Category: Style and Grace
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Common Attributes of Great Writing
By P.C. Zick – @PCZick Writing that moves us contain common traits that create pure magic for the reader. Here’s a few of the most common attributes that I teach in my writing workshop “Creating Magic.” Common Attributes of Great Writing The language is clear, concise, logical, and uses economy. Clarity of writing equals communication…
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Who Needs an Editor?
By P.C. Zick – @PCZick I only have one answer to the question of who needs an editor. Everyone who writes needs an editor. Recently, two beginning writers expressed something that quite astounded me. They both said they didn’t think it mattered if they knew the rules of writing because when they were accepted by…
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Originally posted on Hazy Shades of Me: I like punctuation…I love words. And, I take great pleasure pushing the limits in the ways that I use them. And although I have an aversion to puzzles, I enjoy writing immensely, undeterred by the fact that puzzling is exactly what I’m doing while assembling sentences. Now, I’ve…
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The Hands of My Mother
By P.C. Zick – @PCZick Note: My mother died in February of 1998. Several months later, I found myself mourning her death more than ever and decided I needed to do something to help me heal. I wrote an essay about the one thing that kept coming back to me while she lay dying. During…
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Important Message for Writers
By P.C. Zick – @PCZick I highly recommend all writers read this blog by Rachelle Gardner. She’s an agent with Books and Such Literary Agency and her blog is a great source for published and unpublished authors. Her advice is valuable for self-published and traditionally published authors. It’s also a resource for unpublished writers trying…
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Less is More – The Writing Oxymoron
“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.” —Stephen King, November 1973 By P.C. Zick – @PCZick A…
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Cross Creek Sojourn
By P.C. Zick – @PCZick Cross Creek was immortalized in the movie of the same name in 1983. The small village exists on the banks of Orange Lake in North Florida amid the hanging Spanish moss and spirits of those who once called the Creek their home. Two women whose photographs grace a hallway in…
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Writers Write – It’s as Simple as That
By P.C. Zick – @PCZick It’s a rainy April morning in Pittsburgh. If I was starting a novel that would be a boring first line, unless it was followed by this sentence: “The wet ground made it difficult to drag the body from the house to the woods without leaving tracks.” But this isn’t the…
P.C. ZICK 