Ficlets

I write for a multitude of fandoms but largely marvel right now. I suck at writing happy things. I'm sorry.

[writingficlets]

I am on a lot of cold medication, can’t see straight and my nose feels like it wants to fall off and you want to know what idea I’m obsessed with right now?

Teen Wolf inspired by Buzzfeed Unsolved.

Stiles and Scott are bffs, Stiles believes… and Scott does not.

Stiles talks Scott into sneaking into the woods late at night with him after hearing about a ghost story. Stiles is positive they are going to see the ghost girl, capture it on film and prove to Scott the supernatural is real. Scott agrees because he’s a giant troll and enjoys both riling Stiles up and proving that the supernatural isn’t real.

While in the woods, filming and bantering they hear creepy sounds, get spooked and run, convinced they are being chased by something. Scott got bit even “Stiles, it was probably a branch or something.” “Scott, those ARE TEETH MARKS!!!!”

The next morning the wound is miraculously fine. Scott 🤷‍♀️ Stiles 🤔🧐

Stiles is convinced this is supernatural related and goes out of his way to prove it. Meanwhile whenever Scott’s eyes flash, he goes into werewolf mode, or he gets fangy he just tells Stiles “It’s just puberty Stiles!” 🤷‍♀️

Stiles will not stand for this. Just puberty, his fine ass. 🙄

“Scott, your eyes just turned golden!” “Stiles, we’ve been over this, it’s just puberty!”

“Scott, calm down you roid raging asshole, you just tore up my jeep!” “IT’S JUST PUBERTY STILES!”

Meanwhile their subscribers are loving the new angle the show has taken and are both loving and hating on the “special affects” and “make-up”. When did they get the budget for that? It’s a little B movie looking, couldn’t they shell out for better if they’re going to include it?

Also, the rest of the supernatural community is watching on in both horror and delight. These two dumbasses are about to blow wide a giant secret with their stupid show. *Stiles chucking balls at Scott “Feeling angry, huh? Want to tear me into pieces, like last night?” “Get over it Stiles, it’s just puberty!”*

[lahumunh]

me, opening ao3 for the 12th time that day: hi, yes I would like some crac-

ao3: angst? ya want angst?

me: some cra-

ao3: SOME HEART-WRENCHING ANGST? SOME 100K ANGST WITH THE DEATH OF YOUR FAV? IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT, BITCH???

me, crying, clicking on another angsty fic that will have me sobbing for days: absolutely how could i have ever doubted myself thank you–

[writingficlets]

Did I sleep write this post? 😂🤣

[bellamynochillblake]

we’re going to have to call smut ‘lemons’ again, aren’t we? 

[im-reddie]

LEMONS!? WHEN THE FUCK WAS THIS?!

[bellamynochillblake]

oh you sweet summer child 

[fool-errant]

I actually made this a button last convention

[smooththegoofyshark]

Gaud I remember when it was lemons, I feel old now

[butteryswimmingthing]

explain pls

[smooththegoofyshark]

No

[smol-bean-meme-machine]

What are lemons??

[phylix]

I don’t own the copyright to this, others own the show. All I have is this saaaad little computer and a sketch pad. ^-^ Please don’t sue! I don’t need anymore stress!

Please R&R!!!!!!!

No flames. >///<

[lotrlocked]

lol this story contains slash! Don’t like don’t read. Rated M. AragornxLegolas. lemon. Lololol ^-^ NO FLAMES OR I WILL KILL YOU WITH MY STABBITY SPORK OF Death! -__-

[dayoldhakarl-deactivated2021011]

#this post made me age ten thousand years.

[marloviandevil]

A/N: Things are probably going to be very OOC but who cares, It’s my fic, I do what I want! MUAHAHAHA!

[thefloatingstone]

Things story is lime but it might get a little lemony in later chapters ^.^ R&R no flaming!!! I don’t own the characters

[cocofinny]

[honestlymydude]

[witch-of-snow-and-stars]

The ghost of citrus past…🤣

[mika-meowz]

WAIT PEOPLE DONT CALL THEM LEMONS ANYMORE??

[aurumacadicus]

IT’S THE HOLIDAYS BITCHES AND I WANT TONY GRABBING STRANGERS’ HANDS.

