COLD DEAD HANDS REVISITED
(ORIGINALLY “LAST MINUTE TWEAKS”)
Another question that came up on the forums recently was when to stop editing. I thought it would be appropriate to revisit this 2018 article which was the reworking of a 2015 article. It’s not like things aren’t worth repeating…
This article was originally called Last Minute Tweaks and I wrote it in 2015, but I re-purposed it for today because at the not so recent now (2018) Las Vegas Writer’s Conference, this subject came up time and time again. I couldn’t suppress the inspiration and the old monkey that hangs on every writer’s back. It is, of course tweaked.
We’ve all heard that tired old quote from the NRA’s dear old friend Charlton Heston about “cold dead hands” and some could say the same thing about a manuscript. When it comes to your “precious” (okay, another quote, and don’t make me say which movie), it seems like you can never stop until it’s literally (oh, what a cliché), pried out of your very much alive hands.
During a recent writer’s conference, the subject of editing already published work plus last-minute tweaks to manuscripts about to be published was a popular topic.
WILL THE EDITING EVER END?
I don’t think I’m revealing any huge trade secrets when I tell you what my manuscript from Treasure Of The Umbrunna had gone through. #1 It went through personal multiple edits, tweaks and read-throughs, including with the Henderson Writer’s Group. #2 It went through three (or is it four?) complete edits by my publisher. Even after so many eyes, there still ended up being a few typos and errors (as I’ve had pointed out to me by readers). I’ve been careful not to go looking for them for fear of finding even more, after seven years since publication. I know I’d still find even more stuff I want to change. If there’s ever a reprint, which is costly, by the way, the typos noted by people will surely be addressed, but I’ll likely not do another read-through and tweak. Cold dead hands.
What I can say is through all of that, there hasn’t been a single major change in either story line or plot. I was able to keep true to my polka-dot sewer (my muse) and use my usual – no – my only method of writing. I knew where I wanted to start and where I wanted to end. The rest (the middle) was a total surprise.
BY THIS POINT I’M NO NEWBIE
I must say that by this point in the game, when I wrote Treasure, I was no babe in the woods, cliché intended. I already had ten novels under my belt (at that time), even if they were all unpublished. The only one which might have plotting issues would be the first one, The Cave and even that one might be more of a problem with writing functionality rather than plotting. NOTE: It turns out I stumbled across the MS last year and started going through it. Not as bad as I thought.
It all boils down to fixing the numerous writing mistakes, tweaking minor things. Lots of them.
SO MUCH EDITING CAN CREATE MORE MISTAKES
With so much editing, even if the edits are relatively minor, which in my case, they were, making those edits can also create more errors. When all is said and done, a final run-through is essential!
My first edit was for structure and continuity, not so much for grammar. I made several tweaks and in the process, created some grammatical errors (mostly too many noun-verb combinations starting sentences). The second edit was for grammar, and I made lots of corrections but in the process also created some other errors. The third edit was to fix the noun-verb combinations I created fixing the other issues. Along the way, the editor found more grammatical tweaks like show not tell and phrasing she thought would work better. This has been typical of all four of my published books, so far as of this writing.
You have to remember that even though I can do the same thing to others, being an editor myself, and can also do it to my own writing in a limited amount (I’m too close to it), I need that outside eye to see it (forest through the trees).
With so much red ink, through multiple edits, when the final draft came down, prior to printing, there were bound to be slip-ups and things we all missed.
True to what I figured, I found pages of errors on my error sheets (there are 25 lines per page). In total, the count came to almost 300 line items. However, as the final result showed through the readers, there were still typos!
LUSITANIA GOLD
We seem to have done a bit better with Lusitania Gold, Gods Of The Blue Mountains, and Spanish Gold. At least we haven’t heard any more feedback about typos yet from readers. I found a big one myself, but it has since been fixed and I won’t say where that one was!
Cold dead hands.
BACK TO THE CONFERENCE
Not only did the time to let go come up at that 2018 conference, but as part of the goodie bags each participant received, we each got copies of one or another version of Writer’s Bloc. Writer’s Bloc is the annual (or bi-annual) short story anthology put out by the Henderson Writer’s Group. I have short stories in many of them. I happened to get the original Writer’s Bloc, of which I have the short story, The Walk Home. It was the second in the West Virginia Trilogy.
