Category: Magical Words

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words Feb 3, 2015

Erin Penn

Acquired from the internet hive mind

That/Which

Grammar geeks go crazy over certain things – too/to/two, that/which usage, your/you’re, there/their/they’re, the Oxford Comma. I think by now you know where I fall on the grammar geek spectrum. So now I am going to geek.

OMG, Melissa McArthur made the most incredible post about That and Which. “That? Which? Wha…?”

She, my hero, even gave a perfect summing up.

So here’s your easy to remember rule: If it can be taken out of the sentence, use which and a comma. If not, use that.

“That” restricts, “which” is non-restrictive.

Go forth and read the post in all of its amazing awesomesauceness here: http://www.magicalwords.net/really-i-mean-it/that-which-what/

Truly, if you ever had ANY questions about how “that” and “which” work, read this post. Be still my beating heart!

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words March 2, 2009

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Aleksa D at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What is going on in their head?

“What is going on in their head?” I ask myself looking at the decisions people make and the actions people take. A lot of my writing is trying to understand other people. Some of it is trying to understand myself. All of the “trying to understand” is poured into character development. While I love worldbuilding, character development – understanding people – is why I write.

David B. Coe holds up “The Imperfect Mirror” to himself for a glimpse to understand an aspect of why he writes. In his March 2009 blog post, he explores how the Point-of-View (POV) characters in his various series match his own personal age when he conceived and wrote the books. For him, character development is about exploring the questions of life and the interactions with others. Aging and life changes realign the questions most interesting to him.

What is going on in your head, below the surface, when you write characters?

To see the whole post (and comments) go here: http://www.magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/the-imperfect-mirror/

Writing Exercise: Action

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of marin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Action is center to many genres such as Urban Fantasy and Thrillers and an important aspect to many others like sword and sorcery fantasy and military science fiction. To write action well, like everything else about writing, takes practice. Tools in writing can help bring the action into a more visceral experience for the readers.

No need to explain blow-by-blow, unless the main character actually has time to think these things through. Usually even well trained, actually especially well-trained, individuals do not think so much as act.

One of my favorite scenes in the newly published Storm Forged is about someone taking martial art classes getting in his first fight after the lessons began but he is still at the intermediate stage where one is thinking instead of acting, and he is faced off against one of the student-teachers who got themselves drunk – who doesn’t need to think.

“Go home, Turk. You’re drunk.”

“It’s all your fault, your fault.”

“What is-”

Turk’s stance shifted just a bit. He slipped into Flashing Wings, his fist striking straight at me. I blocked and stepped back.

“Turk, stop now.”

Marcel stood off to the side, paralyzed.

“It’s your fault.” He charged in, Gathering of Snakes led to Glancing Lance to Reversing Circles to something I hadn’t learned yet and me slamming into the concrete wall. I felt something in my shoulder tear. Pain flared hot, a sudden fire through my head and shoulder.

Quick and to the point. Short sentences. Barely time to think. He would have been better off not thinking. This one scene impact two full chapters from its fallout. That is also important to action, not only does it need to snap, it needs to have a reason to exist, to move the plot forward.

A.J. Hartley goes into this deeper in Magical Words with “Writing Action Scenes”; the post can be found here: (remember to read the comments).

WRITING EXERCISE: Choose a genre you don’t normally write in and create an action scene. What part is the hardest – getting the location of the people right throughout the scene, getting the POV observations right, keeping the damage carrying throughout, making the reader feel the heart pound, etc?

READING EXERCISE: Break down an action scene from your present book – it doesn’t have to be a fight. How did the narrative change for the action sequence? Did the POV limit what knowledge was available about the scene? Do the results of the scene (win or lose) get carried forward in the book?

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words May 27, 2008

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of freebieshutterb at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dry Season

Tax season ended, recovery (mostly) completed. The feast of money and famine of time has ended; now I have time to edit and write, but no money. I have entered my dry season, financially. 

For the last four months I have been making mortgage, student loans, and all kinds of other payments, trying to get as far ahead on them as I can. Four months does not make a year’s worth of payments, even in the insanity of the tax industry. Hopefully editing will continue to grow and I can sell a couple things to anthologies. Even better would be finishing a book and getting a steady (if minor and only quarterly) income stream.

C.E. Murphy, an author who actually is making a living writing, gives a glimpse behind the curtain in the Magical Words post “Royalties“.

Biggest take away:

“By this time you’re thinking, “Yeah, but ALL THAT MONEY! ALL AT ONCE! I CAN GO NUTS!” and believe you me, that’s what a person starts to think when she gets a several-thousand-dollar-check deposited in the bank.

And then she thinks, “I have no freaking clue when I’m going to get paid again,” and all of a sudden that big lump of money doesn’t look tempting, it looks cruel.”

You can read the whole blog post here: http://www.magicalwords.net/really-i-mean-it/royalties/

THOUGHT EXERCISE: Imagine being a published writer and deciding to go full-time (quit the day job). What changes will you have to make in your budget? How would health insurance be covered? Mortgage, car, food. Travel required for writing like cons, plus family obligations like Christmas. Could you manage the windfall to be trickled out for six months of bills? What life changes would you need to make? How much do you love your day job? Comment below on what will be the hardest thing to adjust financial-spending-wise for you.

***

I am a very miserly person by nature. I buy used cars at the three-year mark when they have lost the big depreciation but have the most years left. I then keep them until around their tenth year, when the maintenance and reliability becomes an “expense”. Non-reliable means lost jobs, break-downs requiring towing, etc – huge expenses. My house is small – to save time cleaning, to save money heating and cooling, to have a mortgage less than renting. I know how to stretch funds over time and make advance payments. I keep an emergency fund.

Even with all these skills and life choices, the months outside of tax season always are stressful. When will the next editing check come in? Will the car inspection reveal a major expense? Will my health hold out until I am old enough to get medicare, since health insurance is not a viable financial option? Can I convince my sushi craving that ramen noodles count as Asian?

The hardest day-to-day is not being able to help friends as much as I want. The internal debates of the gas costs even for visiting cut deep. I’ve decided to walk this path, but I know the choice means I will never be “living large”. In the real-world at least, my head-space is nicely decorated.

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words May 26, 2014

Erin Penn 1 Comment

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Speechtags

Thank you James R. Tuck for finally nailing down why said-isms / speechtags are bad. The minute I read the words of your Magical Words blog post, I jumped in my seat. “THAT’S IT!” What I have been trying to define from the hazy feeling of vague wrongness.

Speechtags are a tell – you tell the reader who is speaking – instead of showing them. 

Speechtags break the show, don’t tell rule.

Epiphany.

Read the whole Magical Word entry here: SPEECHTAGS ARE OF THE DEVIL (he said).