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Free self-publishing advice, publishing how to tutorials, writing and grammar tips plus practical blogging advice. One lives and learns.

rinting, hand binding and flogging his own novels and books of awful poetry. Today, with modern technology available to him, he continues to write, blog and electronically publish new novels, from time to time, but has realised that publishing awful poetry might not have been such a bright idea. https://www.whizbuzzbooks.com
https://dahaines.com
https://derekhaines.ch
https://twitter.com/Derek_Haines

19/12/2024

What your characters say in fiction drives your story, but you have two ways to do it. You can use dialogue or reported speech.

Active dialogue is the most common. “You never listen to me!” she shouted.

However, you can also use reported speech to summarize a character’s words quickly. She told him he had never listened to her.

Both ways are useful. However, deciding when to use either one needs careful consideration.

If you are new to writing fiction, you may not know that you can use active dialogue or reported speech to improve the pacing of your story.

27/11/2024

If you had asked me yesterday about this fixed expression, I would have said that when worse comes to worst is the correct form.

However, when I stumbled upon a text that used the phrase when worst comes to worst, I wondered if my assumption was correct.

The trouble with assumptions is that you can quite easily be tripped up, as I was on this point.

As it turns out, I wasn’t entirely wrong, but nor was I right about what I thought was the correct form of the expression.

The two expressions, worst comes to worst and worse comes to worst, are both correct. But the original expression was worst comes to worst.

19/11/2024

Fronting in writing and grammar is a simple but effective tool you can use to modify a sentence.

Put simply, it moves parts like an object, adverb, or complement to the very beginning of a sentence.

Instead of following the standard subject-verb-object structure, it moves the focus of a sentence to the most important part, which can create emphasis or add variety.

It doesn’t matter if you are writing an essay, a story, or even dialogue; it can give a sentence a bit of a boost.

When you learn to use fronting in writing, it gives you an extra tool to help you with added variety. Best of all, it's easy to use.

13/11/2024

When you need to describe pain in writing, relying on adjective phrases alone often isn’t enough.

Pain is complex because it is more than just a feeling. It’s a mixture of emotional and physical sensations that lie unseen below the surface.

That’s why metaphors can be useful to make pain more real for readers. They can help you turn the abstract into something readers can relate to.

With the right metaphor, you can transform pain from something distant into a reality.

Most writers find it challenging to describe pain in writing. The best way is to use metaphors that relate to a character and situation.

11/11/2024

One of the skills you need as a writer is to be able to change a sentence to add more variety to your writing.

When you find too many simple subject-verb-object sentences, you have to find alternatives.

Sentence transformation helps you avoid texts that readers might find a little bit boring because your sentence forms are too similar.

Hopefully, the examples in this article will help you find new ways to change the construction of any sentence.

Discover how easy it is to change a sentence to bring more life and variety to your writing. Look at the ten examples to help you.

08/11/2024

When someone says something was delivered in spades, they refer to an experience or service that exceeded expectations.

It’s a phrase that suggests generosity or excellence far beyond the normal.

But what are the origins of the expression?

And how does it compare to other ways of describing excess or plenty?

The phrase delivered in spades comes from card games, where spades are often considered the highest-ranking suit.

05/10/2024

Free rein and free reign not only sound the same but seem to have similar figurative meanings related to freedom.

Yes, the correct form of the phrase in writing is free rein, but there is more to the story.

You often see free reign used in the same sense, and for good reason. Not because it’s a mistake with a homophone but because it has a logical connection.

That’s why it’s an expression that needs careful consideration when you use it in your writing.

Is there a difference between free rein and free reign? It seems as though it's acceptable to use either expression now.

27/09/2024

Your manuscript is ready, or almost ready. But before you publish your book in a hurry, here are a handful of free tools to help give your book a better chance of success.

While self-publishing is easy, marketing, promoting, and selling a new book or ebook is much more challenging.

To stand a chance, what you do before your book goes on sale matters far more than what you do after publishing.

Read on to find out what you can do before publishing to give your book a head start.

You've got a lot to do before you publish your new book. Use these five free tools to help you get your book ready for publishing.

26/09/2024

You might use this phrase only occasionally, but it’s easy to get it wrong in writing. One fell swoop is the correct form of the expression.

When you hear people using the phrase to say that something happened suddenly, it usually sounds like one foul or fowl swoop.

It’s rare to hear people pronounce it correctly.

However, in writing, it can be a trap to rely on pronunciation.

Fixed expressions are easy to get wrong. Here we look at one foul swoop and one fell swoop, which is the correct form of the expression.

25/09/2024

Writing and publishing content on different platforms and sites is a great idea, but do you interlink your articles?

You might have a blog but also publish articles on LinkedIn, SubStack, Medium, or guest posts on other websites.

However, you are missing a huge opportunity if you are not adding links between all these articles.