I had some idle time between classes…no…I was early for one of the meals, and I pulled out my copy and read the story. This book came out in what…2009 or something? I don’t remember. Anyway, while I was still mostly pleased with how The Walk Home turned out, I also cringed at some of the writing. I so much wanted to re-tweak it. However, after so many copies already in print, what’s one to do?
Cold dead hands…
SUMMARY
There comes a point when your MS is just dun didded. Let it be. You did the best you could for the time. Be happy and move on!
That was my mantra for the rest of that conference and still is all these years later. Keep going and don’t worry about it. As long as you strive to improve, your integrity is still intact. It’s when you get lazy and don’t care that you’re compromised. Don’t let that ever happen!
Happy writing!
CHAPTER LENGTH REVISITED
This article originally appeared in 2019. Given what I’ve read lately, I thought it would be appropriate to bring it up again.
One time on a writers group forum, my good friend Toni asked a question about chapter length. It was no surprise that she got a bunch of different answers.
I’ve discussed chapters before in several articles and alluded to their length but this time, I want to specifically deal with how long a chapter should be.
WHY HAVE CHAPTERS AT ALL?
The big question pertaining to this subject is: Why have chapters at all?
It harkens back to the reason we have punctuation. There was a book published in Spain decades ago that I’ve mentioned here at Fred Central periodically. The book is a couple of hundred pages long and is one sentence. The only punctuation mark in the entire book is a period at the end. That’s it. I’ve never seen the book, but have heard plenty about it. Can you just imagine a single sentence two hundred plus pages long?
It bothers me to read a single paragraph that takes up half a page, let alone a full one.
I’m not a fan of books with only a couple of chapters, and few scenes.
Why?
Pauses for thoughts – breaks to regroup, rethink, like scenes in a movie, or on TV.
Commercial breaks where I can read a bit without getting lost in the text (I despise commercials).
THAT’S why we have chapters.
It’s the same reason we not only have punctuation, but sentences and paragraphs. To break the story down and make it more manageable and digestible.
SHORT OR LONG?
I don’t completely buy into this “it takes whatever it takes” thing.
Why?
That gives the author free reign to ramble. When a chapter or scene is too long, it becomes tedious. Period.
I’ve been reading for over sixty years. Sitting down for long periods has never been comfortable without some kind of break, especially when I was a young’un with a shorter attention span. Those bursts of reading got longer as I got older, and now they’re getting a little shorter again.
Why?
Not only does my body insist, but my mind needs a break, and I have a lower tolerance for bullshit and rambling.
When a chapter or scene is too long, that tells me (consciously and subconsciously) that the author doesn’t know when to shut up and get organized.
Long chapters mean the author doesn’t know how to pace correctly.
On the other hand, super-short chapters can either be seen as hyperactive and disjointed, or perfect for reading during commercials.
I’m perfectly fine with short chapters as long as they have a beginning, a middle and an end. If the chapter is a single paragraph, with nothing but a burst of thought, THAT’S a bad chapter. I’ve seen it before, plenty of times.
On the other hand, I’ve seen seventy and eighty page chapters with one and two-page paragraphs and they were pure torture.
To me, moderation is the key.
YOU KNOW WHAT?
On the other hand, your book DOES need to take as many chapters as necessary, but you have to consider your reader, and whether you want to punish them, or not let the writing get in the way of the story.
Think about it.
I tend for short chapters, or longer ones with short scenes.
I’m quite happy with moderate chapters broken up with scenes.
You know what? I’m not at alone in this feeling. In my unofficial polling, which I do all the time, I get unprompted comments from non-writer readers about books (in other words, our potential audience). I hear all kinds of things, and pertaining to this discussion, a biggie is “I thought that chapter would never end.” “That guy (or gal) doesn’t know when to shut up.” “That was just plain tedious.”
SUMMARY
You don’t have to have 80 chapters in your story, but you also don’t have to have 3. You can be reasonable and keep the PACING going so the reader doesn’t get bogged down.
A book should have as many chapters as it takes, but the key is keeping the pacing going so you don’t punish the reader.
Happy writing!
SHOULD YOU PITCH TO AN AGENT OR NOT REVISITED
I see this question come up from time to time. I thought it’d be worth a revisit.
