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How “current” should our stories be?

Every time we turn around, there is some other big news story that seemed to be changing the global landscape... and driving a few writers into insanity (not that we weren't insane before).

In 2001, there was the terrorist attacks that took down the Twin Towers in New York City. In 2018, you had a trademark scandal that swept through the publishing industry. In 2020, you have COVID-19. You also had the #BlackLivesMatter movement. In 2021, you had the riots in Washington, D.C. In 2022, you have the Ukraine war that erupted into chaos. In 2023, ChatGPT came on the scene. And in 2025, Pope Francis died, and the US has their tariff war.

No one will dispute that those events are not relevant, because they are. BUT are they vital to be included in your story? How "current" does your story need to really be?

Let's face the truth here, folks. By the time you've fully drafted, edited, and have gone through the publishing cycle, you could be looking at years before those stories are seen by the world at large. At that point, the latest hot news topic will have changed.

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Passive Voice: Does it have a use?

It seems like every other day I come across something that is grumbling at me about passive voice. Sometimes, it's the ProWritingAid app, more often than not highlighting deliberate constructions carefully crafted for show. Other times, it's a beta reader attempting to confuse me with their commentary. And occasionally, it will be a discussion with writers about the differences between active and passive voice.

And every time I have a passive voice conversation, I end up scratching my head.

Why? Because some people are so against the use of passive voice that they go out of their way to make everything active. Yes, it is advisable to use active sentence constructions where possible, but sometimes, writing demands the use of passive voice to make it stronger.

I can hear all the naysayers now, ready to pounce. But do you really understand what passive voice is? You think you do, but it's time to shed a few myths and get down to the heart of the passive vs active voice argument.

Let's start with defining what passive voice is.

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An Era of Space in CrazyTown

I think everyone will agree with me that the year 2020 was a nightmare from the start. Everyone I know was begging for 2020 to be rebooted, and the world has become a CrazyTown.

This post was written on May 31, 2020, at least that was the date where I live, and I had just finished watching the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule. It might be hard to believe, but I'm sitting here crying as I type this, and I'm not sure if I can fully explain why, but I'm going to do my darndest to try.

As far as I'm concerned, that launch was the true start to 2020. Sure, by May, it's nearly half over, but it wasn't until that launch that I finally felt like hope was on the horizon. It wasn't until that launch that I could finally breathe deeply again.

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Past Present vs Past Simple: It’s all in the past, right?

I don't think anyone would be surprised to learn that I take part in a decent number of online forums for writers and editors. It's about connecting with other writers and editors, building my network. And I will admit that many of my interactions on social media feed the ideas for the posts on this blog.

Today's blog post is no different.

In a recent post in one of my forums, I came across a writer who had said that they had been taught that when using past perfect tense, it was best to transition to past simple quickly afterward.

I don't know about anyone else, but even now, I look at that and my head hurts. You don't want to know the thoughts go through my mind with such statements. (I actually made a note in one of my manuscripts to maim and torture the grammar police.) But this is not the first time that I've encountered a writer who insisted on using such terminology. (Why they would even bother… Well, there's a reason I made a note to maim and torture the grammar police.)

Yes, these literary terms have specific meanings, and many English teachers will insist that you get them right. So, let's get to it and define what the different versions of past tense verbs are.

Here's hoping that we don't totally get confused along the way.

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The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne: The idea is good, but the book is confusing.

A few months back, I was part of a discussion on Facebook about books that are specific to developmental editing. Being a developmental editor, I watched the thread like a hawk. I wanted to know what books are out there and what was high on the recommended lists. Many of the books discussed I already had, but there was one that came highly recommended by several on the thread.

The book in question: The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne.

So, I ordered a copy of the book myself. It took approximately 6 weeks to arrive (shipping to New Zealand is always a long, drawn out wait), and when it got here, I sat down and started reading. And instantly regretted buying the paper version of the book.

Don't get me wrong: the technique presented in the book is gold. The book itself…

The editor NEEDED an editor.

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