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Editing

The Picky Pen
Editing the Plot

Okay. Most of you (myself included) admit it’s challenging and exciting to plan the next book. It must be…
April 22, 2018
The Picky Pen
Editing the Scene by Tisha Martin

When I first started writing back in the dark ages, my scenes were terrible. I didn’t have anything for…
March 27, 2018
Grammar and Grace
How Do You Write Compound Words? (Part 1)

A friend of mine edited my latest manuscript for me. She mentioned that I have a tendency toward not…
March 23, 2018
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
Grammar and Grace
Choose 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
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
Editing, Grammar and Grace
What’s a Conjunction?

This time let’s focus on conjunctions. Conjunctions are words that join other words, clauses, or phrases. Grammar consists of…
November 18, 2017
Grammar and Grace
Ready for Another Serving of Prepositions?

Have you memorized the list of prepositions yet? Trust me, quickly recognizing prepositions will help you in the long…
October 18, 2017
Grammar and Grace
Prepositions?

We’re continuing with the parts of speech with a discussion about prepositions. These words never change their form. They…
September 28, 2017
Grammar and Grace
Adverbs–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
Write Justified
Sticks and Stones and Words Can Hurt

In anticipation of the upcoming presidential election cycle, prepare to hear some unsavory comments, even name-calling among candidates. Here’s…
July 22, 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 Justified
The 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
Grammar and Grace
What are Pronouns?

A pronoun is a word that can take the place of a noun in a sentence which means…
June 17, 2017
Write Justified
Can 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 How often don’t you ask a rhetorical question. One that you…
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
Grammar and Grace
Let’s Talk About Verbs

Last time, I introduced the eight parts of speech. This time, we’ll focus on verbs. I’m beginning with the…
March 17, 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
Write Justified
The Common Comma

Plenty of ink has been spilled and battles fought over the necessity and superiority of the Oxford or serial…
December 26, 2016