Formally vs Formerly

I'm back with another midweek post about words that can easily be mixed up. These two words are often confused as they sound the same but they have very different meanings. Formally is the adverb for formal, which means official or 'in accordance with convention or etiquette'. (Google dictionary) The staff were asked to dress...

Lose vs Loose

I'm hoping to bring you a midweek post each week about easily-confusable words. This week's pair of words are so easily confused that even I have to briefly second-check myself at times. The knowledge is there of course, but I always think how wrong lose looks with one o. So let's set the record straight:...

Dialogue Punctuation

Today I'm going to talk about punctuation within dialogue. There are a few guidelines to follow but once you've grasped these, you're pretty much sorted and ready to go. Dialogue in fiction is when characters are speaking. Whenever a character is speaking you need inverted commas, also known as 'speech marks', 'quote marks' or simply...

Poetry and Punctuation

A slightly delayed blog due to illness. Today's blog explores punctuation in poetry. Do we need it? If so, how much do we need? To answer this question, I've been exploring poetry in books I own as well as on social media with interestingly varied results. Some use punctuation as if they were writing prose,...

Possessive Apostrophes – A Basic Guide

A quick one today about the often misplaced possessive apostrophe. If you are writing about something that belongs to a person, you need an apostrophe after the person's name, followed by an s: Lee's coat was on the hook beside the door. Here the coat belongs to Lee so we add an apostrophe and then...

Comma Splicing

This week I'm going to be explaining what comma splicing is and how to solve it if you find it in your work. What is comma splicing? Comma splicing is when two independent clauses (points/ideas) are divided by a comma: Peter headed to the park, it was raining. Both parts of this 'sentence' are independent....

Point of View in Fiction

Today I want to talk about point of view in a short story or a novel. There are a few choices to make when it comes to how you want to tell your story: First Person First person is when you tell the story from the main character's point of view, as if you were...

Attention Fellow Poets

I am here to tell you about the proofreading service I can offer you to make sure your work is ready for publication. As a self published poet, I am fully aware of the importance of checking over your work to ensure it is free of errors such as spelling errors, typos or errors in...

Complement vs Compliment

These two words serve as both nouns and verbs and are easily mixed up so I'm here to clear up the confusion. Compliment (v): to say something nice about something or someone. Jack complimented Sophie on her outfit. Complement (v): to make something else seem better or attractive when combining with it. Tim's tie perfectly...

My Favourite Kind of Story Opening

How do you like to open your story? Personally, my favourite way of opening a story is with a line of dialogue. It is no coincidence that many of the short stories I write start with a line of dialogue. Opening a story this way draws the reader straight into the story and the characters....