by Linden Gross | Sep 11, 2025 | Language, Writing
My longtime Bear Valley, California friend, Matt Welch, who passed this spring, was an amazing writer with an unparalleled talent for incisive humor. I truly believe that with a little work and plenty of editing, his hilarious book, Tales From the Barside,...
by Linden Gross | Aug 28, 2025 | Language
Do you really know when to use me not I, or have you joined the apparent national movement to get that wrong? The trend drives me so nutty that I’m going to do my bit to reverse it by reposting this Grammar Outs rant every quarter. Of course,...
by Linden Gross | Jul 25, 2024 | Language
Is me or I correct? Do you know? Or have you joined the apparent national movement to get that wrong? The trend drives me so nutty that I’m going to do my bit to reverse it by reposting a version of this rant every quarter. Of course, it’s hard to blame anyone for the...
by Linden Gross | Mar 31, 2022 | Language, Writing
Most writers realize that writing dialogue can be a way to show rather than tell a story. Too often, however, they’ll take a long expository passage, put quotes around it and let a character make what amounts to a speech. For starters, that’s not how most...
by Linden Gross | Dec 10, 2020 | Language, Writing
Too many writers think of description or using detail as a string of adjectives. Wrong. It’s all about using detail that brings your characters and settings to life. Barbara Kingsolver didn’t just depend on her imagination to come up with the details...
by Linden Gross | Sep 24, 2020 | Language, Writing
If your narrative has started to feel like a dead fish, you clearly need to employ life-saving measures. Showing readers what happens to the people in your story can help turn around even the most critically-ill piece of writing. So can letting them hear it through...
