A bit of French fancies up the writing When you want a character to sound pretentious, nothing beats a nice turn of French. Somehow, American writers (and readers) associate all things French with money, pretense, and culture. It’s quite the mix of responses, a “love-hate” relationship with France. If you…
Category: Writing
Comments and suggestions on writing.
Dead language or not, we love Latin It’s a matter of taste and style, but not long ago American writers attempted to demonstrate their credentials to the world by including Latin and French phrases within works. A dash of Latin was expected of the moderately educated throughout the Western world.…
Descriptive Writing Use the sensory memories of your readers Writing is describing, either in precise detail or in emotional terms. If you want to keep an audience, “paint a picture” with words… then move beyond images. Effective description addresses the full sensory experience. Three Forms Description uses all parts of…
Dialogue Let characters reveal themselves “The dialogue was so believable, I forgot it was spoken by fictional characters.” Most writers dream of such compliments. After all, dialogue is one of the basic ingredients for a good story. Yet realistic dialogue is an illusion; no good writer recreates human vocal interactions.…
Most stories are remembered for their characters, not specific plot points. If you want to write a memorable story, create memorable characters. They do not need to be believable — they need to be dramatic. It Takes Two Often, the best stories are deceptively simple: there are two main characters…
‘Academic’ Language Abuse Trying to sound smart often sounds silly Most words on this list are “real” and serve a purpose when used judiciously, but they have become trendy in academic publications, often stretched beyond their original meanings. Once a word is trendy it becomes an academic buzzword, expected in…
Conflict and Suspense Something is always in the way of success Stories are built upon conflicts and suspense. Seldom is a single conflict enough. No, we writers (and readers) expect one conflict after another. The suspense of “what next?” keeps a reader glued to the page, or eyes locked on…
Carefully chosen words signal that a writer values language. For many readers, the words listed here were last seen on a standardized test, such as the SAT or GRE. However, they also are used in elite publications, such as the New York Times and the Atlantic Monthly. Some modern novelists…
Figurative language refers to words and phrases that go beyond their literal meanings within a text. Using figurative language could be described as “writing in the abstract.” We place figurative language within the Editing section of the Tameri Guide because mistakes in usage are common. We have read some odd…
Choose the best form and genre for your story. Every story has a natural shape based on its length and genre. Some stories require a thousand pages, while others require only a one-page poem. Knowing your genre and carefully selecting a proper form help your story’s appeal. Form-Fitting A form describes…