Hook 'em ... Your first sentence or two can make or break the story. It can entice your reader to keep going or convince him to go take a nap, so it’s important to put time and effort into constructing a great opening.
But, and this is a big but, work on your opening after you’ve…
Picture this…crystal blue water, view of the horizon in every direction, azure skies with puffy white clouds, exotic destinations, scrumptious food, first class entertainment, fascinating people, time for adventure and relaxation, and a chance to learn more about writing your personal and family history. Now, pen yourself into this scene.
The first ever Writing Your Life…
I’ve never seen so much confusion, debate and misconception centered on one little item—the comma. Writing guides continue to produce pages and pages of text focused on how the comma should and should not be used. The problem is that outside the comma’s basic usage, none of the experts agree, so how do we as…
All writers have blind spots. We have our pets—favorite words, clichés, overused phrases, excessive adverbs—that we read right over when reviewing our stories. So, what’s the big deal? I love the word just. I can use just over and over again, and it sounds just fine to me.
The problem is that the reader often trips…
What Jeannette Walls, Rick Bragg, Tobias Wolff and J.T. Glisson have in common is that they all have written best-selling memoirs that beautifully tell the stories of their lives. To this list, I could add at least a hundred or more titles of memoirs, which are engaging, well written, and so valuable to the aspiring…