I recently had a conversation via Twitter. (If you don't use this, and you're looking to market yourself to a social-media-conscious generation, then you should look into this.) The conversation centered around the use of the term "creative writing" to describe, well, Creative Writing.

In response to my last post, I received this comment:

...Assuming I have everything in my head, how do [sic] I get it OUT of my head?

Having worked with a number of new writers over the past three months, I've come to discover a trend: there's a sense of knowing what to put in a story but not knowing how to write a story. I think a lot of people understand the basic theory behind a storywriting - characters, plot, conflict - but not as many people understand the process by which ones crafts those elements into a cohesive unit.

WriteCamp has come and gone for this year, but it will surely be back and improved from the first iteration. "What is WriteCamp?" you ask. WriteCamp is a free, open-source style conference with the intent of bringing together anyone within the writing community to discuss writing, network with other literary folk, and exchange their knowledge. It was a great opportunity for those involved and those who planned, and I believe that it is something sorely needed in the literary community as a whole.

Over the course of the past few months, the publishing industry has become increasingly more and more depressed along with the economy. Publishers like Esquire, HarperCollins, and Publisher's Weekly have all either begun or announced layoffs to their editorial staff. It's discouraging to a lot of folks in the editing & publishing industry.

I tend to be a little less than apologetic about the divide between "good" and "bad" writers and writing. I don't find that it helps anyone by skirting around the issue and pretending that everyone is a competent writer. If that were the case, then there wouldn't be any need for editors.

Over the last six months - mostly since February - I have done my very best to make a name for myself in the local writing community. I feel that I have at least achieved a small portion of that goal with my latest acquisition: I was given the position of Regional Coordinator for the Wisconsin Regional Writers Association (WRWA) for South-east Wisconsin. What does that mean? Well, I have a lot of responsibility to promote the Association, acquire new members, and generally promote awareness for writers and offer support.

Clearly I need to keep myself on a schedule. I got off track with my original train of thought about grammar things. So we're back to where we were, and we'll continue with the dash. There are three different kinds of dashes, and each of them has a very specific use.

I was recently talking to Jeff Larche, a colleague I met through my wife, Ashley, about the state of business and the publishing industry - and also of editing. He said something to me that I took rather kindly as a compliment (and I'm sure that's what he intended by it, too). He told me that he was glad that I wasn't an apologist.

It's November, and that means it's NaNoWriMo time again. Are you doing it? I'm attempting again.

In order to myself in gear, I've posted that I'll be fielding questions for anyone who's interested. Mostly it was meant for fans of speculative fiction, but my first question was one for grammar that I hadn't answered yet on this blog (mostly because others have before): what is the difference between which and that?

Here's the answer.

/That/ is generally used for information that is necessary for the information you're providing. Therefore, it's restrictive.

/Which/ is generally used for information that is in addition to the information already provided. In other words, it's nonrestrictive.

In short, /that/ is used when defining material. /Which/ is used when elaborating upon material without defining it.

For example:

The house next door, which I didn't know was vacant, burned down yesterday.

The house is defined as being both 'next door' and 'having burned down'. It's not necessary to know that the author didn't know it was vacant. That information is in addition to.

The house that burned down yesterday was vacant.

It's relevant to know what house was vacant. We restrict the clause /burned down yesterday/ with the use of /that/. In this case, we define the house as being 'the one that burned down'.

Another good discussion on the topic is here. It even has exercises. They also make a note about using Who in restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses. It's important to note that a lot of people misuse /which/ or /that/ in place of /who/. The latter two are used for things, /who/ is used for people. Give people the proper respect of being alive and requiring the pronoun /who/.

Thanks to Sydust on NaNo for the question. Keep them coming.

PS - I'll be answering genre-related questions over at my other blog for those who are keeping track of things.