An erratic guide to consistent writing: Super Fun Punctuation Special! I am currently in the middle of preparing for this year's Pitch Wars, so my time for reading and playing has been severely curtailed. Have no fear, though, because we still know how to have a good time here! This week, we bring you a…
Write Like You Mean It 5
An erratic guide to consistent writing. Akimbo Strictly speaking, this means with hands on one's hips, which paints a curious picture of the phrase legs akimbo, casual understanding of which would be flung out from the body. Because the two competing definitions are so at odds with one another (one a specific stance: the other…
Write Like You Mean It 4
An erratic guide to consistent writing. Alternate Alternate is one of those unfortunate words which is very close in appearance to a word whose meaning is both more useful in most conversations and yet also whose own meaning is just close enough to be confusing. To alternate means to take turns repeatedly; it also can…
Write Like You Mean it 3
An erratic guide to consistent writing. Last week I started writing about Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind and why I had to stop reading it only to discover that Mythcreants had beaten me to it by months, drawn the same conclusions, stopped in the same place, and been much funnier about it than…
Write Like You Mean It 2
An erratic guide to consistent writing. Arcane Thanks to the fantasy authors following in the literary tradition of, er, Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks, arcane is assumed to be something to do with magic, chiefly magic done by wizards instead of by priests. In fact, arcane simply means, secret, unknown to most people. In that sense,…
How to Invent a Religion: Part 1
Edifying Ætiologies An ætiology is a beginning of something expressed in historical or mythological terms, and therefore a highly appropriate concept with which to begin this short series. Last week I spotted a tweet which drove home to me the inherent problems with discussing religion in fiction. In the West, our experience of life is…
Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe
We live at a time in which not only is language changing around us, but we can look back over the centuries of linguistic change that have informed the present. Despite all our recent achievements, to find the paragons of the written word we must look to the past. Unfortunately, what we find there can…
Passive Activism
Thanks to Thematically Meandering for featuring my article about the passive voice. Follow this link for the original article and TM's own journey of discovery in the wacky world of words, as well as his reflections on the hard life of doctoral study. If, like me, you learnt to type in the 1990s or early…
Style Guides and How to Avoid Them
Today we are going to take a break from the constant stream of dragons and magic to talk about something fun instead: grammar and style guides. Woo. Some of you may remember a little while ago when I compared the cover of Strunk and White's magnum opus to what happens after flushing. The first lesson…
Split Infinitives and Dangling Participles
Katie Bouman's algorithm helps linguists externalize visualize the crushing oblivion that awaits a society in which minor grammatical errors are tolerated. A while ago I found myself in a discussion with an acquaintance who pointed out that, despite my frothing aversion to split infinitives, the authorities at the OED blog had declared them acceptable because…
Writing Worlds 