Tips for Writers – The Writing Pool

Get Grammar: On the use of regards, regard, regarding

Get Grammar: On the use of regards, regard, regarding The correct form is “in regard to” or “with regard to”–both without the ‘s’. For expediency, we replace 3 words with 1 and prefer to say “regarding (something)”. We can give or send our “regards” to someone, hence the greeting “Best regards” or the movie “Give…

Vocabulary: Alternatives for “Said”

Here is a list of alternative words that describe speech more vividly than the word “said”. The list is, by no means exhaustive and writers should not discount the usual reference materials: dictionaries and thesauri, both print and online. One need only search online for synonyms. My favorite go-to site for synonyms is http://www.thesaurus.com

When Should You Start a New Chapter?

When composing chapters for a book, try to contain scenes within chapters, similar to scenes in plays. As long as the scenes are related to a single block of action or topic, keep them within the same chapter. If a change or transformation is involved, by all means, start a new chapter. Another way to…

The Music of Writing

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the music the words make. ~ Truman Capote, Truman Capote: Conversations The best writing has a certain musicality to it so that it flows smoothly from one word to the next, one sentence, paragraph, and chapter to another. It’s not just the…

TWP Weekly Writing Post™ 2016 April 24-30 Edition

Welcome to The Writing Pool’s Weekly Writing PostTM! We provide you with a free weekly newsletter filled with notices about contests, events, conferences, and other information that might be useful or of great interest to writers of all leanings. Meanwhile, calls for submission to literary publications as well as information about publishers can be found…

TWP Weekly Writing Post™ 2016 April 17-23 Edition

TWP Weekly Writing Post™ 2016 April 10-16 Edition

TWP Weekly Writing Post™ 2016 March 13-19 Edition

TWP Weekly Writing Post 2016 Feb 13-20 Edition

The Writing Pool’s Weekly Writing PostTM 2016 February 13-20 Edition Welcome to The Writing Pool’s Weekly Writing PostTM! We provide you with a free weekly newsletter filled with notices about contests, events, conferences, and other information that might be useful or of great interest to writers of all leanings. Meanwhile, calls for submission to literary…

Snow days and starting to write a story

There is one really good thing about winter storms and snow days–they’re great for hunkering down to write! That’s exactly what happened this past Wednesday, when winds of 90kph or more and 15+ cm of snow kept islanders home. That was also exactly one day after my two short story writing classes and I’m happy…

On Teaching Writing

We’re just over a week into the new year and what a busy week it was! My two short story writing classes began and I only hope my students are enjoying it as much as I am. One of my students asked if I planned to read and comment on everything they submit. I can’t…

Let’s Write Haiku!

One of the first forms of literature anyone encounters is poetry. Who doesn’t remember those nursery rhymes we grew up with? We also sing or listen to songs, which are formally known as lyric poetry. In our early years at school, we read, memorized, and recited poems, either in choral recitation groups or declamation contests…