Katharine's Writer's Block

Avoid apostrophe catastrophes with these Lessons & Advice! In many relationships, possessions end up either under new ownership or co-ownership. A favorite hoodie belonging to my husband became mine after we got serious in dating. Good blankets we once had to ourselves are now under mutual claim. My car is his or our car (There are few vehicles between us now, actually). Of course, we share a bed (or at least try to!), a house, and some bills. But food leftovers are often any

One of my aims with Writing Lessons & Advice is to give you plenty of direction on what to do  in and with your writing. In this post, I’m aiming for a different approach by trying to discuss what not  to do. Here are twelve common writing errors (in no particular order) according to several highly-regarded writing sources. Error: incorrect or missing words   Incorrect word errors typically occur with easily confused words , be it with homophones, homonyms, homographs or more

Several years ago, I was big on Doctor Who ! (If you haven't noticed before, I’ve made nods to the show in other posts.) A college friend introduced me around the fiftieth anniversary. In turn, I introduced it to an ex-boyfriend and then my husband. So I’ve watched the nearly two-decade span of the “revival era” a few times over.  For those unfamiliar, Doctor Who  is a long-running British sci-fi/fantasy show centered on a human-looking alien who calls themself The Doctor, tr

Illustration from "Schoolhouse Rock" segment on verbs. Video clip in sources. The insights into living life are a dime a dozen: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” -Winston Churchill “There is no passion to be found by playing small--in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” -Nelson Mandela “Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.” -Emily Dickenson “The key to immortality is first livi

It seems like every day can be a holiday and every month is one for some kind of recognition, remembrance, or awareness. Many are established by various organizations or special interests, so keeping up can be hard if you’re not affiliated or in-the-know in some way.  Similar organizations and interests of literary culture have managed to get their values recognized with their own various holidays and months. This Lessons & Advice post gives a rundown on several special times

I recently learned the old show, Mythbusters , is one of my husband’s favorites. He was home more often over the summer for reasons I’ll keep private and discovered it's available on Amazon Prime. So streaming his old favorite show was one of the ways he liked to pass time and how we’d spend some nights together. For those unfamiliar, Mythbusters was a science-oriented program that ran on the Discovery Channel from 2003 to 2016. In each episode, hosts Adam Savage, Jamie Hynem

I was listening to a Grammar Girl podcast a while ago, and she discussed how different types of nouns exist. I had not thought about that...

Sauces, spices, and seasonings contribute to the flavor of a lot of prepared food. Sometimes they define the entrée, like teriyaki chicken, barbeque, or hot wings. Other times, the additives enhance or improve taste, like salt, pepper, or Old Bay on French fries or condiments on sandwiches. More still, a splash of them is like a finishing touch, like chocolate sauce on ice cream or cilantro in Mexican food. Thoughtful word choices are a spice in the recipe of writing for simi

Reading, spelling, and writing and Standard English go hand-in-hand. In the double-negatives lesson , I alluded to the idea of Standard...

This lesson will be running shortly before my second wedding anniversary!  In honor of another wonderful milestone, I’m again drawing inspiration directly from the love of my life, more particularly a language habit of mine that’s become a pet peeve of his: double-negatives. While English classes were not his favorite subject, one thing he retained from them was a rule discouraging their use. I’ve decided to refresh my own memory on the issue and here’s what I found. A double