Who are these pompous pedants who preach what a writer should and should not do? They forbid one to start with a question. But I already did and I’m glad. And they say don’t begin a sentence with “but” or “and.” But I’m doing both. And I’m even more glad. … Read More
Writers sometimes ask which is better—tracking words or tracking time. A daily word count can be doable. Or ghastly. Successful authors’ quotas vary greatly.* Ernest Hemingway strove for 500 words a day. On the other hand, Michael Crichton claimed to whip out 10,000 words at one go. Many articles appear about word … Read More
What is the Oxford comma? And who cares about it? Writers, for one. Readers, too. The Oxford comma, also called the “serial comma” or “Harvard comma,” is the final comma in a series of words or phrases. It sometimes appears after the second-to-last item—as in “We had sandwiches, chips, and … Read More
E. M. Forster, in his 1927 Aspects of the Novel, applied the terms “flat” and “round” to describe fictional characters (pp. 103-166). Those true to life he considered to be “round,” while “flat” characters served only one purpose in the story. Authors create flat characters to represent a specific idea … Read More
