In a world where sharing documents is commonplace, do you give a thought to how to safeguard your manuscript before you publish your book? Unlike a report or an article draft, your book manuscript is months, or even years, in the making. You are probably careful to protect your manuscript by making regular backups and…
How To Safeguard Your Manuscript Before You Publish Read More »
Your thesaurus is a writer’s go-to tool for finding uncommon words that you hope will give a sentence a lift. Very often, you might have ten or even twenty options to replace a single word. But do you simply want to avoid repetition or impress a reader with your vocabulary? Using an extended vocabulary is…
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When talking about language and vocabulary evolution, we usually say that new words are coined, not invented or created. The phrase sounds a little odd because people invent machines, create stories, and discover new cures, so why do we treat new words differently? In part, the answer lies in the history of the word coin,…
When you want to describe smells in writing, it’s easy to feel lost for words. You can skip over it by saying something smelled good or bad, but shortcuts like that won’t connect with readers. Imagine describing arriving rain after a period of drought. It’s a delicate, sweet, earthy scent. Fortunately, there’s a word for…
How To Describe Smells In Writing Readers Can Sense Read More »
You’re not alone if comma usage rules drive you up the wall. It seems like there are more rules and disagreements for this tiny little punctuation mark than for any other part of grammar and writing. I’m sure you know the basic comma rules. But worrying about them when you write is an unnecessary distraction.…
Painful Comma Usage Rules Don’t Have To Stress You Out Read More »
I was very surprised to discover that Gen Z writers are reading my writing and publishing advice articles. Not only that, but they also represent the largest percentage of my readers. When I started writing, typewriters, notebooks, and pencils were the only writing tools, and telephones were rotary dial. Dial-up Internet modems came a long…
Why Gen Z Writers Are Reading Old-School Writing Advice Read More »
I never trust one writing checker before I publish my writing online. I’ve learned the hard way that while it is quick and easy, none of them are perfect. That’s why I am in the habit of using two or three before I trust my eyes for a thorough proofread. It might seem pedantic, but…
One Writing Checker Is Never Enough – Here’s The Proof Read More »
If you’re trying to add ebook spacing to your book manuscript, you might be tempted to hit the return key a few extra times to create space between paragraphs or sections. However, doing this will create lots of problems with your formatting when you try to publish your ebook. Ebooks use reflowable text, which means…
Never Hit Return: How To Add Ebook Spacing The Right Way Read More »
AI training isn’t any longer a tech experiment you read about in the news. It’s happening in real-time and probably scanning your writing right now. All your blog posts, chapter drafts, or articles you’ve published or shared online are precisely the sort of material AI crawlers vacuum up every minute of the day. I know…
You always want to improve your writing or workflow, and free cloud writing apps can be a tempting and productive idea. At first, you might think you have found the perfect tool because it has a great interface, cloud storage, and comes with a few handy little features; and all for free. After some initial…
Free Cloud Writing Apps – 5 Hidden Traps To Avoid Read More »
