It’s time for more fascinating punctuation. That subtle little comma is possibly the most misused punctuation mark in the English language. That’s really saying something, since English also has apostrophes. This post will focus on independent clauses, which deserve a short review…
Blog Archives
Weasel Words, Filters, and Other Candidates For Cutting
I used to overwrite in insane amounts. Unfortunately, I wrote seven novels before I discovered this, and now I’m working my way through, cutting them all down to size. So in honor of cutting my fourth novel by a third,…
How to Use Semicolons
I’ll pick up the challenge. This is how to use semicolons if you’re not typing an emoticon. First, you need to understand independent clauses. An independent clause is a complete sentence–subject, verb, (and most often) object. Simple independent clauses are…
Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, conjuction, contrasting ideas, independent clauses, semicolons
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
The Familiar Ground of Self-Doubt
You don’t have to be a writer to relate to doubt. It’s one of the reasons I like this photo. Imagine what the guy/gal went through who pushed this project through. You want to build a what? Why would you…
Trying to Pick and Choose
I’ve spent the past year trying to learn what to do to become a real, no-kidding professional writer. I started with learning about queries. They were like the gateway drug to this whole process. My first query took forever. Okay,…
Twitter–One Line Wednesday
I love one line Wednesday: #1lineWed. It’s become the highlight of my Twitter week. Kiss of Death chooses the theme (@RWAKissofDeath). Every week there’s a new pinned tweet at the top of her Twitter feed. Sometimes it’s an idea, like…
Tagged with: 1lineWed, Cathleen Townsend, guidelines, One line Wednesday, theme, tweet, Twitter
Posted in Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Social Media, Twitter
Dogs
Dogs are truly amazing. My favorites have always been collies, although it must be admitted that they’re no good when it comes to chasing deer away. I was incredibly frustrated several years back, because I had not one, but two…
Backstory Is Not Story
That might work in a cartoon, but you just can’t start your story with backstory. It seems like such a pity. The easiest solution is to start at the beginning and when we get to the end, stop. And y’know,…
Tagged with: backstory, beta readers, Cathleen Townsend, character, description, exposition, name soup
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Editing for Passive Voice
Passive voice is pervasive and often unwise. This post will involve a quick grammar lesson, but I’ll keep it short. Promise. Most sentences of any length involve a subject and an object. The subject does the acting; the object is…
Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, object, passive voice, present participle, subject
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Cathleen Townsend 