The Modern Wordist Blog

  Today's post is in response to an increasing trend I've noticed in books-in-progress — a lack of what I call logistics. When you're in the flow of writing, or you're facing serious time management issues while writing because you're juggling so many other things in your life, logistics tend to vaporize into the ether. Logistics are the basic point A to point B actions that your characters take in a scene that help it flow logically. They're a critical part of the structure of scenes.   For instance, imagine that you’re reading a scene where two characters are having a conversation, and one of them hands the other a book. But the book materialized out of nowhere. There's no description of where it came from. Was the character keeping it in a bag or suitcase? (That wasn't described either?) Whoops. Small Details Are Sometimes Big Imagine that your character is in a queue waiting to buy an apple and cream cheese danish for breakfast. He’s distracted by a ...

It’s been another busy work week, for which I am grateful. If you are reading this, I hope you are doing well. I hope you are keeping calm and carrying on, and finding time to do things you enjoy. The goal of this week’s post is to (hopefully) remind you, even when you’re stalled, that writing is supposed to be fun 🤩   My editorial brain sees writing as a puzzle. Who doesn’t love a puzzle? This post offers you puzzle pieces for a future piece of writing, courtesy of — an online dictionary.   A Wordy Person’s Prompting Tool If you’re looking for a creative spark, here’s a helper you might not have considered: the top word lookups list you’ll find on the home page of m-w.com (the Merriam Webster dictionary online). As of this writing, the list refreshes every 25 seconds. If you’re a word person, the list is delightful. If you’re also a current events-focused person, the list provides minute-to-minute snapshots in time. If you’re also a people person, it’s fun and fascinating. ...

  When you’re really struggling with a piece of writing, it can show on the page in a number of ways. As a freelance editor with nearly 15 years of experience, I’ve observed all kinds of trip-ups that hold writers back.   One of the biggest issues that hinder effective writing is — believe it or not — forcing yourself to write. Forcing yourself to write can blunt the unique character that makes your writing yours. In this post, I’ll offer key considerations to make your writing stronger and more authentic with less effort. Don’t Think Your Writing into a Corner Many of us force ourselves to write, and (surprise!) we’re often disappointed with the results. Why we do this to ourselves is complicated, and human. Being a lifelong ponderer and observer, I’ve recognized over the course of my career that writers produce forced writing under the weight of certain lines of thought.   For example: When faced with a new and/or difficult project, we want to jump to the end. Even if w...

Many aspiring writers, with varying levels of writing experience, often imagine writing a book. Over the course of my editorial career, literally hundreds of people have reached out to me saying they want to write a book on their own — when they have zero experience.   Let me be clear on this — I don't want to discourage anyone from writing, ever.   But you should know that you don’t have to go big right away if you’re new to writing. Writing a book is genuinely time-consuming and headache-inducing, no matter what some marketers may tell you.   Deciding to write a book or novel when you’ve written nothing but required papers in your school and work life is like attempting pole vaulting with no training at all. If you want to write, a book doesn’t necessarily have to be the primary goal. Meaning well, we forget we humans have other options to develop our writing skills. Blog posts and social media posts are obvious choices. Journalists once loved Twitter for good reason. ...