sentences

Poetry for Prose Writers

Poetry for Prose Writers

In between some fiction writing and my usual blogging/guest-article writing, I’ve written some poems recently, which got me thinking: Prose writers, listen to me, your writing will improve (I promise) if you read poetry. And if you write it, it’s guaranteed. And now I’m thinking I really need to offer a class called Poetry for…

Hunting Weasel Words

Hunting Weasel Words

I learned of the term “weasel words” from writer Matt Bell, who thinks he learned it from Gabe Durham. In any event, it’s becoming part of the writing lexicon and what it means, in the creative writing sense, is different than the dictionary.com definition—“words or statements that are intentionally ambiguous or misleading.” Although the words…

A Brief Defense of Using a Thesaurus (in which I disagree with Stephen King)
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A Brief Defense of Using a Thesaurus (in which I disagree with Stephen King)

You may not even know that the humble thesaurus comes under attack, but it does. The topic arose this week when a writer tweeted a question asking other writers how they feel about using a thesaurus. Almost everyone who responded said they were down with them and why. But someone reminded me who it was…