Sam had no idea why he’d stayed at the skating rink. He’d only come to watch Bucky fall on his ass, and after watching Bucky do it three times in a row, the last time so hard that he’d taken Sharon down with him, nothing could really top that. He’d been skating around aimlessly feeling like a third-wheel for half an hour now. He could probably go, but he didn’t really have anything planned for the rest of the day either, so idling here was just as good as anyplace else, he figured.

So he was very confused when he felt a mittened hand slipping into his. Sam looked down at the hand dumbly, as if he’d felt it by mistake, then let his gaze crawl up the stranger’s arm until he saw their face.

The man was cute, even though he was scowling down at his phone, because his bottom lip was just threatening to jut out into a pout, and his immaculately styled facial hair drew Sam’s eyes up to see that the tip of his nose was just slightly red. He had a red hat on, a stylish one, if stocking caps could be stylish. His scowl lost its battle as his bottom lip pushed out just a smidge more, finally making his expression a frankly adorable pout.

Sam thought he might be in love.

“I can’t believe Hammer had the audacity to try and spit out a gaming system before Stark Industries,” the man began, glaring at his phone. “Do you know how long my gaming system has been in the works? Literal years! And now he’s trying to put one out in six months? Bulllllll shiiiiiiiit.”

“Uh huh,” Sam answered, smitten.

“I feel sorry for anyone who buys his system but I’m comforting myself with the knowledge that even Hammer fanboys won’t be able to find excuses for this and―oh!” the man exclaimed in surprise when he finally looked up at him. “You’re not Rhodey!”

“Hi,” Sam said.

“Hi,” the man replied, apparently still too surprised to be awkward.

“I’m Sam,” Sam said.

The man blinked at him, tilting his head. “I’m Tony.”

“Is Rhodey your boyfriend?” Sam asked.

“No,” Tony said.

Sam smiled at him. “So you can keep skating with me, right?”

Tony’s cheeks flushed to match the end of his nose. “Oh… Um… I… I guess so!”

Sam used the hand in his grip to pull Tony a little closer so their shoulders bumped a little with each slide of their skates. “Great! Keep complaining about this Hammer guy. He sounds like a real asshole.”

Tony beamed up at him and began chattering on, because apparently making fun of Justin Hammer was one of his favorite pastimes. Sam nodded along, making sympathetic noises and grimacing in all the right places, because… Justin Hammer really did sound like an asshole.

A few minutes later, a man skated up to them, looking scarily familiar. “Colonel Rhodes,” Sam gasped.

Colonel Rhodes gave him a very unimpressed frown, but before he could say anything, Tony was wrapping his arms around him. “Pooh Bear! This is Sam! He’s really nice and he let me hold his hand!”

“That’s nice, Tones,” Colonel Rhodes said kindly. “But I know Sam. He’s former Air Force.”

“No way! So you guys already know each other? Great!” Tony exclaimed. “I’m gonna ask him on a date!”

“Great,” Sam squeaked when Colonel Rhodes gave him a very long, disapproving once-over, because he was intimidated but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. “I’d love to.”

“I bet you would,” Colonel Rhodes said, narrowing his eyes at him, and then completely ruined his intimidating picture by yelping as his feet went out from under him.

Sam began to laugh, even though he knew it would probably mean he’d be murdered. On the bright side, Tony had let out a high-pitched little ‘waugh!’ as he was yanked down on top of him. He could always say he’d had to laugh at that noise instead of Colonel Rhodes falling.

After they skated to the edge of the rink so that Tony could get a cup of coffee ‘because the ice is cold, Rhodey!!!,’ Colonel Rhodes finally rolled his eyes and lightly punched Sam on the shoulder. “I’m just fucking with you, man. Tony’s a grown-ass adult and can make his own choices. You already know he can be a dumb ass so you’ve got that going for you, too.”

“We’re the same height and build in our coats and hats, anyone could make that mistake,” Sam tried.

Tony skated back out, attention now firmly on his coffee, and grabbed the hand of a tiny lady. She wasn’t even wearing the same color coat.

Sam and Colonel Rhodes―“Please for the love of God call me Jim I was seriously just fucking with you Sam.”―watched them circle the rink twice before Tony let out a startled, yelping ‘sorry!!!!’ and skated back over to them.

“At least she was nice about it,” Sam offered.

“What is it with you people just letting a stranger hold your hand on the ice rink!?” Tony exclaimed, scowling at him.

Sam laughed and reached out for his hand again. “It’s ‘cause you’re cute.”

