How You Break Up Long Dialogue Like Agatha Christie
Back when I first moved to Denver, I saw a sign that was an inspiration for a post on proper quotation use. And now it’s time for the second installment of proper quotation usage.
We know that quotations are used in dialogue. But what happens when you have a pair of really long-winded characters engaged in extensive conversation?
Three Easy Steps to Critique a Friend’s Poem
Writers can be solitary people. Our work requires long periods of being alone with no one to keep us company but the characters. However, I'm starting to see a community form through the Write Practice. People are commenting on each other's practices. They're chatting...Brangelina, Sporks, and the Secrets of Portmanteau
Confession time: I love when famous people who are dating become one word. Brangelina. Bennifer. The entire cast of Glee. In college, my friend Cassie started dating this guy Brent, and Brassie was born.
This phenomenon has a name, and as a student of the French language, I love using it: portmanteau.
How to Revise Your Writing: Quality Inspection
“I try to distinguish between a poem I like because it reminds me of a particular experience,” said Paul Willis, “and a poem that works as a poem that anyone would like.” How do you quality inspect your writing? I like to think of Paul in his...
The Oxford Comma Is Pretentious
If the Oxford comma is a prepster in chinos and a green LaCoste polo, I’m a hipster in a dirty flannel shirt and skinny jeans. If the Oxford comma is, in fact, Oxford, I’m the year you took off college to go chill with some Maasai in Kenya. If the Oxford comma is a MacBook Pro, I’m that manual typewriter you got at a yard sale that everyone sees and asks, “Is that a real typewriter? Can I try it?”
Who needs the Oxford comma? Shoot who needs commas in general?
