by Jamie Chavez | Sep 12, 2016 | Words & Language
The word amazing is still way, way overused these days. She’s an amazing mother. That movie was amazing. It’s amazing that you can get up and do that every day. That clothing store is amazing. (A clothing store? Really? These are examples ripped from your editor’s own...
by Jamie Chavez | Jul 23, 2016 | The Writing Craft
Here’s a great article from author Elizabeth Sims about internal dialogue. (In most cases I would call it inner monologue, but that’s neither here nor there; I’ve written about it before.) I particularly got a kick out of Sims’s pointing out pitfalls— Making a...
by Jamie Chavez | Jun 14, 2016 | Words & Language
Not long ago I posted a photograph of the Irishman and my (er, his? our?) cat on Facebook with this caption: Just now, in the man cave. And a friend of mine remarked that she wasn’t fond of the term man cave. It was just a little banter among friends, but I was...
by Jamie Chavez | Jan 28, 2016 | Authors & Other Writers
Somewhere around the early seventies, I was regaling a hugely motivated friend with some wild story pertaining to my recent life experience. She said, “You know what drives me crazy about you? You dissipate all this talent talking out stories over the kitchen table. I...
by Jamie Chavez | Dec 12, 2015 | Words & Language
I love slang but am less enamored of hyperbole, especially the kind that makes you sound like a thirteen-year-old (unless you’re writing fictional dialogue for young teens, in which instance go for it). In fact, I’m on record when it comes to the use of amazing, the...
