The Writer's Art

Pity the Period. And Comma, Semicolon. They All Work in the Background

Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times: Pity the period. And the comma and the semicolon too. Punctuation is the sturdy armature of written language, yet it does its job quietly, in the background. We tend to spend far more time analyzing the written words than we do the dots, dashes and ellipses that give those words meaning, nuance and tone. In her new book On the Mark: From Periods to Interrobangs, How Punctuation Remade the World, author Florence Hazrat argues for punctuation as no less than the bricks and mortar of civilization, the deceptively simple and endlessly pliable tools that made humankind. I recently chatted with Hazrat, a Berlin resident, about scare quotes, emojis and the magic of parentheses.

Why Creative Writing Is Like Cage Fighting

Creative writing is a little like cage fighting before an audience of five. Cage fighting might provide more immediate satisfaction. At least there is a live crowd and an occasional cheer. Writers, after several rounds of circling their doubts, may land only one punch—on their inner critic. The writer’s wounds are made of commas, unanswered emails, and sentences that looked brilliant at midnight but, by breakfast, resemble something written by a loopy cage fighter with a thesaurus.  By Larry Clifton, Florida Writers Association.

What words are you pluralizing wrong? Wordsmarts.

Don’t rush the cover blurb, by Richard Hoy. Writers Weekly.

How to situate your scenes in historical fiction. Lit Hub. For starters, go easy on the period diction. Spell like a normal person. And six more useful tips.

Are you a plotter or pantser in crime writing? Lit Hub.

What is free indirect discourse? Writing the “Intimate 3rd Person.” Writers.com.