Pitching to an agent is a moot question if you’re going to self-publish. It’s also moot if you’re going to be your own agent and want to go directly through the publisher yourself if you think you know your way around the system well enough. Funny, after being rejected 691 times, most of those rejections from agents with only a few from publishers, I finally got my deal with a publisher. A small press mind you, but still a deal, no agent.
SELF PUBLISHING
If you go the self-published or e-published route (which is still self-published), no agent is involved. There’s no middleman, especially with the e-pub. However, to some in the industry (cough cough… Lee Child), you aren’t worth spit. I resent that, but also see his point. There’s a lot of crap out there in the self-published world because there are no filters to weed out the stuff that shouldn’t be published. Just look at the books that make it to traditional print. There’s no accounting for taste as it is. There are plenty of bad books out there from big publishers.
Consider how many self-published works are flooding the market, especially now that e-pubbing is taking off, that don’t have anyone to tell the author no, or to edit them and tell them where they need to fix anything. A lot of people are being ripped off of their hard-earned cents or even dollars from blind sales of tomes that may have catchy titles or artwork but turn out to be turgid, boring or amateurish drivel that a third grader could out-write. In that respect, I agree with Child, but he’s slamming a lot of great writers who are being rejected on a whim from overloaded agents and publishers who never get to even a quarter of the manuscripts submitted to them, if that.
AGENTS?
If you decide to go with an agent, why? Because they can open doors you can’t. They live and breathe the industry. They know these people. They eat lunch and dinner with them. They go to conferences with editors and publishers, they talk to them every day. They know their likes and dislikes. The big boys. That’s the argument for them.
Which agents do you look for? Forget the books you see in the bookstore. They’re a great way to fatten the wallet of the author that wrote them, but they’re woefully out of date by the time you see them on a bookshelf. The best way is to use the Internet. www.agentquery.com is probably the most detailed and up-to-date site out there. There used to be a great site called Preditors and Editors but they are now defunct. This site used to list the good and bad ones and could save you a lot of grief.
KNOW YOUR GENRE!
You have to know your genre. Each agent usually takes specific genres. Study their profile. If it’s vague, take a chance. All you’ll get is a rejection. So what? 691 rejections and counting… I’m still alive.
When reading the agent profile, be sure to check their submission requirements carefully!
THE QUERY
Have a generic submission query, but make sure to customize it for each agent. Some will ask for a synopsis, a few pages, this and that. Some will want exclusive access to your work. If they do? Lie! I’m serious. Lie! Let’s put it this way. When you’re sending out queries or MS’s to agents (if they ask for them), they may take 6 months to a year to get back to you. Multiply that by how many agents you want to submit to and the inevitable rejections you’re going to get before one says yes. How many decades to you want to wait before you finally get a yes? I’m just saying. Their demand for exclusivity sounds reasonable assuming your MS is all that dynamite and everyone is starving for work, but the fact is they aren’t. They get thousands and thousands of MSs a month. They’re flooded with stuff and barely have time to get up in the morning, let alone read your work. So, demanding the impossible is ridiculous.
One glaring example is my experience with one agent. He took two years to get back to me with a no.
SUMMARY
Sure, you can take the “easy way” and self-publish but turns out, self-publishing isn’t all that easy either. There’s a lot you have to account for when going it on your own. If you want a quality product, you need more than just writing and downloading. A lot more.
Agents or direct-to-publisher deals are also not all that easy unless you get lucky. Whatever way you go, make sure you have plenty of patience and learn your stuff.
Happy writing!
AMAZON ADS PART 2
As many of you know, marketing sucks. Of all the things about writing that I love, marketing is the one that gets my stomach grinding. Having to go out and “beg” people to buy my book rubs me wrong, yet without marketing, nobody will know I even exist.
Now in the grand scheme of things, we’re going to continue to explore Amazon Ads.
Besides having to deal with a sucky web site, there’s minimum daily budget, setting up a professional looking page, and it all gets down to keywords.
My guess is that Amazon calculates all the keyword clicks, and when you reach your budget, it drops your ad for that day.
KEYWORDS
I attended a writer’s conference years ago where one of the classes was on keywords. It was like trying to learn Chinese in a day. Despite that, I managed to retain a small bit of insight in using them in this ads campaign.
