Punctuation saves lives

The Power of Punctuation

The Rich Part of Your Writing

"When you're writing, you have to get really close to your subject and see the weird and unexpected 'colors' there.  Even a character who's supposed to be incredibly sexy should have flaws.  Even a tragic scene should have those weird moments of humor or joy.  Those little details are the rich part of your writing, and the only thing language should be doing is translating what you 'see' as cleanly as possible to readers."

the right word

Explore and Face Experience Head On

"What I find to be very bad advice is the snappy little sentence 'Write what you know,' ...It is the most tiresome and stupid advice that could possibly be given.  If we write simply about what we know, we never grow.  We don't develop any facility for languages, or an interest in others, or a desire to travel and explore and face experience head on.  We just coil tighter and tighter into our boring little selves.  What one should write about is what interests one."

defy those rules

"Learn every grammar rule there is so that you can make an informed decision about when to defy those rules.  (I never once heard it said of a good writer, 'Oh, so-and-so is such a great grammarian.')"