Em dashes—why writers should use them more sparingly.

According to the Associated Press Stylebook—Slate's bible for all things punctuation- and grammar-related—there are two main prose uses—the abrupt change and the series within a phrase—for the em dash. The guide does not explicitly say that writers can use the dash in lieu of properly crafting sentences, or instead of a comma or a parenthetical or a colon—and yet in practical usage, we do. A lot—or so I have observed lately. America's finest prose—in blogs, magazines, newspapers, or novels—is littered with so many dashes among the dots it's as if the language is signaling distress in Morse code.[more ...] Continue reading at 'Slate'

[ Slate | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]

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Yes, There Have Always Been Great Women Crime Writers

Editor Sarah Weinman talks about her new Library of America anthology "Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense of the Novels of the 1940s and ‘50s." The post Yes, There Have Always Been Great Women Crime Writers appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mitchell: 'ethnicity should not define us as writers'

“I never call myself a black writer,” author Dreda Say Mitchell has said, as if you “stick black in front of the word writer...you’re defining very clearly what you write about.” Mitchell, a crime writer, was interviewed at Spread the Word and Words of Colour’s “Writing the Future” event on... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At Slice Literary Conference, Publishing Pros and Writers Share Best Practices

At the Slice Literary Writers Conference, a roster of NYC's top publishing professionals shared best practices on writing and community building. The post At Slice Literary Conference, Publishing Pros and Writers Share Best Practices appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-09-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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10 Tech Tools for Writers

Amy Stewart's tricks of the trade: Google Ngram Viewer, Evernote, Ancestry, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A manifesto for the digital writer

In his article, Those magnificent manifestos, The Bookseller editor Philip Jones reviews his call for the FutureBook audience to reflect on five years of digital "to challenge the customs we have begun to adopt." The response is so robust that I've extended our deadline for submissions of... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Leading writers hope to shift refugee debate with crowdfunded anthology

Monica Ali, William Boyd and Marina Lewycka among the authors recruited with aim of shifting public perspectivesMajor authors including Monica Ali, William Boyd and Marina Lewycka are lining up to contribute writing to a new crowdfunded anthology which aims to counter the anti-refugee rhetoric... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Richell prize for emerging writers: the full longlist

Guardian Australia and Hachette Australia announce the 21 writers in the running for inaugural $10,000 books prize, chosen from more than 900 entriesGuardian Australia is pleased to announced the 21 writers who have made the longlist of the inaugural Richell prize for emerging writers.In its... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scottish Book Trust launches young writers programme

Reading charity Scottish Book Trust today launched What’s Your Story?, a new programme to increase opportunities for young writers in Scotland. Funded by Time to Shine, Creative Scotland’s arts strategy for young people, the programme will connect young writers using writer groups, workshops,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Drastic action needed' to help Scottish writers

Author Janice Galloway has called on Creative Scotland to “to do something drastic” to stop the nation’s writers from struggling.   According to the Scotsman,  Galloway, author of The Trick is to Keep Breathing (Vintage Classics), has warned that most of Scotland’s writers are being left to... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Agent reactions 'depend on author gender', claims writer

US writer Catherine Nichols has revealed that she received eight times as many responses by sending out her manuscript to agents under a man’s name than when sending it out under her own name. In an essay for Jezebel, Nichols said she sent query letters to 50 agents under her own name,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Don't be a prima donna, Doris' … and other advice. UEA opens writers' letters

The University of East Anglia is publishing archived private correspondence from novelists such as Doris Lessing, JD Salinger and WG Sebald to inspire today’s students of creative writing“Don’t,” a young Doris Lessing is advised as she tries to find a publisher for her first novel, The Grass is... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-08-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Seeing stars: writers should not fear online reviews

Will social media and aggregated preferences sweep away book reviewing and literary culture? There’s nothing new about the death of literatureThe writer Caleb Crain is unhappy about “the intrusion of counting into the life of literature”. He believes that big data and predictive-taste algorithms... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-08-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ready for Your Close-up?  What YouTube Can Do for Writers

Teymour Shahabi found motivation to write by posting videos about self-publishing on YouTube , which gave him both an education and an audience. The post Ready for Your Close-up?  What YouTube Can Do for Writers appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Binders Full of Women Writers: can a secret Facebook group claim to be inclusive?

Can an online ‘safe space’ be both selective and preoccupied with inclusivity? That’s a question that Binders Full of Women Writers is trying to sort out after a member published an article about the Facebook groupThe first rule of Binders Full of Women Writers is: you do not talk about Binders... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The day I met EL Doctorow: from Persian translations to his view of a writer's duty

After celebrated novelist’s death last week, Saeed Kamali Dehghan remembers an interview with him on everything from books to Iran’s copyright infringementMost famous writers don’t have a clue that their work has been translated into Persian and that they are literary celebrities in Iran. When... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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America’s Next Slate Writer

Hello, Slate Plus members! I’m writing this on my first day as a Slate senior editor. (Readers of the Slate Book Review might know me from the essays I’ve been writing about children’s books.) I’ve joined the magazine to focus on Slate Plus content—everything from the Slate Academy podcasts... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2015-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher finds that writers' influences are mostly male

When Tramp Press asked authors submitting manuscripts to name the writers who inspire them, only 22% were female - pointing again to ‘the larger issue in the industry: our habitual dismissal of women’An Irish publisher has stoked the flames of the gender debate currently running in the literary... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fantasy Writer Greenwood Launching Publishing Group

Ed Greenwood, best known as the bearded creator of the Forgotten Realms universe for Dungeons and Dragons, is launching an unconventional publishing group of his own, called The Ed Greenwood Group (TEGG). Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Style writer Francesca Hornak to Pavilion Books

Portico, an imprint of Pavilion Books, has bought two books by Sunday Times Style writer Francesca Hornak. Commissioning editor Nicola Newman bought world rights in History of the World in 100 Modern Objects and Worry With Mother from Olivia Guest of Jonathan Clowes Ltd. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ales Kot, the writer taking comic books to mindbending new dimensions

He has only been in graphic storytelling for three years, but already the Czech-born writer has produced several influential series for the biggest publishers – and his latest is set to reinvent crime noirAt 28 years old, Ales Kot is at the forefront of a new generation of writers injecting... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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