Ali Hale Commas can be a particularly tricky punctuation mark. There are some cases where you know you should use a comma – such as when separating items in a list – but there are other times when you might be unsure whether or not a comma is needed. While there’s some degree of flexibility in how … Read more
Whatever you write: blog posts, short stories, client pieces – I suspect that, at some point, you’ve at least considered writing a novel. Maybe it’s something you contemplate every November, when NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) rolls around. Or maybe you’ve had an idea bubbling away for years now, but you’ve been waiting until you … Read more
Let’s say you’re writing a story that involves a character who’s smart, funny, gorgeous, and beloved by almost everyone. They sound great, right? Well, they might be. Or you might be inadvertently creating a “Mary Sue”. So what’s a Mary Sue … and why should you avoid using one in your story? Mary Sue Defined … Read more
One of the rules of language that you almost certainly know, even if you’ve never thought about it consciously, is that subjects and verbs must agree with each other in number. If that sounds a bit complicated or mathematical, here are a couple of very simple examples to show this in action: The child plays … Read more
Would you love to be a freelance writer? Maybe you’re hoping to make a bit of money on the side of your day job, or you want to find some work that fits around being at home with your kids much of the day. Perhaps you’re hoping to launch a whole new career. You might … Read more
You might well never have heard of polysyndeton before, but you’ve almost certainly seen it in action. Here’s an example: “At the weekend, we went to the park and the fair and the swimming pool and the movie theatre.” Polysyndeton means repeating conjunctions when you don’t need them. Here’s how The Write Practice defines it: … Read more
If you’ve not come across MasterClass before, it’s a very slick website that offers courses from some huge names in the world of writing (and in quite a few other fields too). Their course tutors include Dan Brown, Margaret Atwood, Judy Bloom, Malcolm Gladwell, R.L Stine, and Neil Gaiman: a truly impressive line-up that you’d … Read more
There is a lot of writing advice out there. Perhaps you’ve signed up to read lots of blogs by email, you’ve bought some great writing-related books, and you still feel like something’s missing. Or maybe your reading time is limited: you can’t very well scroll through blogs while you’re driving to work, for instance. That’s … Read more
I’m 33 now (which feels very old!) but I’ve loved writing since I was a kid myself. The very first story I remember writing was about a mouse, when I was five or six. I spent a lot of time writing stories throughout my childhood, and I had a go at my first novel when … Read more
If you want to improve your writing, maybe it’s time to ditch all the writing books and podcasts and play some word games instead. Yes, seriously! Word games and writing games are great ways to develop your vocabulary, to help you think more deeply about words, to have fun with story and structure, and to … Read more
Whether you’re writing just for fun, for school, or with professional goals in mind, these exercises can all help you to improve your writing. Some will give you inspiration, others will help you avoid editing as you write, and many of them will help you pay closer attention to your word choices. I hope you’ll … Read more
Would you like to have a friendly editor reading your drafts and pointing out typos and clunky sentences – before you show them to the rest of the world? That’s what ProWritingAid can do for you. If you already know the software and are just looking for the discount coupon, here it is: DAILYTIPS1825 What … Read more