Rather than use common verbs, use specific verbs that fit your story, your characters, and each scene. Direct events and emotion through the choice of specific rather than general verbs.

Continue reading Revive A Scene With Verbs »

Three very specific questions about punctuation and grammar—are band names singular or plural, is a band’s name a possessive noun or an attributive noun, how do you treat two verbs in the predicate when one’s a linking verb?

Continue reading Getting Specific—Addressing Readers’ Examples (Part 1) »

Explore novel ways to look at the use of dialogue tags, especially at “said” and other verbs, such as laugh and smile, used as dialogue tags.

Continue reading Smiling or Laughing Dialogue—A Reader’s Question »

Verbs power your stories. Use accurate verbs to create the motion and emotion you want your story to have. This article includes tips for choosing verbs, including use of the passive voice.

Continue reading Set Story into Motion—Use Meaningful Verbs »

There’s a lot of contention concerning narrative tense—should stories always be told using the past tense or is present tense a true option.

Continue reading Narrative Tense—Right Now or Way Back Then »

Participial phrases have something to do with writing? You probably think I’m pulling your leg when I say that they do. But I promise I’m not. And I promise you’ll recognize these oddly named phrases once you see them. Learn how to use these modifiers correctly to bring variety and clarity to your writing.

Continue reading Participial Phrases? C’mon, You Made that Up »

Lay versus lie. It sounds like a heavyweight match between lightweight verbs, except that for such small words, the two cause a whole lot of trouble. Settle forever the differences between lie and lay.

Continue reading Lay and Lie—When to Use Which? »