2019 Index to Grace's Writing & Editing Posts

Sharks' teeth & mammoth bones from a creek c.25 mi. south of Venice, FL

Fossilized sharks' teeth can be anywhere from 10,000 years old to 5-7 millions years old, 

depending on what sediment they're found in.

The fossil hunters

Family fossil hunters, now on the hunt in So. Carolina

Hailey, on the left, enjoying the trip, if not the fossil-hunting!

Tooth-hunting in SC looking very much like hunting in Florida

Fossils, So. Carolina (not the entire haul). Note the penny for size.

For my foreign readers: the U. S. penny is c. 15.87mm (5/8 inch).

Birds - Folly Beach, SC

The photos above are courtesy of the Reale family. Taken over the last two weeks since school let out here in Florida - the results of a trip to the Peace River area, south of Venice, FL, and a family excursion to South Carolina.

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UPDATED INDEX TO GRACE'S WRITING & EDITING BLOGS

January 2011 - June 2019

Note: Topics with more than one post in the series are in Bold type.

WRITING

WRITING WORKSHOP (9 parts) - 12/6/14 - 6/28/15
[Ideas, Fresh Twists, Research, Title, Names, Opening & Hooks, Plot, Goals, Motivation, Conflict, Setting, Characters, Narration, Dialogue, Pacing, Point of View, Transitions, Mechanics, Self-editing, & Questions to ask yourself before declaring your work “finished.”]


Birth of a Book - 12/1/18 & 1/26 19
Formatting a Manuscript - 5/9/11
Nuts & Bolts, Part 1 (grammar, punctuation) - 5/16/11
Nuts & Bolts, Part 2 (punctuation, helpful books) - 6/16/11
Back to Basics - Punctuating Dialogue - 10/7/17 & 10/14/17
Tab conversion (from manual to auto) - 8/5/11
Using Italics - 2/15 & 2/22, 2014
Using Capitals - 4/12 & 4/19, 2014
Manuscript Format for the 21st Century - 5/6/12
Writing No-No’s - 5/28/12
Character Identification - 5/5/18
Creating a Hero - 7/21/18
Creating a Heroine - 7/28/18
Creating Secondary Characters - 9/8/18 & 9/22/18
Too Many Characters, Too Much Plot - 3/2/19
Point of View - 6/18/12, 12/9/17, 8/4/18, 8/25/28, 9/1/18 & 10/13/18
Dictionary for Writers (5 parts) - 2/4 - 4/7, 2013
Layering - 6/30/13
Layering, a Writing Technique - 7/16/16
Dangling Participles - 7/7/13
Misused Pronouns - 5/1/218
Show vs. Tell - 7/21 & 7/28, 2013; 2/16/19
Notes on Writing Dialogue - 2/10/18
Playing with Tags - 3/19/16
The Colon is Down but Not Out - 2/24/18
Writing Fragments - 3/10/18
Varying Sentence Structure - 3/24/18
Treacherous Words - 8/11/13
Examples of How Not to Write - 2/2/19
The Difference a Word Makes - 9/1/13
“Modern” Punctuation - 9/15/13
Questions to Ask Yourself - 10/13/13
Third Person vs. First (2 parts) - 5/31 & 6/8/14
Rules for Romance - 9/18/11 & 10/16, 2011
Rule-Breaking (3 parts) - 6/21 - 7/5/14
Don’t Be a “Rule” Slave (adverbs) - 5/6/17
Organizing the Out-of-the-Mist Author - 7/9/16
Out-of-the-Mist Oops - 8/9/17
Writing "Out of the Mist - Again" - 11/24/18
To Be or Not to Be (was & were) - 5/27/17
Attitudes Toward Point of View - 2/20/16
Point of View - 12/9/17
Synopsitis - 4/7/18
Mystery vs. Gothic - 10/22/16
When "Suspended Disbelief" Doesn't Work - 5/15/19
Telltale Signs of Amateur Writing - 10/1/16
How Not to Write a Book - 12/20/12
How Not to Write a Book - 4/4/15
How to Write a Bad Book - 3/12/17
A Rant & a Revamp - 6/23/28
Ranting on Subtleties - 5/4/19
What is Women’s Fiction? - 6/25/17 & 7/1/17
More on Women’s Fiction - 11/4/17
Shortcut Codes for Writers - 5/16/18

HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR CHARACTERS series:
What you need to discover about your characters - 10/15/2012
More questions about your characters - 10/29/12
The Rest of the Story - 11/5/12

Character Development (3 parts) - 11/7 & 12/5, 2015 & 2/6/16
Character Development - the Unexpected (2 parts) - 8/20 & 8/27, 2016
What’s in a Name? - 3/18/17
The Nitty Gritty of Names - 4/30/17


WORLD-BUILDING series (4 parts) - 12/28/13 - 2/1/14
   [a look at the problem of creating a whole new world]

WRITING A SERIES (5 parts) - 1/21/17 - 2/18/17. Why Write a Series? “Single Title,” “Cliff-Hangers,” “Mixed Approach” & Summary +
Update on Series - 12/30/17
The Problems of Wrapping Up a Series - 4/14/18

EDITING

EDIT THE BLASTED BOOK - 4/1/12, 4/28/12, 5/6/12, 5/28/12, 6/18/12, 8/5/12 & 8/19/12
Intro to Self-editing - 4/1/12
Should You Hire Help? - 4/28/12
Anatomy of an Edit - 8/5 & 8/19, 2012
I Ran Spell Check, I’m Done, Right? (self-editing) - 7/2/11
The Final Steps (self-editing) - 7/14/11
A Tale of Three Books - 9/24/16
The Difference a Word Makes - 10/15/16
More Thoughts on Final Edits - 11/5/16
Editing & Holiday Musing - 12/ 30/16
Editing Scold - 12/4/13
Misused Words (2 parts) - 10/4 & 10/25, 2014
More on Editing - 5/3/14
Editing Examples (4 parts) - 8/8, 8/23, 8/30 & 9/13, 2015
Editing Examples 2018 - 1/27/18
Editing Examples 2019 - 3/16/19 & 6/1/19
Copyediting Challenges (7 parts) - 8/29/15 - 10/31/15 + 4/3/16
The Tricks to Track Changes - 1/16/16
Track Changes Update - 9/15/18

SPECIAL TOPICS

Advice for Newbie Authors - 10/27/18
Advice - What's Next?- 11/10/18
Reminiscences of Controversies (3 parts) - 5/13 - 5/26, 2013
     [a look at writing controversies over the past 2 decades]
Guideposts for Critiquing - 1/28/11
Writing Mistakes, Near Misses & Just Plain Strange - 3/4/11
Shortcuts for Writers (ASCII codes) - 3/18/11
Branding - Bah, humbug [writing multi-genre] - 1/21/13
How Does Your Novel Grow? - 4/ 28/13
Word Perfect to Indie Pub - 11/27/13
Questions Fiction Writers Should Ask Themselves - 10/13/13
On Being a Writer - 8/22/15
Running Off at the Keyboard (rant) - 2/13/16
Why I Love E-books (2 parts) - 5/21 & 5/29, 2016
The Sound of Silence - 7/30/16
Transforming Truth Into Fiction - 9/4/16
What’s the Fascination with Fairy Tales? - 4/1/17
Cultural Confusion - 6/10/17
Twisted Times (the influence of today’s news) - 7/16/17
Random Thoughts - Making Changes to Published Works - 2/17/18
Why Writers Must Read! - 4/21/18 

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For a link to Blair's Facebook Author page, 
with a whimsical Prequel to the Blue Moon Rising series,
click here.

For a link to Blair's website, click here. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace