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Candace Lynn Talmadge's avatar

Grammar you can learn. What's your story? Even nonfiction writers tell a story of sorts. Stephen King was a so-so writer when he published Christine. But he was and remains one hell of a storyteller. No one better. And, he kept writing and got much better at the craft.

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Jenna McCarthy's avatar

King’s On Writing is one of the greats… however I fervently disagree that the road to hell is paved with adverbs 🤣

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Candace Lynn Talmadge's avatar

Of course not. The road to boredom is paved with adverbs. The road to hell is paved with lousy diction. I cannot tell you how books I read today that mistake discreet for discrete, and vice versa, etc. I was a newsroom copy editor for more years than I care to admit to, and stumbling over diction bloopers these days just makes me want to whip out my pica pole and do some hard pounding on someone's skull. If you don't know what a pica pole is, you are probably too young to care much about proper word usage. The road to tyranny is paved with poor language comprehension. Double plus ungood and all that.

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Elsie E Connelly's avatar

🦧(-)_(-)

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Elsie E Connelly's avatar

Have no idea what it means

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Juju's avatar

🤣

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Ree T.'s avatar

My story…it’s a story about an incredible young girl who came to live with us from Haiti on a medical visa- that very quickly turned into can she stay with you forever? Our local hospital donated all her medical care for free and we provided a home, all her care and basically everything else for her. Her story is heart-warming and heartbreaking. There’s so much more but that’s the gist of it. Anyway, I wrote about 60 pages or so a while ago for a writing contest that I never submitted it to. I have tried Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird method but then I convince myself that I am just a mom, wife and nurse and it’s best to leave writing to writers. 😝

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Juju's avatar

That’s a story I would read. Publishers are supposed to have editors that help prepare the text for publication. But the telling of the story is where the real skill lies for the writer. What you wronged above was enough to make me reread it and want to know more

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Juju's avatar

Wrote!! Not wronged 😬 sorry autocorrupt

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Candace Lynn Talmadge's avatar

I hate autocorrect! Too often it puts errors into my text instead of taking them out.

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Jay Skywatcher's avatar

I won't use speech to text because I once spoke to a business associate lady and asked, " Are you going to the meeting at the Hilton in Golden on Friday night?", and it typed "Are you going to meet me at the Hilton on Friday night?" Thankfully I read it before I pushed send!

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Elsie E Connelly's avatar

I hate auto correct

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Ree T.'s avatar

Thank you so much! That is so encouraging. Maybe I will give it another try!

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Candace Lynn Talmadge's avatar

And I'm just an aging dumpling with spiritual pretensions, if you want to put it that way. Your story sounds moving and heartwarming and we can use a whole lot more of that in this world. Write it from your heart to your readers, and you will never go wrong.

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