Keywords designate where your book is placed. Whenever you search for something on Amazon, you’ll notice the exact match (say an author name) and then a whole bunch of seemingly unrelated books (this would apply to any product).
The “key” to all this is setting the keywords that will get the best results.
SETTING UP KEYWORDS
There are three ways to utilize a keyword.
Exact: This means if someone searches for your keyword and it matches exactly, your book is more likely to show up somewhere on the list.
Phrase: This means if that keyword is part of a phrase (example “pine” as in “pine stick,” “pine box,” etc.
Broad: This means the word or phrase could be anywhere in a search.
The way I originally set it up, I only went for some of the three, usually exact or phrase. I was afraid of going over budget. Hah! Most of my keywords didn’t do diddly so I didn’t get charged for anything.
When I created a campaign for the UK, I decided that all keywords would have all three, to better my chances of something showing up.
EXAMPLE
I entered the word Glen Buxton. He was the lead guitar player in the original Alice Cooper Band and the book is dedicated to him. However, I only added phrase at the time.
When I went to search for Glen Buxton, my book didn’t show up at all on the listings.
Now, I used Clive Cussler, because my book is in a similar vein. For that I used all three and it is my top performer.
BIDS
Now things get tricky. Bids.
You can go with the defaults set up by Amazon. I strongly suggest you do that at first. It can be from a few cents to a dollar or more to begin with. Don’t let those amounts fool you. If you use dynamic bidding, you aren’t going to get charged unless someone clicks on your ad or maybe lingers on that page (or maybe scrolls through it?, not sure).
Impressions mean your ad came up on a search. Clicking on it is where the real money comes in and then if someone buys your book, they you get charged the full enchilada.
The thing about bids is that the higher the bid, the closer your book with come to the first page of the search.
Since Clive Cussler was getting the most bids, I increased the amount several times so that finally, when I went to search “Clive Cussler,” my book came up right at the top of the first page.
The other thing about bidding though is that if you set your bid higher than your daily budget, you won’t get any results at all.
IT TAKES TIME
To get the feel of your results (and to get any results at all), you need to run the ad for at least a month. It takes that long to build any meaningful statistics. Not just impressions (the highest number) but actual clicks or sales.
I don’t suggest a campaign for just a month, which I did at first. When the month came to the end, I extended it two more months.
My results so far are five books sold, two almost sold (I lost out) and my budget is sitting at $125.99. I’ve sold $38.77 worth of books, so you can see the payoff ratio at first isn’t all that great. Since I just started my UK campaign, I only have 3600 impressions and no clicks or sales so my budget is low (24 pence?). At the end of the first month, I should have better results to go off of.
HOW MANY KEYWORDS?
I’ve talked to several people that use Amazon Ads and they both had hundreds. Yup, that’s right, you need to get creative with your keywords and use a spray and pray approach at first.
WHAT KEYWORDS?
This is another critical factor. Getting creative with your keywords.
My book, Spanish Gold is an adventure/thriller.
At first I was just going with nouns for the most part. Thriller, adventure, and words that show up within the adventure like locations (Spain, England, Azores). However, I had a brilliant idea which nobody else brought up but probably use. How about similar authors?
That’s right, don’t forget similar authors so your book shows up in the right place with similar titles.
Turns out those author keywords are having the biggest results, at least so far.
Even with my kitchen sink approach, I still only have about seventy or eighty keywords so far. It may expand more later, once I have several months of statistics.
You can tell pretty quick which ones produce results all the time and which only once or not at all.
Dump the bad ones?
Not necessarily, just don’t go crazy on the bids. Keep them cheap. If for some reason, they start getting hits, then think of increasing your budget. No need to delete them if you get nothing at all.
Now, there is also the negative bid thing which I still don’t understand that well.
Say, you have a keyword that gets clicked all the time but you are getting no results at all. It may be a specific noun, phrase, or whatever. Then you start getting hits but no sales at all.
You can designate that particular phrase, exact, or broad as a negative word so that Amazon will ignore it.
That’s about all I know of negative keywords. So far, none of my results are giving me any useful info on how to go about using negative keywords. Like I said, the web site isn’t all that user friendly.
