Stories to Share

June 25, 2016October 21, 2016 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 9 Comments

It’s time to honor my fellow writers for giving us great stories to read. If you’re like me, a well-written story can stay on your mind for days. Sometimes, it motivates our creativity or nudges us to work harder on our stories.

For your reading enjoyment here are this week’s selections and don’t forget to share.

Editor’s pick: The 21st Floor @ Your Story Club by Athul Krishna. Interested in seeing your story published? Check out Your Story Club.

From No Extra Words Podcast, “Dial 116” by Robert Lunday.

Wow – Fall 2015 Flash Fiction Contest – 2nd Place; Where Charlotte Lay by Beth Everette. Submit to the WOW Summer 2016 Flash Fiction Contest, now.

An Unexpected Death by P.S. Hoffman. You can follow P.S. Hoffman’s blog, here.

Happy reading!

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram.

Are Your Commas in the Wrong Place?

June 17, 2016August 30, 2017 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 25 Comments

One would think with years of education stored in my brain I would have conquered sentence structure and those damnable commas – I haven’t. If you’ve been following my blog, you may remember I wrote about this some time ago in Confessions of a Comma Whore.

Recently, I had the opportunity for an editor to review the first chapter of my novel. I was pleased with his comments and surprised to see only a few red marks on the pages.

Here’s some of what he had to say:

“You need to review participial phrases, which is quite a common mistake. Additionally, I recommend learning about restrictive VS nonrestrictive phrases, which will help you better place a few troublesome commas.”

Well, Hells Bells! It looks as if those damn commas will haunt me till I die. Thank God for editors. Forgive me if I’m insulting anyone’s intelligence but I thought I’d review these “quite common mistake’s.”

Participial Phrases

A participle is a verb used as an adjective, and they end in – ing, d, t, or n.

An example: Barking dogs (Bark = verb)

A participial phrase is a group of words containing the participle and any complements or modifiers.

Thanks to Grammar Revolution, here’s how a participle phrase looks diagrammed:

Restrictive versus Nonrestrictive Clauses

A restrictive clause is part of a sentence that explicitly restricts the noun.

Dogs that jump on people annoy me.

The words “that jump on people” restrict the kind of dogs I find annoying. Restrictive clauses do not require commas.

A nonrestrictive clause provides additional information but when left out doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence.

My, fluffy white, Bichon Frisé is a lap dog.

Removing the words “fluffy white” doesn’t alter the meaning of the sentence. It just provides more information. Non-restrictive clauses require commas.

I did well in college. English was one of my favorite subjects. The fact that commas remain my nemesis can only be explained in one of two ways – This Southern gal likes to write the way she talks, or my brain cells just aren’t what they used to be.

Many thanks to James from Storymedic for his feedback and encouragement.

“… very minor corrections. I could immediately tell that you possess a more developed craft, well beyond average.”

Want to know more about those pesky participles and clauses? Check out these resources:

Do you still struggle with certain grammar issues? I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram.

Change Does Not Happen Overnight

June 14, 2016October 21, 2016 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 6 Comments

I’ll admit it’s been difficult to think about writing or anything else this week. The horror in Orlando has occupied my mind as I’m sure it has yours – everything else seemed trivial to me.

As I’ve followed the recent events of this past week, it brought to mind a post I’d shared recently on the benefits of anger – How to Show Anger in Your Characters. That post was written from a writer’s perspective. Today, I’d like to discuss anger from a personal perspective and how we can use it in our daily lives, for good.

The past few days have been harrowing. The mass murder of 49 individuals and 53 injured in Orlando have left us stunned, angry, and hungry for answers. I cannot imagine the pain the parents and loved ones of those cut down in the prime of their life are feeling or how they’re possibly getting through each day. My prayers are with each one of them.

Our nation is angry too and rightfully so – it feels as if we’re under attack. We want to fight back, blame someone or something and therein lies the danger.

Speculations and accusations abound among the few facts provided by the authorities. Nasty tweets, articles, slanted Facebook posts, demonization of any number of groups, and cries to change fundamental laws are on nearly every social networking site on the internet. Instead of conversations or healthy debates, angry words are spewed out like the venom of the deadliest snake.

Not All Anger is Bad

When not checked anger is a negative and counterproductive emotion. However, as I said in my previous post – it has benefits too.

It motivates us to seek change.
Expressing it, appropriately, can help interpersonal relationships.
Provides insights if we’re willing to listen to others.
Aids in negotiations to bring about change.

Bad things happen to good people every day. I wish they didn’t. When horrific things happen, we all feel angry but, in spite of the terror, we have the opportunity to be better, to do better, and become an agent for change.

“When bad things happen, we have three choices. We can either let it define us, destroy us, or strengthen us.” Click to Tweet

As we all take a step back and contemplate the horror of this last week, let the system do its job, embrace those who are hurting, remember the victims, and take a deep breath.

“Life is a marathon – not a sprint.” Click to tweet

Change does not come overnight.

What’s Your Favorite Thesaurus? Share It To Unlock The WHW Prize Vault

June 13, 2016June 6, 2016 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 13 Comments

It is a writer‘s job to draw readers into the fictional story so completely that they forget the real world. Our goal is to render them powerless. Despite the late hour, the mountain of laundry, or workday ahead, they cannot give up the journey unfolding within the paper-crisp pages before them.

Strong, compelling writing comes down to the right words, in the right order. Sounds easy, but as all writers know, it is anything BUT. So how do we create this storytelling magic?

How can we weave description in such a way that the fictional landscape becomes authentic and real—a mirror of the reader’s world in all the ways that count most?

Well, there’s some good news on that front. Two new books, released this week may change the description game for writers. The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to City Spaces and The Rural Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Personal and Natural Spaces.

These books look at the sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds a character might experience within 225 different contemporary settings. And this is only the start of what these books offer writers.

In fact, swing by and check out this hidden entry from the Urban Setting Thesaurus: Police Car.

And there’s one more thing you might want to know more about…

Becca and Angela, authors of The Emotion Thesaurus, are celebrating their double release with a fun event going on from June 13-20th called ROCK THE VAULT. At the heart of Writers Helping Writers is a tremendous vault, and these two ladies have been hoarding prizes of epic writerly proportions.

A safe full of prizes, ripe for the taking…if the writing community can work together to unlock it, of course.

Ready to do your part? Stop by Writers Helping Writers to find out more!

Do you have a favorite thesaurus? I can’t wait to add these two new resources to my library. What about you? I’d love to hear what you think and let Angela and Becca know too.

Talk to me. Tell me your story and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram.