WRITING TIPS:

Be careful what you quote! If a work, such as a poem or a song is Copyright Protected, it may not be used in your writing without permission. The Catalog of Copyright Entries is a list of all works registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright litigation and liability can be expensive. You should assume that every work is protected by copyright unless you can establish that it is not. Better safe than sorry.

  • If a work is not copyrighted, it is considered in the Public Domain and may be quoted.

  • All works (excepting sound recordings) first published or released in the United States before January 1, 1930, have lost their copyright protection 95 years later, effective January 1, 2025. In the same manner, works published in 1930 will enter the public domain as of January 1, 2026, and this cycle will repeat until works published in 1977 enter the public domain on January 1, 2073. Works of corporate authorship will continue to adhere to the 95-year term following the 2073 date.

  • If the work was created, but not published, before 1978, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.

  • Virtually all sound recordings, regardless of age, are presumed to remain under copyright protection in the United States.

How to make an APOSTROPHE that faces the correct way as a substitute for the first letter or letters at the beginning of a word : Type an opening single quote (‘), hit it again for closing quote (‘’), type word, delete opening quote (’). Ex: all ’round, ’cause

Apple Read –(for Mac users) - When we read our own writing out loud, we sometimes read what we remember, instead of what we actually see. After reading it yourself, it’s helpful to listen to someone else reading so you can focus on hearing what needs to be corrected. Apple Read is convenient for this. To have your Mac read the story:

  • Choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Accessibility

  • Turn on “Speak selection ” button

  • Select a system voice (Samantha, Siri, Fred, Alex, Ralph, etc.)

  • Select speaking rate (slow, normal, fast) and volume

  • To have your Mac start speaking, highlight your text and press Option+Esc.

7 Key Elements To Include In Your First Chapter :

CASTS– a writing and editing method developed by mystery author Nancy Pickard.

Every chapter should contain the following:

  • Conflict

  • Action

  • Sensory (smell, taste, touch, sound, sight)

  • Turn (emotion should change by end of chapter)

  • Surprise

Author Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules for Writing

1.Never open a book with weather.

2. Avoid prologues.

3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…he admonished gravely.

5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose,”

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places or things.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.