The Word

Writers sweat first lines. We search for words that are transcendent. Seductive. Brilliant! We need to convey, right away, that something special is happening here. Take the first line from Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis: “Elmer Gantry was drunk.” We know the character’s name (his full name, no less, so he’s important), and we know…

On my front patio in Greece, there are chair cushions with seemingly random words printed on them. They are lined up front ways and sideways, in block letters of differing sizes, on lime green canvas. They creep up on you. You don’t feel their lunacy immediately. “Good.” “Goodbye.” “Anything.” Followed, curiously, by “Thing.” (Anything? Thing.)…

Show me a writer who claims to have never written a passive sentence, and I’ll show you a liar. Okay, that might be a little extreme. Maybe not a liar, but someone seriously self-deluded. I write passive sentences all the time. During my self-edits, I constantly have to ask myself – what is the noun…

Do you know what an Oxford comma is?  Do you care? If you’re a writer, you probably have a strong opinion on them. I know I do. But for you lukewarm comma users, the Oxford comma, otherwise known as the serial comma, is the last one used (or not used) in a list of three…