Creating a character that seems believable is tricky. One reader might read your character and feel like they made a new friend, and another might read the dialogue and think, No one talks like that. While you can’t make everyone happy all the time, you can take some steps to make your characters feel complex…
Category: Writing Wrongs: Essays on Language
This blog is an opportunity to discuss language – its usage, its limitations, and its beauty—through an array of shorter and longer essays.
Writing Prompt: Neighbor War
Living among people isn’t always easy for us as writers. People do plenty of rude things that irritate those of us trying to think. Here’s your chance to imagine your revenge. 🙂 The Writing Exercise Your character has tried to tactfully let a neighbor know that they have been rude (think: barking dog, spilled garbage,…
Being a private person in a very public world
We all know those people. They blow up social media with a dozen selfies a day. They seem to broadcast every single thought that passes through their heads (unedited and unabridged). They turn their private lives into a public affair. And then there’s me. I blog irregularly, post on Facebook infrequently, tweet even less, and…
All Over Twist
In writing horror, is a twist ending worth it? “Soylent Green is people!” “It’s in the water!” “I can see dead people…” You could easily site many examples were a big twist at the end makes a story memorable. But, on the other hand, how many times have you groaned over the “and they were…
Otherworldly Words: Sorcery
If you don’t know which witch is which, then perhaps someone is using sorcery to cloud your mind. Sorcery is a word that comes from the middle ages, a time of strong belief in black magic and witches. It derives from an earlier Latin word for “one who casts lots.” What’s of particular note is…
Otherworldly Words: Ghostly
The origin of ghost is akin to the German word Geist for spirit. Spirit is such a more hopeful word, the essence or quality of someone or something. In many ways, our ghosts are that: we believe that the essence of someone still remains. We sometimes feel that the vestige is filled with dread or…
Otherworldly Words: Spectral
Ghosts are around every corner! Hauntings are the most peculiar human phenomenon I can think of. It’s so easy to explain them away through psychology (loss, grief, regret) and physiology (gasses, etc.) or electricity (electromagnetic fields), yet something compelling keeps us cleaving to the idea. I’ve had my own rare, faint glimpses into something that…
Otherworldly Words: Panic
All month long, I’ve brought you words derived from Greek mythology, in honor of the goddess Maia, which May is named for. Have you ever been alone in the woods, and you were certain that someone was following you. The leaves rustled too loudly to be a squirrel. The snapping twig bore the weight…
Otherworldly Words: Labyrinth
May is named for the Greek goddess Maia, who was believed to influence growth and was known as a nurturer. In the theme of the month, I’ll look at four other words, with an otherworldly connotation, that derive from Greek mythology. When I think of a labyrinth, I often think of the confusing halls…
Otherworldly Words: Fury
May is named for the Greek goddess Maia, who was believed to influence growth and was known as a nurturer. In the theme of the month, I’ll look at four other words, with an otherworldly connotation, that derive from Greek mythology. In Greek mythology, the Furies enacted revenge on those wronged. Much like the…
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