People who read often get annoyed about errors in published material. Their ire made me retire my own. However, it also brought up—not annoyance, because I get paid to fix mistakes—a screaming head full of chronic errors. Here, I will list the most common 21 grammatical errors that drive readers nuts. Maybe, you’ll recognize a few and nod your head in agreement. Maybe, if you’re a writer, you even make a few yourself…
Behind the Plots
Being a writer is hard. Nobody denies that. It is one of the toughest, most unforgiving career paths one can choose, and at the end of the day, only the strong (and lucky) survive. But then, why do people still do it? This collection of creative, nonfiction essays written by a diverse range of published... Continue Reading →
Find Your Own Habits
In reading numerous works on the writing process and receiving advice from other writers based on their own personal writing habits, I have heard numerous renditions on what up-coming or potential writers must do to cross the threshold into actualized writers. These examples tend to take a dogmatic approach to the process. For example, an established writer will say one, absolute method exists in order to write, which usually just happens to be the method that particular writer uses. I disagree with this. Even if I find the advice helpful, I disagree with the necessity of strict adherence to any singular process.
Animal Adventures
Journey through the imagination of a child Writing Bad is proud to present this compilation of children’s stories written by children. Take a moment to delve into the fictional worlds of animals across the world. Whether you’re journeying with a serval from Africa or fighting the world’s one and only, Bubble Monster, you’re sure to... Continue Reading →
Shards of Survival
Man's Most Primal Instinct What happens when man comes face to face with death? An anthology of short stories all written about one thing: Survival. Travel along as men and women struggle to beat the odds in a race of survival. These stories are written to tantalize the mind, horrify the gut, and awaken the... Continue Reading →
Submission 101 for Writers: Dodging the Slush Pile
After pouring hours, months, and even years of hard work into a manuscript, few things are as crushing as the rejection a writer receives when they are striving to become published. Yet, the truth is, some manuscripts don't even get read before they're tossed into the slush pile. Sometimes the reasons are obvious, and other times, not so much. But writers may be surprised how often the reasons could have been prevented.
Here are some simple steps every writer can take to decrease the slush-pile odds.
Multicultural Writing: The Struggle of the Second Language
Around writing circles we always hear the same question about writing bilingual and multicultural characters: when and how do people slip from their mother tongue into their second language? As someone with Spanish as their first language and who is involved in a deeply multicultural border city in Mexico, I can assure you that the... Continue Reading →
Painting Your Story Through Showing
Writers always hear “Show don’t tell!” I remember as a newbie that phrase would be thrown at me, and I would frown at my screen every time.
Healers
Some bitch took a chunk out of Anderson’s throat, and we had to get the fuck out the village before we all ended up dead. Yeah, sure, you could blame the sickness. As if the boils and the puking aren’t bad enough, the fever makes you crazy. But, it wasn’t the sickness. It was her—the... Continue Reading →
Battling the Block
Writer’s block. Every writer has dealt with it at some point (Stephen King claims he hasn’t but I’m calling bull), and it can be a huge deterrent when it comes to expressing yourself and getting your stories out. I will touch on some of the main issues that cause writer’s block, but the focus of this article is to explain how to push past the block and to go over the strategies I’ve personally found to be beneficial to me.