Katharine's Writer's Block

I find it difficult to think of March twenty-third as an ok day...for one thing it's my birthday! But even before me, plenty of significant matters occurred on this day too, like Patrick Henry claiming, “Give me liberty or give me death!” in 1775, shortly before the thirteen colonies’ war with Great Britain. Also, on this day in 1806, Lewis and Clark began their return to Missouri after their two-year exploration of the Louisiana Purchase and the Pacific Northwest. The first

How often do we play? I remember from my fundamental education classes a theory that promotes learning through play. The gist of it is that the learner drives their own learning experience and ultimately gains rich benefits in personal skills as well as academic knowledge. Montessori schools/education utilize elements of this approach. Play-based learning is easy to imagine and facilitate in young grade levels. The education experience becomes more formalized for older or adv

September 8th is World Ampersand Day! This post is all about this writing mark: &   The ampersand is an English symbol that represents the word “and”. Some may call it “the and symbol” but ampersand is its proper name. The symbol has actually been around a long time; at least as far back as the first century AD as a cursive  Roman figure. For a while, it was even recognized as the twenty-seventh letter of the English alphabet! Conversely, its holiday has only been around sinc

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

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

Happy New Year! At the start or end of a year, we often like to take stock of our goals, accomplishments, or other accruements during our previous trek around the sun. For me, my cat has no obvious fleas after I've diligently groomed and treated him throughout the year! I lost--and kept off--around fifteen pounds on a weight loss program I started in 2023! In March 2025, my Lessons & Advice blog will be two years old. This post will be the fifty-sixth to run as of this publi

Have you ever been told to watch your tone during a conversation? A combination of your voice, emotions, and attitude may have gotten...

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

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