Working Up

By Dwayne Phillips A source of story ideas is the words of other writers. Anything written by anyone will do. Just copy their words until your own start to flow. I’ve started writing short stories again. They are good writing practice, and what’s more, I like writing short stories. In 2008, I wrote a short […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Here is a technique to express a story (short story or full novel) in one sentence (or two). It is from Dwight V. Swain. I have been reviewing some of the books on writing that I have read in the past decade. Good books are like that – you can review them […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Success leads to different things. One disturbing trend is that it leads to suspicion. Google is a rather successful business. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google. Why is it that (2) often follows (1)? Google offers a free service to Internet users. Come to our site and search the Internet. I […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Writing students at George Mason University teach me how to cite Internet references using APA Style. I continue to work with students at George Mason University on their writing. And they continue to teach me. A recent student had questions about citing references from Internet sources according to the APA Style Guidelines […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Here are some items I see often when working with college engineering and science students – part 2. For the past couple of years, I have been working with engineering and science students at George Mason University on their writing. I found myself spending the vast majority of the time discussing a […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Here are some items I see often when working with college engineering and science students – part 1. For the past couple of years, I have been working with engineering and science students at George Mason University on their writing. I found myself spending the vast majority of the time discussing a […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Avoid asking an engineer or some other non-writer to write a complete first draft of a document. The result will be bad, but the non-writer will love it more than himself. There are few anguishes known to man as that experienced when a manager tells an engineer or some other professional who […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I like to write. I am rarely paid for writing, but that doesn’t stop me. There has been some chatter on the Internet recently about people churning out content for big web sites for zero pay. The post linked here is part of that chatter. Guess what? A lot of people write […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Here are some thoughts from the 1934 classic “Becoming a Writer” by Dorothea Brande. I recently read Ray Bradbury’s book on writing. In it, he referred to a book written by Dorothea Brande in 1934 titled “Becoming a Writer.” I bought a used copy ($5 with shipping) and finished reading it. Here […]

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by Dwayne Phillips After many years, I finally learn what a five-paragraph essay is. Every now and then I learn something that embarrasses me. It is something that I feel like I should have learned a long time ago. Such is the case with the title of this post. I was stumbling around the Internet […]

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