Sure, you probably include a link back to your blog homepage, but that is not as effective as topic interlinking.

Learning how to interlink your articles effectively is a crucial factor in helping you find new readers for your articles.

24/09/2024

Dead words is a catch-all expression to describe words and phrases that are unnecessary, weak, or overused in writing.

Every word has its place. But in writing, the words you choose should be in the right place and for the right reason.

At the top of the list are hackneyed phrases such as, due to the fact, quite frankly, that being said, and at the end of the day.

As for weak words, just, very, and really are always candidates to be zapped from a text.

Keep your eyes open for dead words and phrases in your writing. Here are 100 examples you can use to check if you are using weak words.

14/09/2024

When a magician performs magic tricks, especially with cards, are the illusions a sleight of hand or a slight of hand?

You could ask the same question about the skills of a nimble-fingered pickpocket.

The correct form of the expression is sleight and not slight. However, if you were writing 200 years ago, slight was correct. I’ll have more on this tidbit later in this article.

But because sleight is such a rare word to use, it’s understandable that there is sometimes confusion with this expression.

Slight or sleight of hand is an example of an expression changing over the years. Sleight is correct now, but originally, it was slight.

12/09/2024

You’ve probably read hundreds of advice articles about grammar and writing rules. Hopefully, a few might have even been ones I wrote.

While knowing the rules is always good, that doesn’t mean they are set in concrete.

General rules are a good guide for correct grammar usage and effective writing. But they are not laws, so you won’t be punished for breaking some of them.

Bending, tweaking, and breaking the rules is, in fact, a sign of a skilled writer.

Grammar and writing rules are always worth knowing. However, breaking or bending some of the rules is often a sign of a skilled writer.

11/09/2024

When you are preparing to self-publish a new book, one important element to include is a disclaimer in your front matter.

You’ve probably got a lot of other things on your mind as you get ready to publish.

However, a disclaimer is a vital precaution that will offer you some degree of legal protection.

You should include one for fiction and nonfiction titles, especially for memoirs. In a few sentences, you can make sure that your readers understand what is fact or fiction in your book.

Including a disclaimer in a book is always a good idea because it gives you some legal protection for the content of your book.

10/09/2024

Self-publishing doesn’t pose too many legal issues. However, if you are a new author, there are a few legal aspects of self-publishing that you need to consider.

You should know how to protect your work, fulfill your tax obligations, and beware of contracts and agreements.

You don’t need to be a legal expert. However, being aware of the basics before you publish will protect your work and help you avoid potential issues.

Once you understand the basics of copyright, contracts, and tax obligations, you’ll have all the essential information you need.

If you are a new author, you should check the legal aspects of self-publishing before you publish your first book. Better safe than sorry.

09/09/2024

The quick answer is that straight-laced and strait-laced are now both generally accepted as correct.

However, if you are a language purist, most dictionaries and style guides agree that strait-laced is the original and correct form.

The meaning of both forms is the same: that someone is strict in manners, morals, or opinions or has old-fashioned and unchanging ethical values.

It’s not an expression you would likely use very often, but it’s interesting all the same.

Straight-laced and strait-laced are both correct forms of this expression. However, strait-laced is the original, and most correct form.

08/09/2024

Grammar is one of my pet topics, and I never stop learning about it. But every now and then, I come across some weird grammar terms that make me scratch my head.

Not so much because they are strange structures but because the terms to describe them are so difficult to remember, let alone pronounce sometimes.

You might not recognize or know some of these terms. However, when you see some examples, I’m sure you’ll know what they are describing.

Many of them are about the clever use of words or word order, which is a great reason to try to remember a few of them.

Literature and writing certainly have some weird grammar terms that are nealy impossible to remember. But what they do is the important part.

07/09/2024

Like it or not, we live in a writing world now where artificial intelligence (AI) is almost everywhere. That’s why using a few free AI tools, or tools to use with AI is useful and practical.

I’m certainly not advocating publishing AI-generated text. However, nothing stands still, and that goes for writing too.

So many aspects of the writing process are now touched by AI or at least some form of automation.

The best way to adapt to this fact is to use technology to help you write, not to write for you.

Writers are lucky to have so many free AI tools available now. They are not about writing for you, but about helping you write better.

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Just Publishing Advice is maintained by Derek Haines, an old English teacher, author and habitual blogger, who has a long held interest in self-publishing, as a means of freedom of expression rather than as an avenue to instant riches and fame. Last century, well before the term self-publishing and the advent of e-books and print on demand paperbacks, and well before even Amazon was born, he was printing, hand binding and flogging his own novels and books of awful poetry. Today, with modern technology available to him, he continues to write, blog and electronically publish new novels, from time to time, but has realised that publishing awful poetry might not have been such a bright idea. One lives and learns. https://www.whizbuzzbooks.com https://dahaines.com https://derekhaines.ch https://twitter.com/Derek_Haines