8 Formatting Tips and Shortcuts For Writers

8 Formatting Tips and Shortcuts For Writers

I consider myself primarily a creative writer, but to pay the bills, I take on many the odd job involving writing. Because of that, I’ve been doing a lot of editing lately, editing blog posts, articles, books, and more.

With all this editing, I’ve found that I keep making several of the same changes again and again. Yes, there are typos and grammatical corrections, but a surprising amount of the editing I have to do is just simple formatting.

Take It Easy With the Thesaurus

I’ve recently discovered that whenever I think something is great or fantastic, and it’s worth commenting on how great or fantastic it is, I default to the exact same word in every conversation. It’s “awesome”. Everything is awesome.

If it’s funny, it’s awesome. If it’s pretty, it’s awesome. If it makes you think, it’s awesome. If it’s a weird random fact, it’s awesome. It’s funny because most of the time, I speak in SAT words.

The Difference Between Presume and Assume

The Difference Between Presume and Assume

I was talking to a friend the other night, and somewhere in the conversation we started making guesses about where the rest of our crew was at that point in the night. I started to say, “I assume…” but then I stopped myself and had a second guess moment. “Assume? Presume? Which one is it?” Obviously since we live in the age of smartphones and instant Google, I looked it up. Believe it or not, there is a slight difference, and I’m sharing it with you today.

What Is An Idiom? Funny Examples

What Is An Idiom? Funny Examples

Over the weekend, Joe sent me a link to a blog that talks about how students are apparently saying “all of the sudden” instead of “all of a sudden”. Is that a thing? It was actually the first time I’d heard of the words in idioms being switched around. In case there was any confusion, “all of the sudden” is incorrect, “all of a sudden” is correct, and whoever created the idiom made it a completely arbitrary decision.

Hyperbole and Adynaton

I did it. After months of anticipation, it finally happened. This past Sunday night, I watched Sharknado.

Most of you are probably familiar with Sharknado, but if you’re not, get out from under that rock and go look it up on Wikipedia. It’s a SyFy original movie, and the only really important thing you need to know is that a guy chainsaws a shark in half. From the inside. It’s amazing. It’s probably the greatest made-for-TV movie that I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’m not using that much hyperbole.

What’s hyperbole, you ask? Great question.

Climaxes and Anticlimaxes

Climaxes and Anticlimaxes

We’re all familiar with the term climax in reference to the point of a story where the action has reached its peak, the conflict is at its tensest, and the rest of the plot is a movement towards the resolution.

But did you know that climax also is a figure of speech that you can use in your storytelling?