Articles

Melanie Spiller & Coloratura Consulting

A Tonic for Ramshackle Wordsmiths

Articles

Articles About Writing

General Advice

Copyright Melanie Spiller 2012. Do not copy without permission.

Preparing to Write

Grammar

Formatting

Word Choices

Voice

The Publishing Industry

Fiction Writing

Articles

Completely Off Topic

Basics

Critique Groups

Genre Writing

Special Problems in Writing

Copyright and Plagiarism

Editorial Pet Peeves, Part 1

Editorial Pet Peeves, Part 2

The First Horrible Sentence Awards

Losing Vision and Finding It Again

Reading Critically

Seven Simple Things

Term Papers Versus Writing for Publication

A Time and a Place To Write

Useful Resource Books

What Difference It Makes

The Writing Factory

Analyzing Good Writing, Part 1

Analyzing Good Writing, Part 2

Anatomy of a Paragraph

Lessons from Hemingway

From Magazine Articles to Book Chapters

Organizing Principles

A Plan to Write

Write What You Know

Writing First Paragraphs, Part 1

Writing First Paragraphs, Part 2

Writing Conclusions

Apostrophe Apostasy

Colons, Semicolons, and Em-dashes

Comma Comments, Part 1

Comma Comments, Part 2

Exclamation Points and Question Marks

Hyphen Hysteria

Interruptive Punctuation

Periodically Poised

Quotes and Quotation Marks

Adjective Agitation

An Article on Articles

Gerund Gymnastics

Home for an Adverb

Me, Myself, and I

Misused and Abused Adverbs

Participle Particulars, Part 1

Participle Particulars, Part 2

Preposition Proposition

Restrictive and Non-Restrictive Clauses

Roadmap to a Sentence

The Sentence Rules, Part 1

The Sentence Rules, Part 2

Subjunctive Renaissance

Verb Traffic Control

Who versus Whom

Headings and Titles

Tables, Numbered Lists, and Bullets

Table and Figure Captions

Bewildering Words

Expanding Your Vocabulary

Favorite Word Syndrome

Gender-Free Language

Gratuitous Latin

Persons Versus People and Bad Signs

Trivial Pursuits

Using a Thesaurus

Distilling Huge Issues

Good Intentions

History Lessons

Identifying Audience

Recognizing Good Writing

Choosing a Publisher, Part 1

Choosing a Publisher, Part 2

The Editorial Process

An Editor's Labor

Flavors of Editors

Getting Started as a Technical Writer

Presentation Slides and Handouts

When the Project is Right for You

Royalties and Advances

Writing Samples

Building Character, Part 1

Building Character, Part 2

Building Character, Part 3

Heading Toward the Final Words

Plot Versus Character, Part 1

Plot Versus Character, Part 2

When Characters Take Control

Writing Dialog, Part 1

Writing Dialog, Part 2

Writing Dialog, Part 3

Reading Critically

Writing Groups: Finding a Group

Writing Groups: Preparing for the Meeting

Writing Groups: What They Are

Advertising Copy

Personal Essays

Political Satire

Completely Off Topic

The Complexities of Like

The Five Ways of Learning

The Full-Page Dilemma

I Love a Good List

Leaving Things Out

Making Things Difficult (Simplifying)

Poking at Things

What is Your Purpose?

Why am I Writing This?

A Writing Conference

Punctuation