What’s in a name? In fiction, the names of characters form the reader’s first introduction to what kind of person they are. Dickensian names like Pecksniff and Chuzzlewit are out of fashion now, but we can still suggest much about a character by what name we choose to give to him or her. Billy has a boyish feel about it, Billy-Bob is a country boy, Bill is grown up, and William seems more formal. Betty Lou Sue is a whimsical … Read More »

Many are the joys, and many the horrors, of slang and jargon in writing. Knowing when and how to apply them can elevate or doom the work. The two are kissing cousins but are not the same. Slang (such as “kissing cousins”) is informal language used more in everyday speech than in formal writing and is  associated with particular groups. Jargon refers to the technical terminology of a given profession or activity. Both can be your friends. Most likely, they’ll … Read More »

The dictionary defines pathetic fallacy as the attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in art and literature.  It’s not so much a fallacy or falsehood as it is a figure of speech — otherwise all fiction could be called a lie (!), and we know fiction is often the bearer of deep truths. Nor is it a pitiable trait in literature: pathetic means here dealing with emotions, and as a reader, I say the … Read More »

Diction is being picky about words. Picky, picky, picky — my mother’s lament when I whined about my meal. I wanted borders on my plate. I cringed at green beans crossing over mashed potatoes or meatloaf touching corn. “It all goes to the same place,” she’d say. Still, I persisted in moving food apart. Why? Taste matters. Our writing all goes to the same place, too: to a reader’s mind. But we don’t just heap word upon word like mashed … Read More »

I frequently give a presentation on point of view in writing, explaining the big and little techniques for avoiding and escaping viewpoint traps. One aspect that often gets overlooked is staying true to the viewpoint character’s voice. We have viewpoint options. In simplest terms, first person, second person, and third person, but variations exist. Unless you’re writing a story in third person objective — that is, a non-subjective camera point of view, or the proverbial fly on the wall, in … Read More »

I have a friend who recently admitted shamefacedly to our writers’ group that she has been writing—and selling—Regency romances under an assumed name. We know her as a person committed to the highest standards of authorship, aspiring to real literary fiction, constantly refining and perfecting her style. And so our immediate reaction was to console, with a kind of world-weary fatalism. Gotta pay the bills, friend. Because those carefully crafted manuscripts had not sold. But wait. Is there something wrong … Read More »