gram·ma·ry /ˈɡramərē/
noun: A blog of thoughts, news, and everything insightful! #Hello1HP
Female protagonists such as Katniss Everdeen, Bella Swan, Nancy Drew, and Anastasia Steele, to name a few, have made a name for themselves in literature. Long gone are the days when only male protagonists are celebrated in the books that we find on our bookshelves. Heroines are no longer sidekicks or simple female versions of their male counterparts, but instead, they have their own backstory and developing characterization that set them apart. But who said heroines need only be badass and compassionate female protagonists? Sometimes, they can be dark, they can be cruel, and they can be bloodthirsty. Now, if we’re talking about writing ferocious and savage wo......
Flesh out and flush out are phrases useful in extracting more information out of anything or anyone. In daily conversation, they can be fun to use because they’re easier to pronounce and understand than their formal one-word counterparts (i.e., explain, expound, reveal, etc.). However, daily conversation is also where these two phrases are often used mistakenly in place of the other. Only one letter differentiates them, but stay tuned—this difference will be helpful later. Out is the common denominator of flesh out and flush out. And true enough, their meanings are similar in that they both imply outward movements. However, the first words in either phrase mean completely differen......
Patrick Canning, avid writer and coffee drinker, shared with us his very realistic writing process, his favorite Palahniuk advice, and his exciting new book, The Colonel and the Bee. Canning was born in Wisconsin and grew up in Illinois. He shared that writing was just something he wanted to try. Eventually, he got the hang of what he calls the alchemy of writing: turning coffee into words. His writing process is very loose, assembling ideas until they become large enough to be turned into a first draft. Then write said draft. Read, cry, rewrite, cry less, repeat. Since he started writing professionally, he has published two books. The first is an anthology called Five Fantastic......
Sometimes life forces us in situations where we have to be transparent with the messages we relay. Sometimes we have to be vague and hope that the person gets it. Both of these situations call for us to either be explicit or implicit. Do you know which is which? Explicit and implicit are adjectives that have similar endings. This can cause them to be confused for the other sometimes. Let’s break them down and find out what they actually mean. When something is explicit, it means that something stated is directly. Messages that are said explicitly are to be taken literally and at face value. Here are some easy examples: Professor told the class explicitly to not contact her via......
So you’ve created your blog and reeled in some interested readers, now what? Check out these helpful pointers to maintain your reader base and keep them interested in your content! Any seasoned blogger—or any online user, for that matter—would notice that the efficiency of the Internet keeps people either incredibly interested in something . . . or incredibly bored just as fast. Content creators in several social media platforms often come up with ways to keep their readers, viewers, and listeners hooked on to their blogs, video channels, portfolios, and so on. We’re here to offer some tips on how to not only help your reader base grow but a......
Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum. “Don’t let the bastards get you down.” In the world we live in today, this is valuable advice. In 2017, Hulu carved its position in the online streaming niche alongside established greats like Netflix and HBO by hopping on the original production bandwagon. The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name, was launched to great acclaim. It may not seem like it at first, but The Handmaid’s Tale actually classifies as postapocalyptic dystopian science fiction. The story is set after the Second American Civil War, which captured fertile women and wrangled America in......
There are times when we don’t really choose the path that we want to take; sometimes, it chooses us instead—as if there’s some invisible force that keeps pulling us, whether we want it or not. That, it seems, is how writing was for the best-selling American author Joe Hill. Joe Hill is the son of famous and celebrated novelists Stephen King and Tabitha King, a fact that he hid from everyone the moment he started to publish his works. Living with an entire family of writers, Hill could still have chosen any other career path, but it just can’t be denied that the talent for writing runs in the family. His siblings, Naomi King and Owen King, al......
Journalistic writing, more specifically news reporting, requires the use of precise and simple language in order to convey events to a large and diverse audience. Incidents are reported all the time on the news, especially accidents. But what exactly is the difference between an incident and an accident? On one hand, “incident” is a synonym of event. This can be good or bad, intentional or unintentional, big or small. As long as it happens, it could be called an incident. Meeting a friend on the first day of school is an incident. An “accident,” on the other hand, is a more specific type of incident. Accidents are events that happen uni......