often compromised by a writer’s failure to think a sentence through to its logical conclusion. Often, along the way, a small but crucial word or phrase is omitted that leaves a gap in a parallel construction, thereby contributing to the reader’s confusion. In each sentence below, determine the missing element, then check my … Read more
It’s easy to write about how hard something is, because so many synonyms exist for that vague word and its more formal cousin difficult. Many of these terms are somewhat interchangeable (that’s why they call them synonyms), but even then, the senses are often slightly distinct; do a little more research on usage when you … Read more
Open, hyphenated, or closed? Usage guides, dictionaries, and style manuals may differ in their treatment of the following words, so there’s not necessarily one right answer — except for the purposes of this exercise: Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. All terms in this list are treated as open compounds. Which ones should be left as is, and … Read more
Many common words and phrases are identical except for a strategic letter space — apart and “a part” come to mind — and though knowing which form to use in a sentence is often obvious (as in that example), the difference can be subtle. Here are some of the less clear-cut pairs: 1. Ahold/a hold: … Read more