Style Sheets

This week I want to tell you about something that you would never think would aid you as a writer, but now I can’t imagine writing or editing the work of others without it. Style sheets. What is a style sheet? Well, if you work for a publisher or a company that...

Taking one for the team

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

  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

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

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...