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Trust your instinct as least as much as you trust your editor. I’m not going to link to the blog post where I found this, because it’s not my goal here to embarrass or shame anyone, or to set myself up as a better source than another blog. I only want to point out that a Continue reading Correction vs Incorrection  I will never cease in the war on adverb hatred! One of the absolute finest writers of all time, Ursula K. Le Guin, in her latest post at the Book View Café (of which I believe she is a founder): “Without egg, Madame,” he said softly, almost unreproachfully, and went away to fetch my eggless breakfast, Continue reading One More Time Into the Breach You’ve had it said to you. You may even have said it to others. You, in the corner, slinking away, you’ll continue to say it, because you’ve heard it from better authorities than I am, so it must be true. “Adjectives, like adverbs, are lazy words, slowpokes, tranquilizers. Watch out for them.” –Jack M. Bickham “Write with nouns and Continue reading Really and Truly Hating the Adverb Hatred “There was a man” is a profoundly different sentence than “There was an old man,” which is profoundly different than “There was, back when we lived in the blue house, a man down the street from us, down toward Graves Avenue.” And that last one is different than “There was in those days an elder Continue reading Four Sentences You have no idea how annoying this is to me! Or at least I assume none of my three regular readers have figured out, over the years, how annoying it is to me that so many people rant and rail against something that they call “passive voice,” or “passive tense,” or “passive verbs,” all the while Continue reading “Active” vs “Passive” Round N, or “Once more into the breach, my friends!” There’s at least one thing more amusing than people ranting and railing against passive voice: …the fact that they can’t even identify it. [P]eople disagree with me when I point out such things (over and over again, like a CD that has gotten stuc- stuc- stuc- stuc- stuc- stuc- stuc- stuc- stuck), and ask rhetorically where on Continue reading Another Jab at the Passive Phantom “Show, don’t tell,” Round N Over and over and over, you hear people saying that. “Show, don’t tell.” Usually, it’s said by someone who feels they must “be constructive” (ie, say something bad, but say it nicely) or they’re not being helpful. Well, guess what? Words can’t show! They can only tell! It was a dark and Continue reading It Was a Dark and Stormy Night I know I’ve covered this before, but I’m too lazy too check. Hey, I’m getting old. I get to indulge in repetitive blather. And one of the soap boxes I like to climb is that old favorite, “Who am I writing for?” In my Google Reader this morning, I came across New Launch: Peer Critique
Continue reading Writers vs Readers – Part N False. (Yet another reason to hate Shakespeare) I can’t tell you how much I hate it when an illogical, inaccurate phrase becomes a common saying, or acts as a phrasal template for all sorts of things, as this one does. (And let’s not even go into that whole glisters/glistens/glitters thing, ok?) All men (women, people, cars, bloggers, Continue reading True or False: “All That Glitters is Not Gold”? Today’s non-rule: “You can’t say ‘I am good,’ because am is a verb, and good is an adjective, and you never use an adjective to modify a verb.” Well, it is true that you should never use an adjective to modify a verb. Therefore, all of the following must be incorrect: I am tall. Continue reading Q: “I am well” or “I am good”? |
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