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I concur that you should post at least once a day, to keep your audience returning. How long each post should be is dependent on your audience and your content (and your willingness/time to write, ...
If you want to keep up with written English, read newspapers and magazines (preferably weekly, but also monthly). Newspapers, meant to be daily, cover news, politics, opinions, business, human int...
Without knowing the course material or the checklist, my impulse is to say that you should look for a theme, or something which most or all of the points have in common. What do they all relate to?...
It's sort of an anti-enjambment. I have no idea if it has a formal name.
I kind of like the idea of starting with #2, but italicized and as its own paragraph — almost like an epigram leading off your essay. In fact, if you can get two or three of these short pithy quot...
There are pros and cons to starting off with something attributed to someone else. It can lead the audience to expect something derivative so you really have to work to demonstrate why your ideas ...
For me it would depend on what would get cut. If the preview is "the first chapter," no matter how long, then leave the front matter at the front. If it's "the first ten pages," no matter where the...
The flow isn't bad. You have some wording issues and one large clarity problem. A few months before finishing graduate school, I was starting to visualize my graduate life when suddenly a friend t...
If you are referring to "title case," where some words are capitalized and some aren't, there is no one standard rule. The AP stylebook says: Capitalize the principal words, including prep...
So what is the highlight? Is it a character study of lunatics? A farce? A satire of a particular genre? A giddy romp across space and time? A surreal exploration of the absurdities inherent in our...
"If all else fails, chase your hero up a tree and throw rocks at him." (I don't know the source of the quote, but it's catchy.) Introduce a disaster. Car crash, random passerby collapses, dog gets...
How do you explain anything vividly? Observe with all your senses, and add emotions and thoughts. Do the research. I will express hope that you have not personally been in a war scene, so you woul...
From TV Tropes ("In Media Res" and "How We Got Here"): Fight Club starts with Tyler Durden holding a gun in the Narrator's mouth, then goes back to the beginning and catches back up. Kill Bill Vo...
I can appreciate the feeling, since I started out that way myself, but it's not an adult way to write. The short answer is "No, find your own voice." The longer answer, and explanation: You're suf...
Take your eyes off the plot. Focus on originality in your characters and setting. I'm not saying this is easier, it isn't always easy to create new characters and new character dynamics, but this ...
If you write something "lightweight," and then something "heavy" or "serious" afterwards, the readers of your "light" book might give the "serious" one a try sooner than someone who never heard of ...
You can't really insert a hook afterwards. It will feel inserted. The hook needs to be there organically. You've presented a bizarre but intriguing image. In order to use it, you have to build a re...
Roughly speaking, it means if you have to pay alimony, you have to earn money. Writing is not a way to earn money (for most of us). He's suggesting that it's insufficient income for an alimony paym...
Sounds fine to me. But then, I don't object to a judicious use of synonyms for "said," either. (grumbled, snarled, sighed, snickered, hinted, etc.)
They're fine; they certainly aren't an error. If a particular use sounds awkward, don't hesitate to drop attribution entirely (it's often still quite clear who's talking, because most conversations...
"Thank you so much for generously sharing your time and expertise." With additional superlatives and the word "appreciate" as needed.
If the beginning is blocking you, start writing something else. You have an outline, right? You know roughly what's going to happen when. So pick some point which is easier, and start there. My su...
A book discussing copyrighted and trademarked works can unquestionably be done. It has been done, many times; search on Amazon for unauthorized guide to and you'll see books on everything from Buff...
I would have no problem putting appendices in "logical" order. An appendix is referred to out-of-context or out of order anyway, so what difference does it make if your footnote sends the reader to...
How sympathetic to make your villain depends heavily on what your villain's role in the story is. Once you're able to figure out what role he has, what effect you'd like him to have on your audienc...