SUMMARY
Amazon Ads has the potential to be a great marketing tool for those of us that cannot get out all the time. It can work for anyone.
Give it a try!
Happy writing!
AMAZON ADS PART 1
As many of you know, marketing sucks. Of all the things about writing that I love, marketing is the one that gets my stomach grinding. Having to go out and “beg” people to buy my book rubs me wrong, yet without marketing, nobody will know I even exist.
Due to the pandemic, it’s been especially hard to find ways to market a book electronically. Since the pandemic started, I’ve only done two…mark that two…live appearances. While I consider one of them a victory because I sold a book, it was still a lot of exposure to risk for such paltry results (in one way of looking at it).
I’ve tried various social media things, including Facebook and book advertising web sites. The results were far less than spectacular.
Not too long ago, I got an e-mail from Amazon touting their Amazon Ads campaign method.
While I was, and still am a bit skeptical, I decided to give it a try.
THE BASICS
Amazon Ads is a place to market your book worldwide using key words and bids. The better the keyword, and the higher the bid, the more likely someone is going to click on your book and maybe purchase it.
That’s it in a nutshell.
However, getting results is a lot more complicated!
THE WEB SITE
I’m not all that hot on the web site, which is the “Books And Marketing” tab on your Amazon Author Page, which you have to create first, by the way.
The author page is not all that hard to set up. The key is having professional looking content. Not that hard.
Now, as for the Books And Marketing tab, this is where things get confusing. The site isn’t in the least bit intuitive. You really have to know what you’re doing, or you can end up doing an expensive “hunt and peck” approach. That, to me, isn’t a great way to get things done.
The biggest beef is the navigation, which is pretty difficult when you have to once again, hunt and peck to figure out what to do, and then remember those sometimes complicated moves to get there.
SETTING UP A CAMPAIGN
After polling several authors to see if it was worth it, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to try.
Setting up a campaign was a matter of choosing which book to sell, making sure BOTH paper and e-book were represented, and then choosing how to go about the ads.
You can use the automatic setting, which for some, is the simplest, but also the least effective way to go. Amazon decides what’s what and if you’re going to depend on them to do it the best for your book, you might as well just dump the money down the toilet and flush.
By doing it manually, you have a better chance of avoiding that.
First thing is a budget cap.
THE BUDGET CAP
If you don’t want to go broke, and end up with a huge bill, you need to set a daily budget cap. Some go real cheap and others go for broke. I chose a moderate $5 a day.
DYNAMIC BIDDING
Now, this is also a key ingredient. By setting dynamic bidding, Amazon only charges under certain circumstances. Someone (of thousands clicking on a keyword) has to click on your ad. Amazon will charge so much for this. Then if someone actually buys your book, they charge a bit more to get their cut of the sale (which they already do even if you don’t use the Ads campaign).
In the next phase I’ll go over keywords. This is enough to wrap your head around for the moment!
In the meantime, happy writing!
GRAMMAR LESSON EIGHT REVISITED
We’re back with the final set of similar sounding words with entirely different meanings.
Our illustrious former Henderson Writer’s Group el-presidente, Linda Webber, presented grammar lessons each week on the back of our meeting agendas. The gist of them were the improper use of words.
As a reminder, I’ll add the standard intro below before I get into the word list.
BACK IN THE DAY
I once wrote a screenplay with my bud, Doug Lubahn (RIP), a famous musician. During our correspondence, I once told him I was waiting with “baited” breath instead of “bated” breath. He’s never let me live that one down.
The proper use of words is something a lot of writers don’t always get. So, for your reading pleasure, below is a list of words and how to use them properly.
The list is the last of the series, and it’s Grammar Lesson Eight.
Once again, my many thanks to Linda Webber, who went through the trouble to compile these words all in one place for me to steal and present to you here at Fred Central.
These are common words that are often used out of context. They can be a quandary for a writer, and a quick trip to a dictionary, or online.
COMMON SIMILAR SOUNDING WORDS (WITH ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MEANINGS)
Cereal A grass-producing edible grain, or a breakfast food made from grains
Sasha at her cereal with lots of milk.
Serial Happening in a series
The old science fiction serial played a half-hour episode each week.
Chord A group of musical notes
Fred learned a new chord on guitar the other day.
