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Revive A Scene With Verbs

July 6, 2016 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

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.

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Getting Specific—Addressing Readers’ Examples (Part 1)

October 21, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

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?

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Smiling or Laughing Dialogue—A Reader’s Question

March 30, 2015 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

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.

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Set Story into Motion—Use Meaningful Verbs

October 11, 2013 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

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.

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Narrative Tense—Right Now or Way Back Then

January 31, 2012 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

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.

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Participial Phrases? C’mon, You Made that Up

February 6, 2011 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

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.

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Lay and Lie—When to Use Which?

December 29, 2010 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill

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.

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