Again, Tony’s scowl gave way to an adorable pout. “Am not. I’m handsome. My jaw could cut a man.”

“No it couldn’t,” Jim scoffed. “You’re a marshmallow.”

“A marshmallow with a sharp jaw!” Tony snapped.

“Come on, marshmallow,” Sam teased, finally stepping off the ice. “I’ll buy you a cookie and another cup of coffee.”

“I like oatmeal raisin,” Tony said, ire immediately forgotten in the face of sweets and coffee.

“Enjoy your date, dork,” Jim called as they clomped over to take their skates off. “I see Steve and Natasha skating so I’m gonna go knock Steve off his feet and steal her.”

“Be safe! Don’t let her stab you!” Tony called back.

“Oh, you guys know Steve and Natasha? Do you guys know Bucky, too?” Sam asked, surprised.

“They played football against each other before Steve and Bucky retired from the army and they’ve been dickishly competitive ever since,” Tony replied, shrugging. “I’m pretty sure Natasha only puts up with it because she can put the results on Instag―Oh. There he goes. That’s a whole lot of muscle to hit the ice that hard. I wonder if this is what a tree falling looks like.”

Sam bought the coffee and cookies and then found the best vantage to watch Steve and Jim chase each other all over the skating rink. Tony and Natasha sent each other pictures of them falling from different angles. Then Jim and Steve took out Bucky and Sharon and Sam grabbed Tony’s arm to drag him from the rink with a hurried, “Every man for himself,” when Sharon stood up, ready to go in swinging.

[writingficlets]

This was so stinking cute, I can’t handle it.

[asofterfan]

[transformativeworks]

AO3 won the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Related Work!

Here’s the speech given by Naomi Novik when the award was accepted:

All fanwork, from fanfic to vids to fanart to podfic, centers the idea that art happens not in isolation but in community. And that is true of the AO3 itself. We’re up here accepting, but only on behalf of literally thousands of volunteers and millions of users, all of whom have come together and built this thriving home for fandom, a nonprofit and non-commercial community space built entirely by volunteer labor and user donations, on the principle that we needed a place of our own that was not out to exploit its users but to serve them.

Even if I listed every founder, every builder, every tireless support staff member and translator and tag wrangler, if I named every last donor, all our hard work and contributions would mean nothing without the work of the fan creators who share their work freely with other fans, and the fans who read their stories and view their art and comment and share bookmarks and give kudos to encourage them and nourish the community in their turn.

This Hugo will be joining the traveling exhibition that goes to each Worldcon, because it belongs to all of us. I would like to ask that we raise the lights and for all of you who feel a part of our community stand up for a moment and share in this with us.

[relatablegenzwriter]

god i love cg drews tweets

(all of these are by @paperfury!)

[paperfury-deactivated20260224]

😂omg look at how many NOTES this has. i feel so loved

[paperfury-deactivated20260224]

[swingsetindecember]

where the superhero and villain have a common friend that they have to hold it together for

“claire is getting married next week”

“i can reschedule the death ray”

“OH CAN YOU?” 

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

“Aha! I have foiled your evil plan! Now the restaurant will be sa— wait, is this that place that fired Hannah?”

“Yeah, and they were all dicks to her about it.”

“Oh, right. Well… guess I can let you destroy it a little.”

[lasrina]

“I’ve defeated you! Now tell me where you’ve taken Matt!”

“What? MATT’S MISSING?”

“Wait. You’re not the one who trashed his apartment?”

“For God’s sake, Caroline, you should’ve just texted me about this. Gimme my phone, I gotta make some calls.”

[ad1thi]

3000

this caps at 3676 words, which is the most ive written ever; and this fic is my absolute baby i have never slaved over something more so please give her some love

–

Morgan Stark was, is, a strange woman

She’s quiet where her father was loud, stoic where her mother is loving, calm where her family is grieving

–

She wasn’t always like this

She hears snippets from her mother when Mom thinks she’s asleep; of how loud and boisterous and full of life she was

The tipping point, her mother muses over a glass of wine to Zia Nat, was her sixth birthday party

–

See Morgan, Morgan isn’t like everybody else

Everybody else got back their father and husband and brother and son in the Great War

Morgan lost hers

She was 3 years old, but her father always said she was exceptionally smart for her age

but this, this she didn’t quite understand until she was 6 years old

She knew her father had died, he’d died saving everybody’s life of course she knew that (how could she forget when its all anyone talked about, its all she saw all around her, the consequences of his death) but she never knew quite what it meant until her sixth birthday

Keep reading

[bookishdiplodocus]

Reblog the writers’ fortune cookie for luck!

