Category Archives: Writing

NaNoBlogwhatever 2 of 30:

Alas, which and that are becoming interchangeable in US English, and seem to be  very interchangeable in other Englishes. It took me many years to appreciate how they were different, but once I did, I loved the different meanings that they conveyed. Lately, I see many, many uses of which when that would be better–and, I’d argue, simpler. You’re a lot more likely to misuse which than that, too. And, okay, Grammar Girl says they absolutely can be interchangeable, but one of the awesome things about English is how terribly complicated it is!

Also rantworthy: misuse of may and might. I have only seen this in the past year or so, and I don’t know where it’s coming from. Finally, I’m seeing an increase in commas where commas don’t go. These examples are all wrong, wrong, wrong, but the explanation why will have to wait for another day:

Author, Paige Number writes picture books. (Also: redundant.)

I was looking down the road with I saw police officer, Lieutenant Dan walk by.

When will club president, Gene Simmons come to speak to us?

It’s NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, when loads of folks write–or valiantly try to write–50,000 words, or a (short) novel, in just 30 days. I don’t think of myself as a writer, though I currently have a couple of story ideas I’d love to find time for, but I participated some years back, and it was fun. Here are my tips: sit down, write stream of consciousness, no using the backspace button. Just type, and you’ll get there. If you finish a manuscript or an idea, and you’re writing with an eye to publishing, put it away until January, then return to your project with time and distance to finish fleshing it out, to rethink and rewrite the stinky bits, and to give yourself the freedom to treat the story as a professional creative work rather than your heart and soul.

Of course, plenty of people participate on their own terms, writing a poem a day, drafting a picture book, or whatever suits their fancy. After a hiatus, I’ll be posting every day in November; I have almost a thousand links saved up that I’d like to talk about. Note that I’ll also be cheating–I’m setting up my posts in advance, as November this year means big projects, at school and at my not-yet-habitable new apartment, and Thanksgiving.

To kick things off, here are a couple of links that aren’t about coming in exactly at 50,000 words:

Word Count for Novels and Picture Books: A Definitive Post

Basic Book Construction, which is about picture books, but offers some interesting information for people who don’t read or write them

Using Excel to Keep Track of Your Book