FaithWriters.com-Christian Writers Forum

Yay! This looks like so much fun. I'm a little nervous to do the homework, though. It's a bit of a stretch for me. Believe it or not, I didn't even know about stressed and unstressed syllables until I read your lesson! I wrote some free-verse poetry as a teen and then stopped writing poetry until ab...

I love your advice for adverb and adjective use. It's so sensible! You have a gift for making the light bulb come on in my brain, Jan!

I have some questions about em dashes. I didn't even know what an em dash was until I joined FW last year, and now I love them. But I'm not sure if I really understand how to use them. My understanding is that they are used like parentheses but that they have the opposite effect—they emphasize the w...

Commas have been the hardest thing for me to grasp when it comes to grammar. I was happy to see that I knew where all of the commas should go in your examples, but I did need to think about some of them, so it's not natural yet. Was the second comma in my last sentence right? I know that I need to u...

Congratulations guys!!! This must be so exciting!

Yay!!! I can't wait to get a copy of Theresa's book!

Exclamation points are the hot topic! ;) I overuse them in my forum posts and in emails. It's kind of true to my personality, though; I'm fairly exuberant in conversation. I try to limit myself and often take them out only to add them in again. When I first started writing, my stories were full of e...

Number four made me happy.
I've seen sentence fragments used effectively, but was too afraid to use them in my own writing. I needed a teacher's permission! And I thought I was a rebel.

Thank you, Jan! This is one of my favourite lessons too.

This is such an important lesson! I started writing a blog a few years ago, and that's when I realized that I really didn't know how to punctuate dialogue. I spent some time researching it, and I feel like I understand the rules now. A good reminder is always beneficial, though! Before I get to my h...

I believe an in-depth critique can be one of the most valuable gifts that we are blessed with as writers. How we receive these critiques may be the factor that determines whether or not we grow. At first it was hard to not take the critiques personally, but I decided to be grateful for every single ...

Very helpful information! I don't usually think about paragraph placement, and it's good to be reminded of the "rules."

Thank you for the examples, Jan! I don't know why I've had a hard time wrapping my head around this before, but your examples help me to see how a stronger verb can really "make" the sentence.

Jan, I couldn't find a lesson on limiting "to be" verbs. Is there one? Is this the same thing as passive sentences?

I'm sold on sending my work to a professional editor, but I love the list for self-editing too. All these tips help me to be a better writer. :) I go over my pieces several times and then I always read them out loud to my husband. It's great for finding typos, repetition, and clumsy sentences. I lov...

Though I don't have experience with queries, I've found a few resources that look good: The Steve Laube Agency (at: http://stevelaube.com/) At this website, you can find many great blog articles about writing queries and a great many other writing subjects. I signed up for their daily emails which ...