• apostrphes, possessives, contractions, common errors, writing is personal
    how to,  writing craft

    Meaningful Writing is Personal

    Whether you’re writing a report, an essay, or fiction, the best writing is personal. Writing is a conversation between you and your reader. If they want to look up facts and figures without your personal analysis, there’s always the internet. Readers crave a personal connection with the writing and that’s what you bring to the conversation. Nonfiction Think about the last report you wrote. Was it an assigned topic? If not, how did you choose what to write about? Was your report dull and lifeless or did you pack it with the passion you have for the topic? The best writing always has a personal component. That personal connection allows…

  • narration and dialog, stripes
    how to,  writing craft

    Narration and Dialog Keep Your Story Moving

    Fiction writing comes in two stripes: narration and dialog. They both move the story along. Narration does it in large strokes. Dialog gets into detail at the character level. Narration Narration allows the writer to relay information that is important to the story in a paragraph or two. It sets the scene, describes a particular place or a specific time period. Or perhaps it condenses the important events leading to the character’s current situation. In a novel, writers use narration to summarize earlier scenes to remind the reader how they got to that point. In each case, narration is a kind of shortcut to give the reader information or description…