Cord A length of string or a cord-like body part
The cords of muscle rippled through is body when he lifted the three-hundred pound barbell.
Climactic Forming a climax
It was a climactic ending to an otherwise dull story.
Climatic Relating to climate
Those climatic events had to do with hurricanes.
Coarse Rough
The coarse cloth felt like sandpaper on her skin.
Course A direction, a school subject, part of a meal
Captain Johnson set a course for Hawaii.
Complacent Smug and self-satisfied
His complacent attitude was sure to lead to a major mistake.
Complaisant Willing to please
Holder’s second banana was so complaisant, it turned Jenny’s stomach.
Complement To add to so as to improve, or an addition that improves something
The addition of the breadfruit was a complement to the ship’s crew diet.
Compliment To praise or express approval, or an admiring remark
Ruby blushed at the compliment from the senator.
Desert A waterless, empty area or to abandon someone
The Mojave Desert isn’t as dead and dry as some think it is.
Dessert The sweet course of a meal
The kids couldn’t wait for the dessert of ice cream.
Discreet Careful not to attract attention
Remember to make discreet inquiries to the bad guy doesn’t catch on.
Discrete Separate and distinct
Those are discrete issues from what you proposed.
Disinterested Impartial
We come from disinterested parties.
Uninterested Not interested
I find it uninteresting.
Draught A current of air
The draught of warm air caught him as he opened the door.
Draft A first version of a piece of writing
I settled down with the first draft of the manuscript and began the editing process.
Draw An even score at the end of a game
After all of those plays, it ended up with a draw.
Drawer A sliding storage compartment
She slid the drawer closed after stashing her diary.
Dual Having two parts
The carburetor had dual chambers.
Duel A fight or contest between two people
Snelling died in a duel with Hampton.
SUMMARY
Once again, thanks to Linda Webber for her hard work putting these original words together!
Happy writing!
GRAMMAR LESSON SEVEN REVISITED
We’re back with another set of similar sounding words with entirely different meanings.
Our illustrious former Henderson Writer’s Group el-presidente, Linda Webber, presented grammar lessons each week on the back of our meeting agendas. The gist of them were the improper use of words.
As a reminder, I’ll add the standard intro below before I get into the word list.
BACK IN THE DAY
I once wrote a screenplay with my bud, Doug Lubahn (RIP), a famous musician. During our correspondence, I once told him I was waiting with “baited” breath instead of “bated” breath. He’s never let me live that one down.
The proper use of words is something a lot of writers don’t always get. For your reading pleasure, below is a list of words and how to use them properly.
The list is not near complete, so that’s why this is called Grammar Lesson Seven.
Once again, my many thanks to Linda Webber, who has gone through the trouble to compile these words all in one place for me to steal and present to you here at Fred Central.
These are common words that are often used out of context. They can be a quandary for a writer, and a quick trip to a dictionary, or online.
COMMON SIMILAR SOUNDING WORDS (WITH ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MEANINGS)
Loath Reluctant, unwilling
She was loath to eat the burger.
Loathe To hate
I loathed getting a haircut.
Loose To unfasten: To set free
She let the squirrel loose and it scampered off
Lose To be deprived of, to be unable to find
If you don’t put your wallet back in your pocket, you’re going to lose it.
Meter A measuring device
The gas meter showed a large consumption the past month.
Metre A metric unit, rhythm in verse
Carl tried to get the metre of the chorus so he could keep up with the song.
Militate To be a powerful factor against
The two parties’ views militate against a common core of reference.
Mitigate To make less severe
Because he gave them the location of the loot, that mitigated his sentence to six months instead of a year.
Palate The roof of the mouth
The pudding slid smooth against his palate.
Palette A board for mixing colors
She dabbed three colored paints together on the palette and created ochre.
Pedal A foot-operated lever
Randy had never used a clutch pedal before and when he tried, he stalled the truck.
Peddle To sell goods
Oscar peddled dry goods at the fair.
Council A group of people who manage or advise
The city council voted on the measure three to one.
Counsel Advice, or to advise
I really appreciated my dad’s counsel when I was growing up, though I didn’t show it much.
Cue A signal for action or a wooden rod
Stephanie took her cue from the director and hit the stage.
Queue A line of people or vehicles
The queue to get in to see the Tut exhibit was over a mile long.
