Taking one for the team

Dec 11, 2022 | Blog, Business of Writing, Writing

I hate grammar. I think I might have mentioned that here before. I just find it so incredibly boring! I can find no interest at all in the different parts of speech, all the rules, where to place commas—all of it. And yet, I just spent a great deal of money on a...

The power of sentence length

Jul 10, 2022 | Blog, Writing, Writing Craft

  Here’s a question you might not see often: How long are your sentences? Do you write really long, descriptive sentences that give your reader a lot of information so they know just where they are, what your character is doing and how they’re feeling? Or are...

The importance of knowing the basics

Jun 26, 2022 | Blog, Writing, Writing Craft

Grammar is absolutely my least favorite thing about being a writer… and yet, I’m also an editor. Go figure that one out! Actually, if you were to ask a bunch of editors whether they enjoyed grammar I’d guess that at least half would say no. Grammar just isn’t...

An Author’s Learning Is Never Done

Sep 5, 2021 | Blog, Method, Writing, Writing Craft

There’s a concept that once you’ve done something for 10,000 hours you are proficient at it. After being a professional author for over fifteen years, I’m pretty sure I’ve reached that many hours but am I proficient? Do I know how to write? Well, yes, and no. I still...

Ugh… not Grammar!

Jul 26, 2020 | Blog, Writing, Writing Craft

Who here likes grammar? Who here thinks they know grammar? Understand it? Rarely make mistakes? Yeah… I didn’t think so. For most people, unless you have meticulously studied English grammar for years, it’s most likely that you don’t know it or only know some of it....