[journeythroughtherain]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In which Bucky finally gets to meet his freshly grown boyfriend!

Preview:

Keep reading

[thepartyresponsible]

here’s the first soundtrack fill! it’s for @the-fallofperdix​, who asked for winteriorn set to “gasoline” by halsey.

so here’s what happens if hydra kills howard but keeps maria alive so they can force tony to work for them.

this one is dark. warnings for violence, alcoholism, some gore, references to torture, and brief but recurring suicidal thoughts.

The first time he says it, it tastes like blood. Like his mother’s blood. Coppery and bright.

He looks at her blood while he says it. Not the clotted mess around her split lip or the dark ring of bruises around her throat. He doesn’t look at the picture at all.

He looks at the rusted red flecks on the Winter Soldier’s metal arm, and he says, “Hail Hydra.”

The Soldier nods and sets the photograph on the desk in front of Tony. Metal fingers brush over his mother’s face, blotting her out, and every muscle in Tony’s chest clenches up, because the newspaper she’s holding is from this morning, but it’s been hours, it’s nearly midnight, and she could already be dead.

Just like Howard.

“I want to talk to her,” he says.

“You will speak to her,” the Soldier says, “when you require inspiration.”

Keep reading

[aurumacadicus]

A very important no-powers idea I just had:

The Avengers all meet each other at a dog park and become friends and bond over their mutts and then one day this sports car pulls up and this guy with designer everything gets out, leading his immaculately groomed standard poodle to the gate, and they’re all internally groaning because fuck people with purebreds are so fucking snobby

And then they’re inside the fence and they can hear him.

“I know this is very scary but you need friends. You’re even the tallest dog here, so you don’t have an excuse of being physically intimidated. Look, all these other dogs are playing with each other, so they must be friendly. And you’re not afraid to get a little dirty, so it’ll be fine. We’ll make some new friends today! Okay?”

“Steve,” Natasha says when the poodle’s off the leash and nervously edging around the fence, staring at the other dogs.

“Yup,” Steve says, and dashes out to pick up his dog.

The guy looks dismayed but covers it up quickly. “Did we do something wrong?”

“No,” Steve says. “My dog’s just an asshole and I didn’t want him to bite yours.”

“…But it’s so small,” the guy begins.

“Chihuahuas and dachshunds are two of the most aggressive breeds and my dog is both,” Steve tells him solemnly. “He’s very nippy and I don’t want him to scare or injure your dog.”

As it turns out, the guy (Tony) is just as sweet as his poodle and also has a heart made out of marshmallow apparently. “You named your dog Chewbarka,” he sobs, clinging to Natasha’s mutt, who drools all over his shoulder. “I love him.”

[roominthecastle]

me [angrily yet softly, through gritted teeth, while crying]: i love to write

[dededddddd]

You bored, or feeling artsy but don’t have any inspiration...? *updated!*

Do you need to distract yourself? Or are you simply bored? Here are some great websites to make the time pass.

create pixel art

Awesome photo editor and art program, all free…!

Totally free transparent textures

make a cute chibi

draw some cool generative art

be a graffiti creator

create a picassohead (you don’t need to be a picasso to do so)

paint online

another awsome site to create pixel art on

and another one

create your own mandala

or color one

create an avatar

or you can try creating your own superhero

here you can interact with organisms in different environments to see how to music changes

here’s a website that translates the time into hexidecimal colours,

Here is a website where you can travel along a 3D line into the infinite unkown

here is a website where you can listen to rain with or without music

Need a model in a certain pose for drawing? here

Want to build your own planet

here is a website where you can create your own galaxies

make your own pattern (very useful if you need a new background)

create next hit comic

make a city which looks like something from 90′s games

draw a mandala like design

jig saw puzzles

more jig saw puzzles to solve

create a stunning HTML5 animation - no coding!

make a movie

create and dress up dolls

play a piano

you can also play a guitar

create sounds

another sound creator

create a logo

design your dream home

sketch rooms

explore fashion trends and create your own sets

build a website

try this app for building a website

Or maybe start learning how to code!

design your own t-shirt or a beanie or sweatpants and order them

design your own phone case

pretend to be a graphic designer with this cool online tool

Make your own Glitch art

Here’s another glitch art maker

And another!

