Ask the Author: Joyce K. Ellis
Answered Questions (2)
Joyce K. Ellis
I'm trying to finish a number of books I've been in the process of reading--off and on (always have several going) for months! But I hope to get to the following this summer--unless something else entices me and "barges right in" to my reading list. :)
As You Wish: Inconceivable tales from the making of The Princess Bride
by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden
Saying It Well: touching others with your words by Chuck Swindoll
The Power of a Praying Grandparent by Stormie O'Martian
As You Wish: Inconceivable tales from the making of The Princess Bride
by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden
Saying It Well: touching others with your words by Chuck Swindoll
The Power of a Praying Grandparent by Stormie O'Martian
Joyce K. Ellis
After editing and critiquing manuscripts from wannabe writers for about four decades, I started identifying common errors in grammar, punctuation, and style. I was also mentoring writers via correspondence course at the time, and I was seeing some of the same issues with my students.
Then at a writer's conference where I was teaching, I heard a writer say that her husband said she read grammar books as if they were novels.
Bottle rockets fired off in my brain. Why couldn't a grammar book read like a novel--or at least be more engaging? And why couldn't I write with a bit of my signature humor to draw the readers in and keep them reading?
I approached Lin Johnson, editor of the Christian Communicator magazine, with the idea of filling her recently vacated grammar-columnist spot with a new column (mine) called "Your Writing GPS: Grammar, Punctuation and Style." A standing column would give me a monthly deadline to write the chapters for my book, and I could address issues I was seeing in the manuscripts I was reviewing.
I thought I would only write the column for two or three years, but it ended up being more than five years! And when I met some of my readers at conferences, they told me how much they had learned from the column and kept bugging me about when the book was coming out. So I knew I was onto something. One writer said she wrote in black marker on the front cover of each issue of the magazine what I dealt with in that month's column so she could find the information quickly!
Now it will be even easier for her with this book--a compilation of those columns--with many extras. Write with Excellence 201 will be a fun read and a handy reference for anyone who wants to write excellently. Enjoy!
Then at a writer's conference where I was teaching, I heard a writer say that her husband said she read grammar books as if they were novels.
Bottle rockets fired off in my brain. Why couldn't a grammar book read like a novel--or at least be more engaging? And why couldn't I write with a bit of my signature humor to draw the readers in and keep them reading?
I approached Lin Johnson, editor of the Christian Communicator magazine, with the idea of filling her recently vacated grammar-columnist spot with a new column (mine) called "Your Writing GPS: Grammar, Punctuation and Style." A standing column would give me a monthly deadline to write the chapters for my book, and I could address issues I was seeing in the manuscripts I was reviewing.
I thought I would only write the column for two or three years, but it ended up being more than five years! And when I met some of my readers at conferences, they told me how much they had learned from the column and kept bugging me about when the book was coming out. So I knew I was onto something. One writer said she wrote in black marker on the front cover of each issue of the magazine what I dealt with in that month's column so she could find the information quickly!
Now it will be even easier for her with this book--a compilation of those columns--with many extras. Write with Excellence 201 will be a fun read and a handy reference for anyone who wants to write excellently. Enjoy!
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