Curb To keep something in check or a control or limit
I’ve been told to curb my enthusiasm by my pessimistic friend.
Kerb In British English it’s the stone edge of pavement
Sally tripped over the kerb when she crossed the street.
Currant A dried grape
My best friend loves currant pie, but I can’t stand it.
Current Happening now, or a flow of water, air or electricity
Jack eased the dingy out into the river where the current pushed it further downstream.
Defuse To make a situation less tense
The cops came in to defuse the situation, but their uniforms only added to the tension.
Diffuse To spread over a wide area
The dandelion spread in a diffuse pattern over the lawn.
SUMMARY
Once again, thanks to Linda Webber for her hard work putting these original words together!
Happy writing!
GRAMMAR LESSON SIX REVISITED
We’re back with another set of similar sounding words with entirely different meanings.
Our illustrious former Henderson Writer’s Group el-presidente, Linda Webber, used to present grammar lessons each week on the back of our meeting agendas. The gist of them were the improper use of words.
As a reminder, I’ll add the standard intro below before I get into the word list.
BACK IN THE DAY
I once wrote a screenplay with my bud, Doug Lubahn (RIP), a famous musician. During our correspondence, I once told him I was waiting with “baited” breath instead of “bated” breath. He never let me live that one down.
The proper use of words is something a lot of writers don’t always get. For your reading pleasure, below is a list of words and how to use them properly.
The list is not near complete, so that’s why this is called Grammar Lesson Six.
Once again, my many thanks to Linda Webber, who has gone through the trouble to compile these words all in one place for me to steal and present to you here at Fred Central.
These are common words that are often used out of context. They can be a quandary for a writer, and warrant a quick trip to a dictionary, or online.
COMMON SIMILAR SOUNDING WORDS (WITH ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MEANINGS)
Forbear To refrain
Joe could not forbear a smile.
Forebare An ancestor
His forebares were early pioneers to this territory.
Foreward An introduction to a book
The foreward to Cindy’s book was elaborate but unnecessary.
Forward Onward, ahead
It’s time to move forward with our plan.
Freeze To turn to ice
If you leave it outside today, it’s going to freeze.
Frieze A decoration along a wall
I attempted to strip the paint from the frieze without damaging the detail.
Grisly Gruesome, revolting
The horror movie was full of grisly scenes.
Grizzly A type of bear
It’s a good idea to avoid the grizzly bear in the woods.
Hoard A store of items
The homeless man guarded his hoard of cans jealously.
Horde A large crowd of people
The Mongolian horde stormed the castle.
Imply To suggest indirectly
Are you implying that I’m guilty?
Infer To draw a conclusion
Without any evidence, his testimony inferred that Roger was guilty.
Pole A long, slender piece of wood
She used the pole to push the boat along in the canal.
Poll Pertaining to voting in an election
We polled the democrats and republicans in the district to see who had the edge.
Pour To flow or cause to flow
She poured the milk into the pan.
Pore A tiny opening: To study something closely
Stephanie pored over the document to see if she could make sense of it.
Practice The use of an idea or method: Work or business of a doctor, dentist, etc.
The doctor’s practice is in that building over there.
Practise To do something repeatedly to gain skill: To do something regularly
(NOTE: This is also the British spelling of the word. American English usually uses the C instead of the S. It covers both definitions.)
We went to band practise but spent most of the time partying.
Prescribe To authorize the use of medicine: To order authoritatively
The doctor prescribed ampicillin in a very small dose.
Proscribe To officially forbid something
The council proscribed dancing on the holiday.
Principal Most important: Head of a school
The principal shut down the school in order to address a gun threat.
Principle A fundamental rule or belief
A fundamental principle of drumming is the paradiddle.
Sceptic A person incline to doubt
There are true believers who go on faith, and sceptics who won’t believe it unless they see it.
Septic Infected with bacteria
The leg wound went septic because it was left untreated.
Elusive Difficult to find, catch or achieve
The fish made elusive targets, especially with the wrong bait.
Illusive Deceptive, illusory
The magician used illusive movements to fool the eye.
SUMMARY
Once again, thanks to Linda Webber for her hard work putting these original words together!
Happy writing!
The Worlds Of Fred Rayworth 