When I need a lively phrase I am rescued by the Diction Fairy, who klonks me on the nape with a backscratcher and suggests something odd but memorable.
—James Joyce
We’re joking, of course, in representing this as a quotation …
For a story to have what we consider a proper ending, it is not enough for the “real-life” events to come to an end. Instead, some form of coherence has to be brought to the reader’s attention again. The most …
To see imagery as mere ornament in a story is like seeing a man’s head as just a pedestal for his bonnet.
—William Shakespeare
Hey, I said that.
—Francis Bacon
So when did men start wearing bonnets?
—Emmeline Pankhurst
…What
…Whatever one wishes to say, there is one noun only by which to express it, one verb only to give it life, one adjective only which will describe it. One must search until one has discovered them, this noun, this
Mr Salter’s side of the conversation was limited to expressions of assent. When Lord Copper was right he said, ‘Definitely, Lord Copper’; when he was wrong, ‘Up to a point.’
—Evelyn Waugh, Scoop
We were reminded of this rule—and you …
The first thing to consider is the difference between the diction of writers and civilians. Writers use one set of words, civilians another. Most of us use words from what linguists refer to as “basic level.” We say, “I’m going …
Before the Internet, we had to go to political rallies or beer parlors to collect half-truths and bizarre opinions, but now we simply thumb through collections of them on the Internet. One of these is the notion that writers should …
Our next example is related to the word-parsimony fallacy but even stupider. This is the notion that there are some parts of speech that writers should avoid, namely adjectives and adverbs. On the face of it, this doesn’t seem an …
…The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more often likely to be foolish than
