I’m going to state right off the bat that I am not a fan of writing in the first person. I’ll explain why in this post. First of all, first person point of view is writing your story with “I.” For example, “I went to the store” versus “you went to the store” (second person)…
I’m a big fan of character-driven stories, meaning I’m a big fan of taking the time to develop characters for your story before plot. If you come up with a plot and then try to make characters fit, it reads as less organic, and you might be shoving characters into spaces that don’t work for…
First, let’s make sure we’re all clear on what exactly an adverb is. An adverb is a word that modifies an adjective or a verb. So, in the sentence, “he said softly,” “softly” is the adverb. Basically, any word that ends in -ly is probably an adverb. No In his book The First Five Pages (a book I highly…
If you’ve checked out my services page (which I hope you have), you’ll notice that I offer something called developmental editing. But what exactly is developmental editing? And how does it differ from copy editing or proofreading?
Most of my business students struggle with making their writing more concise because they’re so used to writing in an overcomplicated way. This is either because that’s what they think writing should look like or because they’re used to trying to hit a page count. Complicated and/or ornate language doesn’t automatically make the writing good….
There are many ways to improve your writing such as practice, starting a writing group, and specific exercises. But there is one way to improve your writing that most people talk about but don’t explain how to properly do. Reading is the best method to improve your writing, but you’re shouldn’t just read passively. By…
So, I’m sitting in the theater watching Deadpool, and it’s just started. It’s pretty good so far. You know, it’s Deadpool. Violence. Hilarity. Inappropriate jokes. Then, (spoiler alert) they suddenly kill Vanessa, Deadpool’s girlfriend, and the movie immediately loses my favor. I just talked about this idea in my Thanos post, but, apparently, we need…
Spoilers ahead! You have been warned. I was beyond excited for Avengers: Infinity War, and it is amazing. Part of what makes Infinity War so good is its villain, Thanos. This entire movie is built around Thanos. The ending even says “Thanos will return” which is chilling and unsettling to viewers. So, let’s talk about…
Have you ever seen a post on Tumblr or Pinterest that says something like “75 words to use instead of ‘said?'” Those posts can be helpful because the general premise is correct. Using “said” over and over is both boring and repetitive. It looks strange on paper. Also, some posts, like this one, can have some really helpful words that indicate emotion like “bellowed.” However, as writers, we should not be afraid of using standard words like “said,” “asked,” and “replied.” There is a reason why those words are the standard. They’re simple, and you can avoid clumsy verbs. You don’t want your work to read like a thesaurus. So, how do we avoid using “said” too much without using awkward words?
When I first start working with students, they talk about how difficult it is to make the switch from academic to business writing. And that’s true. It is difficult. It feels like the opposite of what we’ve spent years learning. So, I’m here to say that business writing and academic writing don’t need to be antithetical. In fact, my writing has improved since I began applying business methods to both my academic and creative work.