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Do You Mispronounce These Common Words?

January 26, 2010
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What’s your pet mispronunciation?
I once had a school teacher who said hippo–crissy for hypocrisy, and polly-gammy for polygamy. I thought it was pretty funny.
While hippo-crissy and polly-gammy are fairly extreme examples, most of us are less-than-perfect when it comes to speech. We swap letters, we slur, we substitute.
I was recently looking through this post on [...]

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6 Ways to Hook Your Readers from the Very First Line

January 20, 2010
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Although I consider myself an avid reader, I must admit I have a short attention span when it comes to getting into books. If you fail to grab my attention in the first few lines, I start spacing out.
Most readers are like me. Most people don’t want to spend the first 50 pages trying to [...]

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The #1 Reason You’ll Never Finish Writing Your Novel

January 14, 2010
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Feeling frustrated at how long it’s taking to write your novel–especially that all-important first draft?
Some writers can bang out a novel in a manner of weeks, but for most of us, it’s a long and arduous task.
If you find the process taking longer than you want, and you’re beginning to lose motivation to finish, consider [...]

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Do You Make This Unforgivable Writing Mistake?

January 11, 2010
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I wrote a short story some years ago–a story I thought was fantastic.
It was funny. It was clever. It was sure to be snapped up by some literary magazine or another.
Instead, I ended up submitting it to a magazine, only to have it promptly returned, covered with red marks.
Boy, was I indignant. Obviously this editor [...]

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How to Steal a Plot for Your Book (and get away with it)

November 30, 2009
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Creating the full-fledged plot for a novel can be a difficult process.
There are many elements you need to consider before you can be assured of its strength and readability. Maybe you have some great ideas, but you’re having trouble working them into the correct story structure.
An easy way to know you’re on the right track [...]

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Are You a Word Nerd or a Grammar Rebel?

November 18, 2009
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Are you a Word Nerd or a Grammar Rebel?
I recently came across this amusing post on Humorous Reminders of Common Writing Mistakes, which made me ask myself this very question.
Reading through the list of writing faux pas, I kept vacillating between, “Oh, I would never do that!” and, “Uh oh, I do that all the [...]

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