General Writing Advice

3 Ways Smart Writers Easily Manage Multiple Projects

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3 Ways Smart Writers Easily Manage Multiple Projects

Whether I like it or not, it feels like I always have multiple projects vying for my attention.

Sometimes I want to play by the rules for events like NaNoWriMo—to participate, I need a fresh story idea and a blank page on the first day of the month. Other times, inspiration simply strikes at an inopportune time.

Most of the time, I can handle keeping the story or characters that come to mind in the notes section of my phone, leaving them on the back burner until they become relevant. There are some cases, however, where I can’t—maybe there’s a deadline involved, maybe the story is simply begging to be told. Either way, I must sit down and write, regardless of my current projects. Since I’m a writer, a blogger, and a full-time student, that’s pretty frequent.

When this happens, it’s easy to lose track of the details. I don’t want to cross-contaminate projects, and I also don’t want to take on too many projects at once. If I progress too slowly, I know I might become discouraged. That’s why, whether I’m plotting or not, it’s important to stay organized as a writer.

There are three key things I’ve picked up so far that have helped me juggle multiple projects effectively. Whether you’re writing a book during NaNoWriMo, rounding out a paper or three, or just keeping them in mind for later, hopefully, these key tips will help you, too.

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How to Use “Thou” Correctly Every Time

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How to Use "Thou" Correctly Every Time

Many genres, especially fantasy, make use of anachronistic language—enough so that it’s worth taking a closer look at words like thou and thee.

Anachronistic language is, simply put, a style of speech that belongs to an era other than the one in which the book is written. While it can add a new dimension to your dialogue, use it with caution—it’s easy to abuse language we don’t see often (in prose, anyway).

Knowing how this speech was used when it was extant helps us apply it to our own writing. We can then go in and spice up our dialogue with the appropriate pronouns—we just have to be sure not to go overboard.

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5 Amazing Tips to Cure Writer’s Block

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5 Amazing Tips to Cure Writer's Block

I think we can all agree that, as creative types, writer’s block is the bane of our existence. We sit down, ready to turn our ideas into reality, when… nothing. No thoughts, head empty, as the saying goes. But how do we cure ourselves of this dilemma?

Luckily, while the cause of the block may vary across writers and between sessions, the cure each time is relatively simple. To beat writer’s block, one must either get in the “writing zone” (easier said than done) or find a new angle entirely. You don’t need to pick your way through a hundred-step list to figure out how to get your writing back on track, either—just five. 

Keep reading to save yourself a headache the next time you go head-to-head with a blank page and a blank mind.

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A Comprehensive Guide to Subjective and Objective Case Pronouns

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A Comprehensive Guide to Subjective and Objective Case Pronouns

When I was in eighth grade, my Language Arts teacher taught us how to diagram sentences. Subjective and objective case pronouns, transitive and intransitive verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives, adverbs—sometimes, I thought my head would explode.

Every week, we ran through a new part of speech, until we could diagram sentences longer than even Charles Dickens would have known what to do with. Using prepositions (and not ending sentences with them like I just did), placing vocative commas, identifying the difference between direct and indirect objects—we could do all this and more at the age of thirteen. Generations before me could probably do it a lot younger. Hopefully, they continue to teach the generations after mine how to do it, too.

Cruel and unusual for a bunch of kids? Maybe. But it also made me appreciate how words fit together. After all, when you know how to use words properly, you know how to abuse them better.

And that’s when writing gets fun.

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The Truth About Dialogue Tags and How to Make Mistakes Writing Them

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The Truth About Dialogue Tags and How to Make Mistakes Writing Them

One of the fastest ways to tell a book was self-published, or a fanfiction was written quickly, is to look at the dialogue tags.

Now, of course, most self-published books use dialogue tags well. Many authors either do their research and know the proper syntax, or hire a professional editor, or both—but not all. And the ones who don’t? Well… The proof is in the pudding.

I hate to be a negative Nancy here, but not all dialogue tags were created equal. Some are fantastic, some are mediocre, and some are just plain bad. However, there is one dialogue tag that rises above the rest when it comes to brevity and clarity: said.

Yes. My favorite dialogue tag is “said.”

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The Ultimate Breakdown of (Semi)Colons to Help You Become an Expert

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The Ultimate Breakdown of (Semi)Colons to Help You Become an Expert

In any kind of writing (especially prose), sentence flow is extremely important when it comes to keeping your audience engaged. Too many short, choppy sentences in a row leave the writing feeling too simplistic, while too many long, flowing sentences may leave the reader feeling bored or confused. It becomes necessary to vary the pace, to keep the reader on their toes. That’s where punctuation comes in.

Punctuation is the key to controlling how your audience reads the sentences you write. Periods are, of course, a full stop. Exclamation points and question marks have their uses as well, providing interesting shifts in tone when used appropriately. Commas connect thoughts or separate items in a list, although they can become… muddy. 

With too many commas, your writing turns into the circuitous prose of an eccentric 18th-century novelist. However, not adding pauses to your work will make your writing seem stiff. So how do you break up your sentences to maintain the proper pacing?

COLON and SEMICOLON enter stage left. 

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8 Tried-and-True Methods to Find Your Motivation to Write

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8 Tried-and-True Methods to Find Your Motivation to Write

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You look down at your to-do list and see the next item on it—revise next two chapters of draft. It’s a manageable goal—a downright small goal, frankly—and you know it, but you feel… stuck. You can’t quite force yourself to sit down at your computer and get it done, especially not when watching the next episode of your favorite show is so much easier and so much more fun. Sure, drafting was exciting, but revisions just suck. Before you know it, three hours have gone by and you haven’t accomplished anything. Then five hours. Then seven. Then—oh look, it’s dinnertime. Oh, well, surely tomorrow will be a more productive day.

No? Just me? Well, I’m going to talk about it anyway.

Motivation is a slippery thing, showing up at the most inconvenient times—for me, it’s around 1am—and flitting away as suddenly as it arrives. Almost any kind of work can be done without feeling motivated; in fact, work should be done without motivation, given the latter’s elusive and inconsistent nature. However, I’ve come to realize that I tend to do my best work when I’m feeling inspired and motivated to write, and there are a few specific things I do to keep my head in the game and make sure I’m giving my current project my all. Hopefully, you will be able to apply these steps the next time you find yourself “left in a Lurch,” as Dr. Seuss would say.

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