An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, noun phrase, clause, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering questions such as how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what extent?. Adverbs are evil. Adverbs should die. Adverbs are a rookie’s tool. Adverbs are linguistic Hitler. Okay, that last one might have gone too far. But you take my meaning, I hope. Adverbs are n

As a writer, I like to put my stories in places that will become sort of a third character. You don’t want stories that could take place in front of a white sheet that seems just as valid in Philadelphia, New York City, or Guam. WHERE you put your story is important. If you’re going to be specific, be really specific. Pick a place for a reason and write about it like you KNOW it. Especially if your characters are natives. Now, as a human being who wasn’t born dripping rich

Outrunning the dragon. The reason I keep writing in relative obscurity is because I can’t possibly stop. It’s anathema to my very being, my own self-image, that I NOT write. I knew the odds when I started, just as every young writer knows, and I believed I was different, just as every young writer does. In between panicking and thinking your work is shit, you are shit, and you have all the skill of a punch-drunk money hammering on a typewriter with the corpse of a dead chicke

This one is a little obvious, but I’m going to say it anyhow- writers WRITE. If you want to get your stuff out there, you need to write it down. You can’t do anything until you have product. No one is going to read your stuff if its sitting in a pile on your desk, a file on your computer, or worst of all, in your head. You need to get it on paper, or the screen, and get it the hell OUT THERE. You need motivation? Here’s motivation. Do it or don’t do it. I don’t care which. Di