As with all activities, writing fiction involves getting to grips with professional jargon. The following are some of the more common terms you may come across as you learn your craft and market your writing. POV (Point of View): the…

“Economic” and “economical” are two adjectives that are frequently used interchangeably. They are clearly related but they have, strictly speaking, quite distinct meanings. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of economic is Relating to economics or the economy.…

The Washington Times recently printed an editorial about H1N1 flu calling the disease “tow-the-line flu”. The use of the phrase “tow the line” is a common mistake; what the paper should have written was “toe the line”. To “toe the…

The words “flammable” and “inflammable” mean the same thing: “easily set on fire”. Why is this? In English, the in- prefix is often used to reverse the meaning of an adjective. Thus inactive is the opposite of active and inelegant…

The englishmonarchs.co.uk web site reports that many monasteries were “raised to the ground” by Viking raiders during the reign of King Ethelred I. But how can a monastery be “raised to the ground”? Although commonly seen on the web, the…

John Steinbeck’s dog ate an early draft of Of Mice and Men. Ernest Hemingway famously lost an entire suitcase of his early writings – a suitcase that contained his originals and all his copies. The only copy of Thomas…

In an article on the BBC website just recently, the head of a computer game industry body described the city of Dundee as “the epicentre for the industry in Scotland”. A little earlier, in an article about renewable energy on…

Someone who puts their “best foot forward” must, logically, have three or more feet. Although this is a very common phrase (the title of a 1943 Lucille Ball film, for example) it is, at least for humans, grammatically incorrect. “Best”…

The word Scotch has several meanings, but it should never be used as an adjective to refer to a person or object from Scotland. The only exception is that the word is acceptable as part of certain compound names, such…

“Legs akimbo” is a phrase used so much it has become a cliché, and clichés are obviously something to be avoided if you want to create interesting, vivid writing. But you should also be aware that “legs akimbo” is logically…