Holy hell, here’s a third!

make an image look like it was created by a commodore 64

freaking cool text generator!

Easy to use word processor

Make up really cool patterns or run your photos through it :)

Write an essay on anything with no hassle

Wanna see how something you write would look like if it was on JacksFilms YGS((Your Grammar Sucks videos on YouTube))?

Make pictures out of text

ASCII word generator

Need an idea for some fanart-here :D

mario

cubefield

sleep calculator essay typer

rice questions

maths 

artsy-fartsy pretty thing

quotes

survive nature

rain

tumblr music

calming rain

themes

backgrounds [x] 

loads of references

Still haven’t found something that would float your boat? Try these:

watch a documentary

learn to code

do something yourself

workout with the help of this great youtube channels

learn things

play pokemon or zelda or other awesome old school games

waste your time on miniclip

play games at additing games

or try games at agame

calm your thoughts

the quiet place

it will be okay

vent or listen to someone

pour out your soul

explore the sky

look at art from around the world

virtually visit museum of iraq

explore world with arounder

create a music playlist

list through rare books

scroll useful science website

create sand art

brain games

try out tastekid and discover new favorite band or movie or book

interactive 3D anatomy

random street view

post a secret

create a family tree

find our what’s the difference between x and y

help scientists and become volunteer researcher

create your own font

read a classic short story

In the mood to read, but not sure exactly what book to go for?

scribble on maps

listen to letters

play with acrobots

listen to podcasts

make a bucket list

Ever want to see the most truly useless websites in creation?

Prank a friend with this blue screen of death!

Zone out watching the colors drip down

Sprite generator!

Face Generator/Creator!

Maybe none of these peeked your interest-maybe you’ve been wanting to create an o.c, but never really knew how to start-or you just enjoy making O.C’s….Or maybe you have a Gemsona that you want to create, but don’t have the energy to draw!

This masterlist is to help you in making your own OCs….it can also apply to developing RP characters i suppose! (´ヮ`)!

Gemsona stuffs;

Just a straight up character gemsona creator

Here’s another

Not sure what gem to go with, or where? 

OR maybe your unsure about more than just that?

How to Write Better OCs:

basic tips on how to make your oc even better

tragic backstory? learn how to write one/make yours great

writing specific characters

a wordier, great guide on how to develop your character

kick out those vague descriptions and make them AWESOME

Character Development:

how to actually make an OC

Q&A (to develop characters)

more Q&As

giving your character a backstory

how to write an attractive character

Need an Appearance idea?

Humanoid generator? check

Here’s another one

and maybe if you didn’t like those this’ll work

Need Monsterpeople?

Well, then here ya’ go

Maybe you need Cats?

Diversity

adding more racial diversity

avoiding tokenism, AKA, how to add diversity to your cast not just because you “need” it

writing sexuality and gender expression (doesnt include non binary, if you have a good ref to that, please add on!)

masterpost on writing more diversity into your story

cultures of the world

guides to drawing different ethnicities (not just a great art reference, but also really helpful in appearance descriptions!)

Mary Sue/Gary Stu

Test to see if your character is a Sue

Explains subdivisions of Sues/Stus

Powerful Characters Don’t Have to Be Sues

Villains

villain generator

need an evil sounding name for your evil character? bam

villain archetypes

what’s your villain’s motive for being a villain?

Relationships

character perceptions (What your character thinks of themselves and what others think of them)

how to write strong relationships between two characters

8 ways to write better characters and develop their relationships with others

OCxLove Interest Handbook

develop your couple with good ol’ Q&A!

how to write realistic relationships

how to write relatives for your characters (this is more OC related to a canon character, but will help in writing family members in general)

ARCHETYPES

12 common archetypes

8 archetypes for male/female characters

female archetypes (goes pretty indepth from two main categories)

a list of archetypes

NAMES

how to name your character

random name generator

most common surnames

surnames by ethnicity

APPEARANCE

tips for better design

basic appearance generator

pinterest board for character design (includes NSFW and images of skeletons/exposed muscle (?) so tread carefully!)

clothing ref masterpost

Clothing generator

Another clothing generator

More clothing generator

Aaaand even more

Steam punk clothing

Char Style preference

Dress Generator

DETAILS

give your character better powers

a list of professions

proactive vs reactive characters

positive and negative traits

interest generator

skills generator

motivation generator

123 ideas for character flaws

list of phobias

Oh shit someone died

Backgrounds and stuff? yep

Quirks

Personality. you need that shit

Need something fandom related?

