Jade Varden Official Blog

Some grammatical errors become so common, they are integrated into language. Words like forever and alot are prime examples. But some mistakes are still wrong, no matter how often we hear them. I seen is the one I hate the most. On the Grammar See-Saw I don't care how you phrase it or use it, I seen is incorrect one hundred percent of the time. The verb to see is irregular . It has several tenses, like any other verb. The present tense is simply see , as in I see you reading that blog post . The past tense of see is saw , i.e. I saw another blogger writing about that last week . And then there's seen . It is the past participle of see . This means it's only used with another word, like have . For instance, I have seen better blogs . The word seen only works with other verbs, but it doesn't get along with nouns. To use it properly, it's got to have one of its friends. Words like have and has make seen a possibility. Without them, you...

I've always used the computer mouse with my right hand. It's a little weird, because I'm left-handed, but I guess I was just confronted by two many computers with the mouse on the wrong side. So now I always use my right hand. Because I practice good wrist health, I always can. But if you don't, you're going to find yourself in a diner pressing a hot coffee cup against your hand at the age of 20. I know, because it happened to me. Carpaling a Tunnel Yes it's true. I used to order coffee, half-full, while hanging out with my friends in restaurants. I did not really drink the coffee; I pressed the back of my right wrist against it. As it cooled off, I instructed the waitress to pour just a little more in there to heat it back up. This is why I had to order it half-full, you see. I did this for a few months before I finally learned a few things about good wrist health...and carpal tunnel. Everyone has a carpal canal, a small passageway inside the wrist...

Want to write a story about two young lovers who fall for each other even though their families are at odds? Shakespeare already did it. How about a grittier tale, where one jealous brother coldly murders the other? Sorry -- that story's so old, it's in the Bible. There's a theory of belief out there that there are no more original ideas...and I happen to agree. If you're waiting for an original idea before you start writing that book, stop. It's All Been Done When it comes to basic plot, every single sort of love story has already been told . Every drama and comedy was written long ago...most of them by the ancient Greeks.  And mysteries? They're already solved. After all, there are only so many ways to kill.  Read the Bible, the works of the ancient Greek playwrights, and Shakespeare...and you'll see that there's really nothing new in the world of fiction. It isn't your plot that needs to be original, but your take on it does. When you...

If you've ever told anybody, at any point in your life, that you want to be a writer then you've probably heard one very shopworn piece of advice: write what you know . I've decided that they might not be talking about plot points and subject matter, however. I'm pretty sure they're talking about the words. Reaching and Overreaching Everybody has used a word the wrong way. But when you're an author, you're not really supposed to use them incorrectly. Do it in a book, and some savvy reader is definitely going to catch on.  Don't use words you don't really know when you're writing. If you're reaching for words, you're just taking yourself out of the flow of writing the story. Use the words that come naturally when you're writing, and your writing will come to you a lot easier.  If you find that you're using too many of the same words over and over, you need to learn new words. Expand your vocabulary by reading more...

If you've self-published, then you're already learning how to master the art of turning a manuscript into an ebook. Now, you've got to turn that ebook into an audio book. Listening to Books There's nothing new about listening to books. Lots of people have memories of family road trips with a book on tape or book on CD droning in the background. But now that so many people have a smartphone or electronic device of some sort, audio books are back...and they're digital. Once you turn your book into an ebook, the next logical step is to have it read aloud to you so you don't even have to go through the hassle of looking at the screen. Converting to audio books is fairly simple, so don't miss out on this market. With text-to-speech technology, convert any ebook into an audio book. Your software may already have text-to-speech technology. You can always open up your book and use the text-to-speech function to have it read aloud. Record this audio into...

The commitments you make as an indie author matter. They matter so much, I could leave this blog post at that sentence alone -- there's really nothing more to be said. You can't blow them off, you can't pass them off, you can't change your mind. I don't even have to tell you a bunch of reasons why your commitments matter...there's just one that trumps them all. Ready for Commitment I got an email recently, and it got me to thinking about the commitments we all make as indie authors.  Commitments you've got to follow through on, when you make them. It doesn't matter if you're busy, or if you're tired, or if you're hungry and cold and you haven't had any free time in weeks. Because as an indie author, all you really have is your name. Why associate it with someone who disappoints, and back peddles, and fails to follow through?  If you agree to review it, review it. If you agree to be there, be there. If you say you...

It's easy to get a little snobby when you're an author, and that also goes for me. The writer who does years of research for that in-depth biography might smile condescendingly at the author who writes lightweight fantasy fiction. I, too, am guilty of author prejudice. I learned it in the worst possible way: I caught myself turning up my nose at another author recently...a children's book writer. So now I have to ask: are children's books easier to write? A Day in the Life For the record, I don't have kids. I'm not good with kids, and I haven't really spent any time around them. I also don't write children's books. YA books are as close as I get. I remember being a teenager. I don't really remember being a kid.  So when it comes to writing children's books, I don't really have the experience to know what it's all about. I went on a journey to learn more. I began with Carrie A. Pearson , a children's book aut...

Ever literally read a book cover to cover? If you have, and maybe even if you haven't, you've found that there are extra pages at the start of any book. You flip through them to get to the good parts, barely giving them a glance. But if you think you can skip that extra stuff now that you're self-publishing, you're wrong. You need a title page...period. In the Beginning, There Was Junk Honestly, the title page is a rather worthless waste of ink in books -- or so I've always thought. It usually consists of just a few elements, some of which are really redundant. The title: Obviously. The title page is used to repeat the title again. That's in case you missed it on the cover while you were buying the book, transporting the book or selecting the book to read. The author's name is usually placed here as well, because it's very likely you did miss that. The publisher: Often, the title page will contain some information about the publis...