Not Just Another Grouchy Grammarian

Book Review: Writing the Novel from Plot to Print to Pixel by Lawrence Block

Just for full disclosure: I was sent an advance reading copy of this book by Mr. Block. Further, I read the original when it came out years ago, and loved it then.

I still love it now. I probably should note that I am not by nature a novel writer, but Block’s views on writing are always interesting and engaging. And I have found his advice valuable, even as an essayist and a short story writer.

Block notes that, until now, he has not been interested in updating the original, because there was nothing substantial to add to it until now. He has become a great advocate of electronic publishing over the last few years, and has taken his own works online.

In order to maintain the book’s initial organization, Block has added his insights about electronic publishing to the various chapters they belong in, using a different typeface for them in the hardcopy version.

One of the best things about the book, however, is Mr. Block himself. He does not come across as preachy, or as laying down the law. He is clearly offering advice based on his experience of over 50 years.

I highly recommend Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print to Pixel, by Lawrence Block to anyone who wants to write, whether or not a novel is in their plans.

The Snark Mark

Ran across an interesting article on the Grammarly blog this morning, “Introducing the Snark Mark and Why You Should Use it,” by Stephanie Katz. In it, Ms. Katz propses using a period followed by a tilde (“.~”, created around 2007 by American typographer Choz Cunningham) at sentence end to indicate when one is being sarcastic online.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I can see where it would be useful, given the opportunities online for miscommunication due to lack of the cues we pick up in real life conversations. On the other hand, I’m not sure that it would catch on. For one thing, many folks these days seem to have enough trouble using one punctuation mark correctly. For another, a part of online communication seems to rely on shortening things to their bare minimum, especially on venues like Twitter. Adding a new punctuation mark – especially a two-stroke one – would take up valuable space.

Still, the article is food for thought, and I’d love to know what you all think.

Your Grammarian is Still in Edit Mode…

Mind, she has several columns on her brain at the moment, and looks forward to getting them onto the web as soon as she comes up for air.

Hopefully, that will be by the end of the week.

Until then, a Happy Easter, and a good Passover to those who observe them, and a peaceful week to everyone else.