Idiom (n.): An expression whose meaning cannot be deduced from the meanings of its individual words (ex: jump the gun).
To flesh out means to add substance or detail to an object or idea; to develop.
To flush out means to drive or force something out into the open, such as game birds or criminals.
We all want our blogs to get noticed. One way that happens is by word of mouth...or chirp, as the case may be.
Today I'm going to pass on a blogging tip I learned from Ava Jae over at Writability.
Ava frequently adds a couple of custom tweet links at the bottom of her posts, and I love them because they're so easy to use. When I asked her how she makes them, she kindly obliged me with a lesson. In the spirit of 'watch one, do one, teach one,' I'm passing it on to you.
But my blog already offers a 'tweet this' option at the bottom of my posts, you say.
That's true. But does it let you customize the tweet?
As far as I know, the person tweeting can edit it, but the blog owner can't.
And it doesn't shorten the URL either.
By creating your own custom tweets and posting the links at the bottom of your blog articles, you can encourage visitors to spread the word about your post with the ease of a couple of clicks.
Below are links to articles I've come across lately that I thought you might enjoy.
Do you struggle to avoid head-hopping in your work, or find it difficult to smoothly switch POVs? Jami Gold can help.
Ava Jae at Writability posted about tackling the overwhelming job of editing.
Multi-published author Sylvia Rochester also has a good post on editing.
And, phooey. We'll just have to wait. But we do get a yummy little taste today, sort of like opening a Christmas Eve gift to help us spastic, sugar-buzzed, package-shaking kids wait until the big day.
In preparation for this interview, I did quite a bit of stalking, and—let me tell you—Jeff Beesler is not an easy man to track. The NSA couldn't do much better.
Sorry for the unoriginal title, but it fits. I'm blending grammar, writing and editing today, addressing 'be verbs' as they relate to fiction.
Many writers have lists of words they search out and often edit out of their manuscripts when they go back to polish their prose. These lists include everything from filter words to -ly adjectives, and they almost always include forms of the infinitive to be.
It's fair to say any fiction writer who's been at it long at all will be mindful of am, was, and were. The question is, when on a mission to search and destroy, where does one draw the line?
Over the last couple of years, I've come across several writers who are highly sensitive to this group of verbs. I've known some of them, when doing critiques, to mark virtually every form of to be in the entire submission.
Don't take offense. I'm not scoffing or singling these critters out. Every writer has his or her hypersensitive areas (goodness knows I do!). My goal here is to examine the variance—to look at the grammatical side of the issue, and then open up the editing side for discussion.
Who knows? Maybe the anti-be folks have it right. Maybe those of us in the other camp are too lax. At the very least, I think dissecting it and hashing it out will make us all better writers.
Let's tackle the grammar side of it first.
This is my Insecure Writers Support Group post for July.
Once again, my pre-made IWSG post sat empty until the eleventh hour because I wasn't sure what to write. I'm not really insecure. My feelings are more of the angry and frustrated variety. And, because I'm so grumpy and unproductive (not because I want to be—because things out of my control are keeping me from finishing my WIP), I don't have any good news to report. Well, I'm alive, (relatively) healthy, and I still have a job and a roof over my head, but that's about it.
I finally understand why people do crazy mid-life crisis things. If I was given to impulsive, irresponsible behavior, I would be, too.
Anyhow, I'll shove my crappy attitude aside and try to be encouraging.
Below are links to some good posts I've come across lately.
Jutebox is a common misspelling of jukebox--a coin-operated, music-playing device.