Love your language – Page 2

My wordy Valentine

I might be making a huge assumption here, but as writers we must all be fond of words, especially their ability to evoke a certain feeling or express an idea that’s formed in our heads. Where would we be without words? I’m a week late for Valentine’s Day, but this post is my public declaration… Continue reading My wordy Valentine

Differences in British and American English (for writers)

Pop quiz. What’s wrong with these sentences? 1. The Ireland rugby team are playing today, so my husband will be glued to the TV. 2. If I hadn’t got up so late, I would’ve got the bus. 3. I’m going to work at the weekend. Answers

Speaking of accents

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the difficulties involved in writing characters who don’t have the same accent you do. In that post, I wrote that one of my biggest pet peeves is “dialecty” words, which especially seem to plague Scottish characters. Yesterday, Jane at Dear Author prompted a great discussion on the same… Continue reading Speaking of accents

Save the words!

Here’s a little language quiz for you. 1) How many words do you think the English language has? I lost count at 157, so fortunately I was able to put my Googling skills to the test and discovered the Oxford English Dictionary has full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words.… Continue reading Save the words!

Prune your prose

Speaking of being overly wordy, here’s an online workshop that my RWA chapter is running soon. It’s as if they’ve been reading my blog and came up with the class just for me. Thanks, guys. ***** Permission to Forward Granted ***** RWA® Online Chapter presents: PRUNE YOUR PROSE! Ten Tips to Tighten Your Fiction Writing… Continue reading Prune your prose