Posts by Lauren Ipsum
If you want to unify the voices: Get a tough editor. Explain to him/her that you have two authors and you want to standardize their voices. You might pick a passage or a chapter which particularly...
The issue with learning a language is that you need to walk before you can run. You need the simple, repetitive exercises so you can learn the building blocks of the language. In high school Fren...
Let's say I'm writing a sci-fi novel. I want to use a word which another writer has coined, which has become well-recognized outside the original book, for the name of an alien species in my story....
I've seen this construction quite a bit, although only in the last five years or so. It's a transcription of a way of speaking, where the speaker is emphasizing something by using a verbal full sto...
Whether you put the acronym or the name first depends on how everyone refers to it. If it's almost always an acronym, but you have to explain it on first reference, write it as: New drugs to tr...
I edit novels (among other works). I was having a discussion with someone (not an editor) who didn't understand my technique. What I do is read through the document, and the moment something occu...
Any time you get two or more people in a group (or a family) with the same name, they are almost immediately given a nickname or some extra appellation so everyone knows who is being talked about. ...
If you have supporters following your blog, you might be able to argue that you have an audience who will buy your writing. However, to be meaningful to an agent and therefore a publisher, your au...
Indentations. 1.1 Main section (starting) Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet 1.1.1 Sub section 1 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet 1.1.2 Sub section 2 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet 1.1.1.a. Lorem...
You could use empty brackets with a space between them. Brackets are generally used to alter a quote inline, such as fixing grammar or to add information like a name so the quoted material will wor...
If you have a WordPress site, you should be able to create various users who have different levels of permission. Give your two or three trusted friends their own usernames with Admin or Editor per...
The key is in what "as were the others" refers back to. It's not just "the chairs." It's not even that "the chairs were upside-down." It's that "the other chairs" are in a specific state of being...
I would put the quotes in the link, because the quotes are around the title of the article and are therefore part of it. The CSS formatting is a question better asked on Graphic Design SE.
It is personification. Simile and metaphor are both comparing X to Y, but in different ways. A simile always uses "like" or "as": "The rustling of the branches was like trees whispering to each ...
My general rules, adapted from AP style: In narrative prose, use digits for 10 through 99. Use digits for 100 and above unless the number can be expressed in two words (like two thousand or f...
Any course you have to take in order to take a subsequent course is a prerequisite. It doesn't make any difference if you take the initial course your first year, third year, or sixth year. The pre...
Mercy, yes. If the story is burning to be told, yes. If you enjoy the craft of writing, yes. If you love reading over what you've written, yes. If you like the world you've created and the people y...
Describe what she's seeing which makes her perceive Terrence's emotions. Lana looked over at Terrence, who had deliberately put himself into John's shadow. Emotions flickered over Terrence's fa...
Parody is a mockery of a specific existing thing. Weird Al Yankovic writes parodies — "Beat It" as "Eat It," for example. Saturday Night Live parodies political figures by mimicking their qualities...
First of all, "withheld" means "held something back from," as in "she withheld the cookies from her child" or "he withheld the information from Congress." So it doesn't mean "hold up to" a big stor...
Short answer: You can't. But you shouldn't worry about it. Good textbooks get updated. They are refreshed and corrected, new material is added, things are changed to reflect reader/student/teacher...
My thought is, if you can remove the text (which you've bolded) and it still makes sense — that is, if there is no other reasonable interpretation — you can take it out. Can Cath reasonably cover ...
We've addressed "the protagonist continues to talk after dying, even in first person" here: Ways for main character to influence world following their death 1st person story, but the main charact...
(Distillation of the comments:) Are you talking about the famous J. Evans Pritchard quoted in Dead Poets Society? He is apparently a pseudonym for Laurence Perrine, and the text is more or less ta...
Monica is on the right track, but I'd push it more. If he's howling the name of his murdered wife in his grief, he's not aware of anything outside that grief. I would actually not show the husban...
