i before e and Irregardless

Originally posted on DCTdesigns Creative Canvas:
Since today my blog seems dedicated to writing I figured it would be a good time to share a fabulous resource for the Rules of Good Writing and accurate grammar. Rich Voza lays them all out for you in his Writing Pet Peeves. I find myself constantly checking back…

The Lost Art of Disagreement

_________________________________ Reblogged from a couple of years ago, because you never saw it before. ____________________________ Lately I’ve been disagreeing with people.  Well, more people than usual.  One of the main topics on which I’ve been in disagreeing with people is – disagreeing.  Some disagreements are rather simple.  “The Yankees are better than the Red Sox.”…

The Princesses

Reblogged, because it had been my single-most popular post until I was Freshly Pressed.  From about 3 years ago, and I don’t plan to update it in any way, other than this introduction.  This might also be a hint about where I can currently be found.  Yes, having a sex-change operation. When my older daughter…

Woodbury Avenue – epilogue…ish

Deep breath. Okay, Woodbury Avenue is “finished.”  Sort of.  For more about the actual story, click here.  But for more about the process, then just keep reading. When it comes to writing, what I just did was the easiest part – writing a first draft.  That’s easy for a few reasons.  First, because it’s new,…

On Being Freshly Pressed

It seems that the obligatory thing to do after being Freshly Pressed is to write a post about being Freshly Pressed.  This would be that.  Here.  Of now. I could add, subtract, and determine the number of added followers, but it would seem boastful to write that I climbed from 800-something to 1,200-something in about…

Writing 2.4 – Who Uses Outlines?

I was recently asked about my writing process.  Do I use outlines?  Do you plot a story or just make it up as you go along?  Please keep in mind that what works for one person might not ever work for anyone else or even that one person ever again except that one time. For…

Writing 2.3 – A Contract with the Reader

When I took a graduate class called “Writing the Novel” a few years ago, I learned two very important things.  First, if you tell a writer that her work in progress is a romance novel when she thinks she’s writing literary fiction, be prepared to see a chair fly across the room.  Second, there’s something…

Writing 2.2 – Getting it Ready

The purpose of this is not to educate you or any other writer.  I don’t pretend to know things that you don’t because I’m actually hoping for the opposite – in that I am detailing this process in case someone knows more than me, has accomplished these things already, and can help me avoid the…

The “Not So” Great Gatsby

Either late in high school or early in college, I was ordered to read The Great Gatsby. I regarded it as the most boring thing I had ever picked up. However, roughly 20 years later, I decided that it may have been me who was boring, so I decided – through the recommendation of others…

Writing 2.1 – Getting Help

Roughly a year ago, I posted 18 chapters and about 50,000 words and thought I had a really good story about two people in a plane crash.  Not so.  Over the past two months I revised those same 18 chapters and, with the help of some great people, I now have 25 chapters, 75,000 words,…