Writing Resources

Where to Find Help for Your Grammar Sins

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 6 Comments

Do you have a grammar sin? One you find repeatedly in your writing? I do. I’ll confess. When I began my writing journey more than a year ago, I discovered a horrible truth.

I was a comma whore. I placed commas the way I spoke not according to accepted grammar rules. Even with a graduate degree in hand, I had  forgotten, over the years,  how to write a well-structured sentence. How humiliating! 

Once I realized the error of my ways, courtesy of my writer’s group, I took off  to the bookstore. It was time for a refresher course.  Strunk & White’s, The Elements of Style, was my first purchase. It is the number one grammar book recommended for writers everywhere. If you don’t have copy, pick one up.

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 In addition to Strunk & White,  I also found a number of software programs available online and easy to download. Bear in mind, while not perfect, they are excellent resources.  

The programs won’t do everything for you. They won’t complete your unfinished manuscript, but they will teach you a lot about grammar and editing.

Want to tighten your writing skills? Improve your grammar? Come on, confession is good for the writing soul….

Unburden yourself. Confess your grammar sins, then check out these wonderful editing tools.

Here, you’ll find some of my favorites, acquired along the way in my effort to shed my own grammar sin. I’m a work in progress.

AutoCrit  

  1. About: Is an easy online download book editor can manage from 400-100,000 words, depending on the membership you choose. 
  2. What it Does: The program analyzes your writing sample for the following: overused words, sentence variation, cliches & redundancies, repeated words & phrases, pacing, dialog, initial pronouns, readability and homonyms. 
  3. Cost/Membership: ranges from free which is word limited to fee based ($47-117/year).

My favorite of all the programs, I chose to pay the fee and have found that the benefits, for me, outweigh the cost.

Writer’s Diet Test       Is your writing flabby or lean?

  1. About: Designed by Helen Sword, this program evaluates writing samples of   100-1000 words.
  2. What it Does: each category: verbs, nouns, adjectives/ adverbs, prepositions, and waste words (is, that, this, there) is scored  from lean to heart attack zone 
  3. Cost/Membership:  A great, free tool!
  1.  About: Is a copy editor that helps refine your writing. A copy and paste Beta program, it is word limited.
  2. What it Does: Identifies common mistakes, such as adverbs, passive voice, weak words, ‘said’ replacements, ending with prepositions and often-misplaced words. 
  3. Cost/Membership: Free for the using. 

EditMinion is another good tool for identifying those pesky adverbs.

Grammarly  

  1. About: An automated proofreader and grammar coach. Windows compatible, it can be downloaded as an office add-in to your WordPerfect and used as an additional grammar tool. Grammarly is not fully compatible for Mac users; although Mac users can utilize the program by copying and pasting.
  2. What it Does: Checks writing samples for grammar, punctuation, writing style, and even plagiarism.  
  3. Cost/Membership:  $39.95  every 3 months.

Last but not least…

  1. About: A fantastic and fun site on teaching grammar to anyone.
  2. What it Does: Offers lessons, courses, free PDF books and ongoing emails on grammar from beginning to advanced. 
  3. Cost/Membership: Some books do have a fee, others are free for download. Please refer to the site. Sign up to receive bimonthly grammar quiz emails and challenge yourself. If you have children, keep this site bookmarked!

So, Do you have a hidden grammar sin? Do you want help? Check these software programs out and let me know what you think. Did they help you? Did the quality of your writing improve? Send me a well-written sentence and let me know how you’re doing.

Make Good Art

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

“MAKE GOOD ART”

I haven’t been enjoying the ride as much as I should be. This was a great reminder of why I write.  His advice was simple and to the point. I hope you will take a moment to be inspired.

 

Wow! I just watched an amazing and inspiring video commencement speech by Author, Neil Gaiman,  University of Arts Class of 2012.

1. “Be wise, and if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is, and behave as they would behave.”
2. Make amazing, useful mistakes; “mistakes mean you’re doing something.”
3. Go beyond the Rules.
4. “If you have an idea of what you want to do, or what you were put here to do; just go and do it.”
5. Leave the World a more Interesting place.
6. Make good Art: “Make it on good days & bad; Make the art only you can make, using your voice, your mind, your story, and your vision…”

7. Enjoy the ride.

Emotional Nuance

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 1 Comment

One of the most difficult things for me, as a new writer, is to put feelings and emotions down on paper.  I started paying attention to other author’s and the way they described emotions. I started out believing emotions were easy to write, they aren’t. Many nuance’s of expression bring emotion to life and make it real. I was missing that subtle difference in shade of meaning, expression or sound.

Most of the time our emotions are reactions. Flares of intense moments. Some are more subtle than others, but how often do you stop to think about what you’re doing, how you’re moving,  the tone in your voice, the look in your eye, the strength in your touch, or your stance? We don’t. We simply do what we do in the moment.

Try writing a scene without thinking about  all of those things, and you’ll have a boring, stilted, emotional scene. I know, because I’ve written quite a few along the way. However, there are resources for us newbies, and I’ve found a great one! The book shelf muse. This is a wonderful blog offering a slew of  resources for writers on character traits,  emotional thesaurus, and others. Check them out. Their hard copy book and ebook will be coming out May 14th.

So, the next time you sit down to write and you can’t get the emotion right, well…. I hope you’ll take a closer look. Break it down. As for me, I have a big Easter weekend with my family planned. So, I’ve been busy, cleaning, cooking, and right now I’m drumming my fingers on the table as I run through my to-do-list, focusing on our family event (anticipation).

Happy Easter  to every one! Happy Emotional Writing!

Improve with Flash Fiction

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 5 Comments

Flash Fiction seems to be all the craze right now with a story  between 1000 – 500 words. The shorter the story, the better.  I began reading the stories, paying attention. Flash fiction intrigued me. The stories were tight. I wanted to write like that.

I began combing through every self-help book and blog I could find looking for ways to improve my writing skills and tighten my writing. Practice makes perfect. So, I started experimenting by writing short stories. It paid off. My first flash fiction short story (480 words) was published recently in Every Writer’s Resource.

Writing short stories will help you improve your writing skills in a number of ways. It will help tighten your writing,  help you free think more, increase your creative thinking and you will learning more about the skill of writing.  In addition, short stories may be better for you, in the long run. That remains to be seen. Anne Allen discusses why-you-should-be-writing-short-fiction on her blog. Check it out.

Also check out some of the sites I use to practice and improve writing skills. One of the things I do on a daily basis is one word. This exercise sends one word, every day to your email. You have 60 seconds to free write. It is a great way to open your mind, let your imagination roam and if by chance you suffer from writer’s block, this will help.

Other sites like five-sentence-fiction  offer a single word as a prompt to write a five sentence story. But, probably one of my favorites is dailyfig.figment.com. This site is offers a daily writing prompt and so much more. It is a great resource for writing advice. I’m sure there are others.

The resources available are many to help all of us succeed as writers. Go for it! I’m pulling for you!