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...
by Pat Iyer | Apr 19, 2019 | Blog, Book writing
When we read something, we don’t pay much attention to subjects like long sentences, paragraphs, and chapters—until they interfere with our reading. That’s the point at which the writer is in danger of losing his or her audience. You don’t want that point to come....
by Pat Iyer | Apr 11, 2019 | Blog, Ghostwriting
To understand what a ghostwriter does, it helps to understand what she does not do. Ghostwriters aren’t proofreaders, copyeditors, or developmental editors, although some ghostwriters perform all of these services as well. A proofreader goes through a manuscript for...
by Pat Iyer | Apr 5, 2019 | Blog, Writing Skills
Also known as incomplete sentences, fragments are generally frowned on in the English language. Exceptions exist, and I’ll get to them later. Defining sentence fragments First, let’s define a sentence fragment. It’s a sentence...
by Pat Iyer | Mar 29, 2019 | Blog, Publishing
When you tell people you know that you’re writing a book, you’re likely to get a lot of unasked-for opinions. They may ask you if you plan on independent publishing or approaching a traditional publisher. Some will offer their views about traditional publishing. “It’s...
