Rob Bignell

Play it smart: Don’t use 12 a.m./12 p.m.

Quick, is 12 a.m. noon or midnight? What about 12 p.m., is that midnight or noon? Don’t know the answer? Don’t feel stupid, most readers won’t either. And that’s a good reason to not use either term. Doing so is akin to including words from a foreign language that your readers wouldn’t know. Instead, useContinue reading “Play it smart: Don’t use 12 a.m./12 p.m.”

Add ‘Big Scenes’ to Give Story Some Oomph

Does your story’s plot feel flat, as if there’s not enough build-up to the final, fateful act? The story probably lacks big scenes. A big scene occurs when the story’s drama – which occurs because it is central to the theme – is powerful. Because of this, a big scene is more than just flashContinue reading “Add ‘Big Scenes’ to Give Story Some Oomph”

How to Construct a Scene in a Story

All stories are constructed of smaller parts, known as scenes, in which the main character attempts to resolve a primary, central problem. This overarching problem is what set the story in motion, and the main character’s resolution of it essentially marks the tale’s end. In each scene, the main character must address a different aspectContinue reading “How to Construct a Scene in a Story”

For convenience sake: How should it appear?

For heaven’s sake, why didn’t somebody teach how to spell and punctuate this expression to some writers? Probably because it’s one of those rules in flux. Most writers learned that any time a possessive is used, an apostrophe is needed. As the expression shows that sake belongs to convenience, it ought to be spelled/punctuated forContinue reading “For convenience sake: How should it appear?”

Great Writing Quotes by Author Alicia Ostriker

Art destroys silence. The writer who is a mother should, I think, record everything she can: make notes, keep journals, take photographs, use a tape recorder, and remind herself that there is a subject so incalculably vast significance to humanity, about which virtually nothing is known because writers have not been mothers. I try notContinue reading “Great Writing Quotes by Author Alicia Ostriker”

Great Writing Quotes by Author Blaise Pascal

The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first. I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter. Everything that is written merely to please the author is worthless. There are some who speak well and write badly. For the placeContinue reading “Great Writing Quotes by Author Blaise Pascal”