LINKS

Writing "store" - space for rent for writers.

LOCAL LINKS FOR SEQUIM, WA:

http://writesequim.blogspot.com/

http://mamabearbabybear.com/

http://sparksflybooks.com

http://drruthmarcus.com
 

POETRY LINKS

http://www.poemhunter.com/
Find poems by author, title, text.

http://www.poemhunter.com

http://www.writingforward.com/poetry/five-poetry-prompts-a-writing-exercise

Poetry Course, University of Wisconsin: http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/online/writing/poetry.htm 

free mp3 poetry Poets' Coop Audio Files of poetry

Poets & Writers, Inc. http://www.pw.org/ 

http://poetry.about.com/ - Reference at About.com

Publishers and Poetry Catalogs: http://poetry.about.com/od/poetrypublishers/Publishers_Online_Poetry_Catalogs.htm

WRITING LINKS

Class: Article writing: http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/online/writing/feature.htm

http://www.opentopia.com/artlist.php?source=go&catid=64
Articles on writing. Hundreds.

HOW TO:

Comma use:
(1) Never put a comma between a subject and a verb. It's always
wrong. The dog, barked. What is that? Idiocy. Read it aloud,
and pause at the comma. Don't you feel stupid?

(2) If you want to separate a clause, put a comma on both sides
of it. Otherwise, no commas at all. "The dog, who held a bone
in his mouth, ran to the porch." See how there's a comma on
both sides? That's because you could skip that whole clause
entirely and it'd still be a complete sentence. "The dog ran to
the porch."

If I delete the first comma, I have to delete the second one.
You decide which looks best, two commas or none. But, one comma
doesn't work. Try deleting either one and reading the result
aloud, remembering to pause at the comma. It's a wreck, isn't
it? You don't talk like that, so don't write like that.

(3) "He saw the cat, the cat was on the couch." This is not a
good sentence. It's two sentences. The one before the comma has
subject/verb/object, and so does the one after the comma.

Run-ons like that can emphasize the run-on nature of a
character's words or thoughts, but use the device sparingly.
It's okay to break a rule, as long as you know what it is and
why you're breaking it.

But in the example above, it'd be best to make them two
sentences. If you find you just can't do it, consider a
semicolon. Don't believe anyone who says semicolons aren't
allowed in fiction. I wouldn't use one in the sample sentence,
but I've used them in other sentences I've written. Sparingly.

But for something as lame as a sentence about a cat on a couch,
it's best to follow the rules exactly and make that two sentences.
Do you really think your reader's gonna pop off for a beer or a
toilet break between them and lose his place? As long as they're
in the same paragraph, they'll be read together.

(4) And finally, THE rule. It works for narrative and it works
for dialogue. Read what you've written aloud. Wherever you
would pause for breath, whack in a comma. Because, you have
internalized the rules. You've been speaking English all your
life. But as an aspiring writer, you've been so busy trying to
learn "the rules" that you've forgotten the rule you've known
all along. And you DO know it.

If you'd like, you can look over some sentences in the
preceding paragraphs. You'll note some commas where they're not
strictly necessary. Often, it's where I begin a sentence with a
conjunction, also an alleged no-no. But that device can be used
sparingly to emphasize a point. And when I do that, sometimes I
whip in a comma for extra emphasis. A comma is a pause. That's
what you should note if you indulge in this exercise. I'm
pausing for emphasis. Read my sentences aloud. Pause at every
comma. The rhythm works. It's how I talk, and you won't be all
freaked out and confused as you listen because I paused in
funny places.

Speaking as an editor, I run into a lot of writers who have
problems with commas. Heck, speaking as someone who likes to
read books and newspapers and magazines, I see commas where
they shouldn't be, or missing commas where they should be. It's
because we're trying to be too fancy, drifting dangerously far
from the "write what you know" mantra because we think we're
stupid.

We're not stupid. As Sean Connery noted in FINDING FORRESTER,
critics spend a day destroying what they couldn't create in a
lifetime. That's also what I think of people who want us to
memorize dozens of silly rules about commas. They're pauses.
Nothing more, nothing less. Pause where you want to pause, not
where you think someone else thinks you're supposed to pause.

Lemme remind you what writing is. Telepathy. I'm in China and
you probably aren't, and you're reading this many months after
I wrote it, but you know what I'm thinking. Stray commas would
be a barrier to that. Good writers don't like barriers.

Just remember that a comma is a pause, and pause wherever you
think you should. Blow off the rules -- there are too many and
they just keep changing -- and trust your gut. If you do that,
I think you'll find that when you seek out publication, and
find yourself working with an editor, you'll hear very little
about your commas.


