The Picky Pen
Editing the Beginning By Tisha Martin
With my cursor at Chapter 1 in my WWII historical fiction novel, I hit Ctrl+Enter and sighed. Beginning a book…
February 22, 2018-
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Grammar and GraceChoose the Correct Pronoun by Hope Toler Dougherty
Please stop using pronouns wrong! Between you and I, I’m sick of people using the wrong pronoun. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong!…
February 19, 2018 -
Guest post archivePENCON, Fifth Annual Editing Conference By: Tisha Martin
The best investment is a good investment, but what is a good investment? One that has lasting personal and…
January 25, 2018 -
Create. Motivate. Inspire.Navigating the Writer-Editor Relationship
Ah, at last! The proposal and manuscript is complete, polished, and sent. A contract is offered and joyfully signed.…
December 24, 2017 -
Grammar and Grace
How to Address Christmas Cards the Right Way
Today, people love to communicate with texts and private Facebook messages and emails and tweets, but around Christmas people…
December 18, 2017 -
Grammar and GraceAdverbs–How Do We Know?
Adverbs are words commonly used to describe or modify a verb, and adjective, or another adverb. To test…
August 19, 2017 -
Dear Young ScribesWhat’s Wrong With Adjectives & Adverbs?
When I was in elementary school, I was taught to incorporate as many adjectives and adverbs into my stories…
August 9, 2017 -
Grammar and Grace
Adjectives are Cool!
This month at Grammar and Grace we’re studying adjectives. Adjectives are words that tell something about a noun or…
July 18, 2017 -
Write JustifiedThe Times They Are A-Changin’
As languages go, English is fairly young. It’s been about 1400 years since the Anglo-Saxons imported English into Great…
June 27, 2017 -
UncategorizedPENCON From the Eyes of a New Editor-Cristel Phelps
PENCON is hosted by The Christian Pen https://thechristianpen.com/ It has taken a year, but the new release by your favorite…
May 31, 2017 -
Write JustifiedCan You Hear It Now?
A number of grammatical faux pas can be attributed to faulty hearing. I’m not implying that any of you…
May 27, 2017 -
Grammar and Grace
What are Nouns?
This time we’ll discuss nouns. Nouns can be common or proper. A common noun is a person, place, or…
May 18, 2017 -
Write Justified
Is that a Question? Or Not?
This may seem hard to believe, but[bctt tweet=” … not every question requires a question mark” username=””.] How…
April 27, 2017 -
Write Justified
Beware These Confusables
Because spellcheck, wonderful as it may be, doesn’t catch words used improperly … And because the English language…
March 27, 2017 -
Write Justified
The Common Comma – Part 3
Bryan Garner, author of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, and a raft of other books on English…
March 27, 2017 -
Write Justified
Before You Hire an Editor
You’ve written your masterpiece. Or at least a short story, novel, or essay you believe worthy of publication.…
March 26, 2017 -
Dear Young ScribesTips for Surviving the 6 Seasons of a Writer’s Life
If you’ve been in the industry long enough then you probably know by now that the writer’s life is…
March 8, 2017 -
The Writer's PenCase, UncategorizedSeamless Self–Editing––Part VIII
As this series draws to a close, here are a couple practical exercises you can do at home to…
February 21, 2017 -
Grammar and Grace
Introducing the Eight Parts of Speech
For 2017, let’s understand the basics of English grammar by learning the eight parts of speech. They are the…
February 17, 2017 -
Write Justified
The Common Comma – Part II
The comma is one of those punctuation marks that has an outsized impact in relationship to its size.…
January 27, 2017 -
Grammar and Grace
Presents for the Writer
For this post, I’m suggesting some books that you may want on your bookshelves or your may want to…
January 17, 2017 -
The Writer's PenCaseSeamless Self-Editing––Part V
Writers write because we love to use words, but let’s face it––even though we say we write for ourselves,…
November 22, 2016 -
Grammar and Grace
How to Pluralize Names for Christmas Cards–Re-Mix
We’re still a few days away from Thanksgiving, but we sometimes receive Christmas cards a few days after celebrating…
November 17, 2016 -
Grammar and Grace
Misheard, Misused, Misspelled Words
This month’s post is all about words you might be hearing and saying and, consequently, writing improperly. We’re not…
September 17, 2016 -
Grammar and Grace
Confusing Words…Again!
Yes, we’re continuing to visit confusing words because the English language abounds with them. Here are a few…
September 17, 2016
