Trivia: The Origin of “Turning the Tables”
There aren’t many expressions that have their origins in board games, but “to turn the tables” on someone—meaning to change someone’s fortunes—comes from exactly that source.
Share Your Best Writing Advice & Win a Book
Get a Grip on Your Grammar: 250 Writing and Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused is turning one year old this week! Time flies when you’re having fun and scribbling up a storm. To celebrate, I’m giving away three copies of Get a Grip to whoever shares the best answers to the following question:
What is the best writing tip you’ve ever received or that you wish you’d been told?
#GetAGripWritingTip Contest Rules:
- Keep your answers 3 sentences or fewer.
- Be funny. Be honest. Be sincere. Be however you’d like to be. But share your best wisdom.
- One entry per person (i.e., a single individual can only win one book.)
- All entrants will receive Kris’s “25 Fiction Writing Redundancies” AND “25 Business Writing Redundancies,” as well as access to Kris’s monthly writing tips newsletter.
- The best 3 pieces of advice, as chosen by Kris, will be announced by noon EST on April 25, 2018. The 3 winners will be notified via email and will each receive a copy of Get a Grip on Your Grammar.
Authors on Editing: Interview with Lee Savino
Some writers take years upon years for a single project, and some writers produce a library in just a few rotations around the sun. Lee Savino falls into the latter category. She released seven books in 2017 and expects to release about ten novels in 2018, not to mention a few novellas.
Successful writers like this amaze me, not just for their impressive output but in their editing processes as well. All writers know that editing is an essential piece of the publishing process, but when you’re publishing so frequently, efficiency is essential.
How does she do it? The following Authors on Editing interview was set up just so I could find out! More
Writing Tip 345: “Spatter” vs. “Splatter”
This artist spatters paint; Jackson Pollock had a tendency to splatter. Do you know the difference?
Before April showers bring May flowers, there are a lot of puddles around. If you’re inclined to splash around in your galoshes, you need to know the difference between “spatter” vs. “splatter.” Neither are misspellings. And there is a difference.
Take a moment with this one. Any guesses?
Here’s a hint: “Splatter” appears to actually be an old portmanteau, a squishing together of “splash” and “spatter” in the vein of frenemy, brunch, or nowadays. Its first known use was in 1785. More
Writing Tip 344: “Loaves” or “Loafs”
The last thing you want is to get burned by your language use, especially when talking to a baker.
Half of a loaf may be better than none, as the saying goes, but for those lucky enough to have more than one loaf, do you know how to pluralize this noun?
Spellcheck isn’t going to help you.
Neither are similar words that end in “s.” “Knife” becomes “knives,” and “dwarf” becomes “dwarfs” after all. (Oh, it’s true. And I hear you, ghost of Tolkien. Stop messing with people on this one!) More
Writing Tip 343: “Through the Wringer” or “Through the Ringer”
I hope this is the end of your ring/rung vs. wring/wrung confusion.
Let’s talk about “Ring” vs. “Wring” and “Rung” vs. “Wrung.” I think that’s the best place to start with this idiom that is misspelled so often.
I know spelling can sometimes put you “through the wringer” (or is it “through the ringer”?), but it’s time to pay attention and get this right.
If you’re wringing your hands because of an alarm bell ringing, I get it. I do. But there’s a difference that we need to understand. Your hands aren’t making any noise. Go ahead. Try it. I’ll wait. More
Authors on Editing: Interview with Cheryl Pallant
Years ago, someone told me that taking a writing class with Cheryl Pallant would be unlike any workshop I’ve ever taken, and whoever that person was—I wish I remembered!—he or she was absolutely right. Tapping into the creative energy of your body as it moves stimulates the writing mind in ways I hadn’t experienced before.
Ask me, and I’ll tell you a story about the astounding mind-body connection of that first class with Cheryl seven years ago. But in the meantime, I’m honored to showcase author, teacher, and creative guru Cheryl Pallant and to share her thoughts on her editing process.
Cheryl Pallant is the author of several books of poetry and nonfiction, most recently Ginseng Tango, Her Body Listening, and Writing and the Body in Motion: Awakening Voice through Somatic Practice. Her stories, poems, and essays have appeared in places like New York Quarterly, Confrontation, and Fence and in anthologies like An Introduction to the Prose Poem. She teaches at University of Richmond and offers her somatic workshop, “Writing From the Body,” at retreats and art centers across the U.S. and abroad. More
Writing Tip 342: “Raise” vs. “Raze”
So, what’s the plan? Raise it? Or raze it?
You could raise the roof, or you could raze the roof. Just know there’s a big difference between the two.
Word pairs that sound the same (homophones) aren’t often antonyms, but “Raise” vs. “Raze” is one of those rare pairings where correct spelling is essential. Imagine a city planner walking into a meeting of community members with a proposal to raise a building between two historic properties. Now, imagine that same planner wanting to raze a building. Both are logical uses of these words, but the reaction of the crowd might differ dramatically. More
Writing Tip 341: “Naval Gazing” vs. “Navel-Gazing”
If you’re doing lots of naval-gazing, maybe you’re missing a sailor or maybe you’re a spy. But I’m guessing it might just be a typo if you’re writing about excessive introspection.
“Navel-gazing,” meaning the contemplation of your own thoughts, concerns, and existence (often to a self-absorbed degree), was first used in 1959, but oh, the spelling confusion since then. More
Writing Tip 340: Do you “nash,” “knash,” or “gnash” your teeth?
This guy? A serious gnasher. Especially when it comes to spelling faux pas.
You’ve heard it said, but do you know how to spell it?
This is another case of the English language being funky and you over-thinking your knowledge of the the nick of time, knots, gnats, and other words with spellings that sound like they should simply begin with the letter “n.” More