About the Author

Michael LaRocca's website at http://www.chinarice.org  was
chosen by WRITER'S DIGEST as one of The 101 Best Websites
For Writers in 2001 and 2002. His response was to throw it
out and start over again because he's insane. He teaches
English at a university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province,
China, and publishes the free weekly newsletter WHO MOVED
MY RICE?

WRITING RELATED LINKS - reference, etc.

Bruce Dobler's Creative Nonfiction Compendium http://www.pitt.edu/~bdobler/readingnf.html 

CREATIVE NONFICTION : LEE GUTKIND : Editor and Founder o... http://creativenonfiction.org/thejournal/gutkind.htm 

The Essentials of Micro-Fiction : by Camille Renshaw
http://www.pifmagazine.com/SID/313 

Creative Writing Process http://www.nzcal.com/hp/adk/index.php 

Writing Tips, Tutorials: Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays... http://www.knowledgehound.com/topics/writing.htm 

Writing Tips http://www.homepages.dsu.edu/jankej/Writing/tips.htm

NewPages: Alternatives in Print & Media http://www.newpages.com/ 

Blackbird Submission http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v4n2/submissions.htm

Writing Speculative Fiction, by Mary Soon Lee http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mslee/wr.html#cover

National Writing Project http://www.writingproject.org/cs/nwpp/print/nwpr/1949 

P&E:  Sample Cover Letter http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubcover.htm

Making Light: Bad advice on cover letters http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005212.html

Article Search Engine: GoArticles.com
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=24236

Writer's Block, Essay, Cover Letter Writing Blues - Summer 1999 http://www.writersblock.ca/summer1999/essay.htm 

Writer's Block - Writing Tips - Placement of Punctuation and Q. http://www.writersblock.ca/tips/monthtip/tipmay96.htm 

Writer's Block - Index http://www.writersblock.ca/common/index.htm#s 

One Story http://one-story.com/

Wilbers: Error Checklist http://www.wilbers.com/ErrorChecklist.htm

Grammar Quiz http://www.wbdi.com/grammar.htm  As a full service c...

The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/  An easy-to-use, a...

Computer Hopes Computer Dictionary http://www.computerhope.com/jargon.htm  Listing of over 6,0...

The Chicago Manual of Style - Tools http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools.html

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation http://www.grammarbook.com/  English grammar

FunBrain.com Grammar Gorillas http://www.funbrain.com/

Writers Online Workshops registration http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/schedule.asp  Register for writin...

Nonfiction Writing | Creative Writing Classes in NYC and Onlin.
http://www.writingclasses.com/CourseDescriptionPages/GenrePages.php/ ... Nonfiction writing

Misspellings_TSLL -- v. 22, no. 3 -- March 1997 -- OBS Local S. http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/tsll/22-03/obs-locl.htm
Spelling Te Nonfiction Writing

Citation Guidelines, bibliography, footnotes, endnotes, citing http://www.writecontent.com/Writing_Tools/Citation_Guidelines/citation_guidelines.html

Grammar, Usage, and Style > Citation in the Yahoo! Directory.
http://dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Linguistics_and_Human_Languages/Languages/Specific_Languages/English/Grammar__Usage__and_Style/Citation

Chicago Manual of Style - Q&A http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/cmosfaq.html

Abbreviations and Acronyms of the U.S. Government http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/subjectareas/gov/docs_abbrev.html  Lists over 500 fed...

Time zone abbreviations http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/  Information about ...

Acronyms and Abbreviations in the Yahoo! Directory http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Acronyms_and_Abbreviations/  Decipher acronym...

Tell me, please, if you find a broken link.

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New York's Paragraph (above) < http://www.paragraphny.com/  > and The Village Quill are among talent magnets around the world: members-only centers catering to writers who need a space to be away from it all and get some work done. Paragraph ("providing an affordable and tranquil working environment for writers of all genres") occupies a 2,500 square foot loft space near Union Square, divided into a writing room and a lounge area. The writing room (open 24/7) has WiFi, partitioned desks, while the lounge area contains a kitchenette, a large round table and smaller café tables. The same set up can be found at the Village Quill, whose 1,700 square foot loft in Tribeca boasts 20 shared workstations and a lounge area. [Pictured: work spaces at Paragraph in New York. Two women own and operate this business. Anyone involved with a community school, adult ed., etc., might want to partner with them to sponsor a working writer's environment. - tp]

Writing Courses at Delaware Tech are cheaper than others.  Check it out: http://www.ed2go.com/cgi-bin/oic3/newcourses.cgi?name=dtccowens - Thanks to a posting at SPOTLIGHTGAMES, above.

Breaking in to Print: http://www.breakintoprint.com/T0999/index_03.htm Example of an aptitude test from the site:

Forms of Writing link

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