Come On My Learning Journey, Writers!

I'll be blunt. When it comes to vocabulary, I'm quite the maven. Spelling - excellent. Dialogue, character development, voice - I'm definitely ON.



But when it comes to some of the other nuts and bolts that are the basic building blocks of a writer's craft, well, not always up to snuff am I.




Grammar and usage - I usually have it pretty close simply because it looks right and my obsessive love of reading means that I've been seeing all this stuff on the page for 5 decades. Ask me to diagram a sentence, explain past participles, parse past imperfect tense or wax intelligently about the hero's arc or theme and well, I'm lagging behind.



So I decided I'm going to bone up. Hone my skills. Learn all the rules and regulations so that I can break them judiciously and to best effect in my writing. Polish my techniques and investigate the points of craft on which I am weak, so as to guarantee my stories are strong.




I'm going to be diving into Strunk & White's world. Chicago Manual of Style - I'm am so THERE. Eats, Shoots & Leaves will be my constant companion. And I'm going to dig into all the creative writing texts and reference manuals I've acquired and I'm going to learn this stuff if it kills me!




And for the observer, my education will no doubt be an amusing bit of entertainment. Drop on by. Watch my gaffes, learn from my mistakes, and when I'm "ON", feel free to cheer. I love a good huzzah - but there will no doubt be the Bronx Cheers, too.





Welcome to The Writer's Toolbox. Where the tools of our craft will be all spiffed and shined up and put to good use.