City generator hell yeah

location? got ya

World-building?

make your own god damn laws

Landscape.

Need Item names?

Fantasy/sci-fi/etc. medicine names

Stuff to make things more interesting.Weapons, clothes, treasures… whatever your characters need.

Item & Artifact Generators

Other stuffs!

Genre, Plot, & Story Prompt Generators

How did your characters meet?

Fanfic plots. you bet your ass.

Other Other stuffs!

Wanna make a custom minecraft skin?

Well then these’ll work!

This one too~

WAIT!…if none of that worked, then maybe you want to make a southpark style character?

Here!

Well, this one’s nice too~

And another..

Aaaand another!

UNDERTALE STUFFS;

Undertale character speech box creator!

Want inspiration for an Undertale Oc?

OR a super Edgy Undertale Theory generator?

Maybe you just want to read some funny Sans Puns!

TMNT STUFFS;

How about a TMNT creator?

Or a TMNT meme generator..

[sketchedfoxx-deactivated2017100]

THIS IS IT

THIS IS MY FAVORITE POST ON THIS FUCKING SITE

THANK GOD FOR THE OP

[universe-er-deactivated20180228]

@caged-coconut

[inversed--mel-links-blog]

@kaminamae @any of my friends who could be interested

[ps-reblogs]

ALL HAIL

[wildrhov]

Simple Tricks to Improve Writing

I get many young writers begging for writing tips. Put these five basics into play, and your story will grow in maturity right before your eyes.

Destroy the Was Where logical, replace “to be” verbs with action verbs. Use the “Find” feature to seek out is, was, are, were, and other “to be” conjugated verbs. (”Whole words only” option if you’ve got it.) See if that was can be more exciting. Example: a) The sun was hot. / The sun blazed. b) His eyes were bright. / His eyes gleamed. c) There are many examples. / Examples abound.

There, Here, It If your sentence begins with one of these three, watch out! My bet is they are followed by a “to be” verb. Seek these out as well, while you’re at it. Oh, you’ll find them all over the place, definitely. Sometimes they’re needed. Sometimes … no. Seeking those three “grammar expletives“ (if we want to get technical) will make your writing cleaner and mature. Example: a) There are some writers who struggle. / Some writers struggle. b) Here is something to consider. / Consider this. c) It takes time to write. / Writing takes time.

Adverbs = EVIL! Adjectives = …Maybe Evil For a moment, forget what your middle school English teacher said about filling your writing with adverbs and adjectives. Adverbs are band-aids for poor verb choice. Adjectives can be strong or weak. Don’t hide weakness with flowery descriptives. Don’t feel everything must be described. Really, it doesn’t. a) Adverbs are plain evil. “She spoke loudly” can be “She shouted.” You don’t need to say “She shouted loudly.” I’ve never seen someone shout any other way. Better yet: “She bellowed, she roared, she howled.” Oooh, look at that! If you use good verbs to start, no embellishments are needed. b) Adjectives are trickier. Sometimes we really do need those descriptions. However, only go into detail on items that are important to your story. Maybe a door is blue, but if we’re never going to see that door again and it’s not blue for a damn good reason, we honestly don’t need to know its color. c) Very and Really are often added to this rule. Common advice is to eliminate “very” or “really” from writing and replace whatever it’s supporting with something better. Mark Twain said to replace “very” with “damn” so the editor cuts it out for you, but you’re smart; you can do that job yourself.

Watch Out for Commonly Confused Words You know the ones. You’re/your, accept/except, advice/advise, hoard/horde, lay/lie, it’s/its, past/passed, fast/quick, less/fewer. There are lists. You probably know which ones cause trouble. I sure do! When you know that word is coming up, just take a moment to make sure you got it write … I mean right.

JUST SAY IT! Most of this falls under the same umbrella: be concise! Precision writing beats florid mega-sentences-from-hell. Break the habit those middle school English teachers introduced into your writing. There are moments when lengthy paragraphs filled with description might be important, but if you can say something with fewer words, do so. Less is more.