by Pat Iyer | May 29, 2019 | Blog, Book writing
The most successful writers of fiction, memoir, and narrative nonfiction know that they can’t go down the writing road alone. When they do the actual writing, quiet and solitude are essential, but for the evaluation stage, their work needs fresh eyes and minds...
by Pat Iyer | May 22, 2019 | Blog, Book writing
You’re sitting in a conference room watching the speaker ask, “Raise your hand if you’d like to get started with writing a book.” When I asked that question, nearly every hand went up. Wanting to write a book and actually writing a book are two different things. One...
by Pat Iyer | May 15, 2019 | Blog, Writing Skills
A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning. Note that some of the word pairs aren’t pure homophones, such as lose and loose. I include them because they’re close enough to get easily confused. Lose/loose “Lose” is a verb...
by Pat Iyer | May 8, 2019 | Blog, Book writing, Publishing
When you are sitting in front of a computer trying to write publications, you may wonder, “Is this really worth it?” Keep in mind these benefits when you question whether you should attempt to get something published. In this post, publications means articles and...
by Pat Iyer | May 1, 2019 | Blog, Grammar, Writing Skills
A comma may be a little squiggle, but it does a lot for your writing. It adds meaning, clarity, elegance, and, in some cases, beauty to your writing. Its absence can bore or confuse the reader. Comma usage is loaded with rules, and it’s a good idea to study them....
by Pat Iyer | Apr 24, 2019 | Blog, Writing Skills
Maybe. Are you confusing singular and plural forms in the same sentence? And is this really wrong? Grammar rarely enters the world of culture and politics. Pronouns are a notable exception to this generality. Prior to the 1970s, the default pronoun was “he.” “If a...
