Daily Writing Tips

Daily Writing Tips Daily Writing Tips is an outstanding blog for writers, providing concise posts about honing our skills. This excellent reminder comes from the post “Critiquing” is not “Editing”: Critiquing is not the same as editing. If the friend is “editing drastically,” the result is no longer a critique but a rewrite. Sometimes we can forget this, eager as we are to accept help from others, and lose our voice in the process. I encourage you to visit Daily Writing Tips every day for insightful advice like...

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Posted on 27 Aug 2009 | Comments Off

What vs. Which

When my friends have grammar questions, they often ask me for help. I don’t consider myself a very good teacher of grammar, however, because the rules make sense to me more intuitively than logically. Sometimes, though, there are rules that make sense on both levels. The difference between “what” and “which” is one of these rules, as it is as straightforward as grammar rules come. “What” is used for topics of unlimited or unspecified number. For example, if you knew that your friend heard live music last night, but you had no idea which band it might have been, you would ask him: “What band did you see last night?” On the other hand, “which” is used for topics of limited number. For example, if you knew that your friend went to a specific...

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Posted on 9 Feb 2008 | Comments Off

On writing groups.

I am allergic to groups. Though I don’t regret any of the significant groups I’ve been a part of, whether it was the Girl Scouts, the drama team, the local library association, or writing workshops, I tend not to seek them out. I prefer to do my own things on my own timeline. I also hate feeling excluded; where there is inclusion, there is necessarily its opposite, be it for a good reason or no reason at all. This fact about me is why it is so strange that soon I will celebrate my third anniversary with my writing group. Although it is not so strange; I love being anywhere near these other writers, now that we have become friends, and it is a great pleasure and honor for me to help them with their stories. We get together every other Wednesday night, and...

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Posted on 2 Feb 2008 | Comments Off