Throughout my AuthorHouse Writing Master Class Course, I encourage my students to familiarize themselves with their own literary idiosyncrasies. We all stumble over particular words and have a mental block whenever we use them, causing us to continually misspell or misuse them. You can quickly improve your writing and editing once you are familiar with those words that seem to always trip you up and break the flow of your writing? Choose Your Words Carefully Using the wrong word is frustrating for your readers. The more it happens, the more likely they are to stop reading your story altogether. You don’t want your book to be a stuttering, staccato reading experience. Expand Your Vocab Keep a notebook when you are editing your work and jot down your recurring errors. If you want to eliminate those erroneous expressions altogether, arm yourself with knowledge. Learn about those words and expand your vocabulary so that you know exactly how to use them and you have assembled an arsenal of alternatives you can select from instead. The Heterograph Here are a few of the Homonyms, more specifically heterographs, that I usually introduce in my opening AuthorHouse Writing Master Class course on homonyms. 1.Affect Vs Effect Meanings: Affect: To do something, to act on. Effect: To bring about. Senses of the Word: Affect: Mental state, to influence, to pretend. Effect: The result of a cause, an impression, an item of personal property or possession, to accomplish. 2.Stationary Vs Stationery Meanings: Stationary: The condition of motionlessness. Stationery: The class of materials used for correspondence. Handy Hint: Remember to ask yourself where you AR-e going? If you’re going nowhere, you are station-AR-y 3.Precede Vs Proceed Meanings: Precede: Go before. Proceed: Go forward, advance. Handy Hint: A lawyer will cite a precedent as something that has happened in the past as a principle or protocol to be followed in the present. 4.Evoke Vs Invoke Meanings: Evoke: To call something forth. Invoke: To summon something or to present something in support of an appeal. Handy Hint: Herm-I-one Granger I-nvokes spells with Harry Potter. 5.Dual Vs Duel Meanings: Dual: Two of something. Duel: An arranged engagement in combat between two individuals Handy Hint: The root word of du-E-l is the Latin du-E-llem, which is a variation of b-E-llum, meaning war. 6.Adverse Vs Averse Meanings: Adverse: Antagonistic. Averse: Strongly disinclined or unfavourable to. Handy Hint: Your adversary is your opponent; someone you are competing against. You are therefore antagonizing them. 7.Flier Vs Flyer Meanings: Flier: A single piece of paper posted to advertise or inform. Flyer: Something that flies. Handy Hint: Pilots fly, you post a fl-I-er to help find your m-I-ssing cat. I hope you find this AuthorHouse Writing Master Class useful for your writing. I usually write these tips for the Authorhouse Bookends Newsletter and they can be found on the AuthorHouse Self-Publishing website.
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