Monthly Archives: February 2017

The Search for Words

When You Cannot Remember the Word (Lethologica)

By Annette Rey

When you are writing, it seems inevitable, interruptions occur that waylay your train of thought; the jangling of the telephone, the doorbell rings, a family member talks to you. That’s bad enough.

What about the pauses in your writing when you can’t remember the right word you know should go right in that spot in your sentence? You’re on a roll and your fingers are moving deftly, except for that!

I have two very good tools to help shorten that unwanted pause, and to get your mind back on writing.

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Ten Reasons Why Writers Need The Great Courses on Writing

Include These Lessons in Your Writer’s Library

By Annette Rey

Would you like your writing to flow? If it doesn’t, you could use some help. All of us have developed bad habits over the years where it concerns our writing. Whether you are a new writer or have been at it a long time, you can improve your knowledge of the rules of writing, and how to use the English language.

Take a look with me at what The Great Courses has to offer.

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Wonderful Words – Elegant and Eloquent

Writers Love Words

By Annette Rey

Believe it or not, elegant and eloquent can be incorrectly used. They are similar in sound, each have three syllables, they both start with e and both end in t. I sympathize with people trying to learn English. Though these words have a completely different meaning, to the untrained ear, the delicate nuance between them can be missed. The sad thing I find, some whose primary language is English misuse these words.

Here is a simple reminder.

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A Reference Book Suggestion

A Useful Tool

By Annette Rey

A book I support for writers and for just any person who wants to increase their vocabulary is: The Penquin Rhyming Dictionary. On first glance, a person who is not a poet might think this book has no use for them. But this is a great source for expanding your knowledge of words.

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Helpful Reference Books for Writers

Who’s (oops) Whose Grammar Book Is This Anyway? by C. Edward Good

The Big Ten of Grammar by William B. Bradshaw, PhD

Woe is I by Patricia T. O’Conner

The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White

The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing by Thomas S. Kane

Punctuation, Plain and Simple by Edgar C. Alward and Jean A. Alward

Prentice Hall Reference Guide by Muriel Harris

Getting the Words Right, How to Rewrite, Edit, and Revise by Theodore A. Rees Cheney

 

Writing for Valentines

The Love Month

By Annette Rey

Writers, what’s not to love, right? February 14th – roses, flowers, candlelight, romantic dinners. Or is all of that passé?

Creative brains may find blood among the roses, corpse flowers are the plant of choice, a fire is set in an attempt to conceal a murder, poison is in the soup. Well, maybe. Many crimes are committed for love, from the killer’s point of view.

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