Monthly Archive: October, 2017

October 31, 2017

Horror or Humor? A Writing Prompt

Tis the season to be scary, so why are so many “horror” movies funny instead? What is the boundary? What makes a story horror or humor? Explore the answer with this hilariously scary writing prompt. Are You Writing Horror or Humor? Interestingly, what determines whether a story is funny or scary is less the topic and more how the topic...

Categories Challenging Exercises/Holiday & Seasonal/Humor & Wordplay/Writing Prompts Comments: 0

October 26, 2017

Up With Which I Will Not Put: Not a Winston Churchill Quote

Nope. “This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put,” is not a Winston Churchill quote according to quote investigator. We have been mislead yet again by the internet (well, it actually started with newspapers and such). On the other hand, it’s an excellent example of why I’m not a big fan of trying to...

Categories Grammar & Editing/Humor & Wordplay/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 0

October 24, 2017

Learning Direct and Indirect Objects from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

If you haven’t read, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, I highly recommend it – it’s a great children’s book. It’s also a useful tool to begin learning direct and indirect objects. How to Use Direct Objects and Indirect Objects First, I’d like to break down an action into two parts: cause and effect. The cause would be the...

Categories Grammar & Editing Comments: 0

October 19, 2017

Writing Fall: It’s More Than a Season

When building a world, we need to sprinkle in aspects of our world as well as new creations from reimagining our world. That includes seasons, and since Fall has finally arrived, it’s the perfect time to discuss why writing fall isn’t only leaves and cold breezes – it’s more than a season. Worldbuilding Fall What do I mean by “it’s...

Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/Research & Worldbuilding Comments: 0

October 17, 2017

Quotes about Luck Writers Should Remember

Ideas like “bad luck” and “good luck” are prevalent in every culture. As a writer, you control what type of luck your characters get (Muahahahahaha!), and taking that into account can add realism to your story as well as inspire interesting plot twists. That said, here are 6 quotes about luck writers should remember (or at least try out as...

Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 0

October 13, 2017

How to Recognize Logical Fallacies by Type

With all the ridiculous reasoning being thrown around the news, internet, and more, I’m constantly reminded that people don’t recognize logical fallacies. With each reminder, I’d start thinking, maybe, if more people knew how to recognize logical fallacies (& resist), there’d be less bad reasoning in the world. So I thought I’d write an article about a handful of extremely...

Categories Grammar & Editing/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques Comments: 0

October 11, 2017

I’ll Write Better When I’m Awake…

So… I was trying to finish today’s post – yesterday’s post, and I finally decided to throw in the towel. I’ll write better when I’m awake. Probably. Plus, it’s a complicated post, so I’ll finish it up tomorrow (today) if I can, Thursday at the latest. ‘night. Em

Categories General Thoughts & Updates Comments: 0

October 5, 2017

The Difference between the Right Word and the Almost Right Word

Unlike many other quotes falsely attributed to Mark Twain, “The difference between the right word and almost the right word” is truly a Mark Twain quote. It is also (IMHO) an excellent metaphor to illustrate the vital importance of word choice. Word Choice Makes Writing an Art Like sense of urgency and frame story, word choice can be defined by...

Categories Humor & Wordplay/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 0

October 4, 2017

Characters Get Brain Dead, Too

So far, we’ve talked about how grammar gets worse when you’re brain dead and how to write when you’re brain dead, but what happens when characters get brain dead? If it happens to us, it must happen to them, right? If they’re realistic characters. So what can you expect, and how can you use it to improve your plot? When Characters...

Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting Comments: 0