Page 1

- WELCOME

Page 2
- INNER RESEARCH

Page 3
- WHAT'S ON YOUR DESK?
- WRITER MOVIE OF THE MONTH
- SAY WHAT?
- MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF WRITING 
- CURRENT CONTEST

Page 4
- MAKING A SCENE

Page 5
- JUST CURIOUS 
- LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS ABOUT ...

Page 6
- CLEANING UP PROSE
- SAMPLE OF EXCELLENCE

Page 7
- CHALKBOARD

Page 8
- QUIZ CORNER
- FUN SITE OF THE MONTH

 

 


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CLEANING UP PROSE

Interjections are itsy bitsy words that show a wide array of emotions, anything from pleasure to hesitancy. They're fairly common in speech, so it's only natural they would pop up in print. 

But use sparingly.

Too many of these can inject an annoying buzz in the brain that lasts for days.

 


 

EXAMPLE:
  
"Oh, please stay, Auntie! You'll sleep in my bed!"
   "That's generous of you."
   "Oh, you don't know what it means to me to have you here. Oh, it's been so lonely since Momma passed."
   "Are you all right, Kerry?"
   "Oh, I am now. Oh yes, now I am!"

CLEANED UP:
  
"Please stay, Auntie! You'll sleep in my bed!"
   "That's generous of you."
   "You don't know what it means to me to have you here. It's been so lonely since Momma passed."
   "Are you all right, Kerry?"
   "I am now. Oh yes, I am now."

EXAMPLE:
   "I was right, eh?"
   "I don't know."
   "Eh? He said so, eh?"
   "I heard him."
   "No arguing with him, eh?"
   "Guess so."
   "He knows best, eh?"
   "Yep."
   "Eh? Eh?"
   "Here, take it."  

CLEANED UP:
   
"I was right, eh?"
   "I don't know."
   "Eh? He said so."
   "I heard him."
   "No arguing with him."
   "Guess so."
   "He knows best."
   "Yep."
   "Eh?"
   "Here, take it."

 

EXAMPLE:
   "Your name Lee?" 
   "Uh, well ... yes sir."
   "You own that truck?"
   "Uh, well . . . yes sir, I got papers in the glove compartment."
   "Only one driving it today?"
   "Uh, well . . . I don't know how to answer that."
   "Simple yes or no will do."
   "Uh, well . . . all I can give you is a maybe." 

CLEANED UP:
  
"Your name Lee?" 
   "Uh, well ... yes sir."
   "You own that truck?"
   "Yes sir, I got papers in the glove compartment."
   "Only one driving it today?"
   "I don't know how to answer that."
   "Simple yes or no will do."
   "Uh, well . . . all I can give you is a maybe."    
   

 

Are you re-writing your manuscript for the umpteenth time? 

Reserve another pair of eyes. 

SAMPLE OF EXCELLENCE

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."

... Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I'm still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth.                                                                  

 - F. Scott Fitzgerald
    The Great Gatsby
 

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