I was reading Natalie Goldberg’s 2005 edition of her classic writing guide Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, and as I worked my way through its sixty-four short chapters, I became less and less enchanted by her ruminations and suggestions as a sort of fatigue set in.

Then I realized I had been doing it all wrong. Writing Down the Bones is not a book to be absorbed in one sitting, or even sequentially in a handful of reading sessions. Each of those dozens of distinct chapters should be experienced discretely — this is a book for snacking on over a period of time, not gorged on in one or a few meals.

Goldberg shares in the introduction that she put out this book at an ideal time, in the mid-1980s, when many more people than before began to indulge their interest in writing. (Soon, the ubiquity of home computers would ease their effort considerably.) Since then, the book has been used widely in schools and writing workshops as a source of inspiration, and when it’s read piecemeal, I think, it provides a steady diet of encouragement and exercises.

Why? Goldberg’s breezy anybody-can-do-this essays are a little Zen, and sometimes a little kooky, but her comments about how quotidian life can get in the way of striving to become a Great Writer are reassuring, somehow: “This woman has had false starts and personal crises and self-doubt, just like me,” I tell myself, “but here I am, holding in my hands a book she wrote, a book of hers that was published (the second of about a dozen so far), a book that multitudes have read, and continue to read.”

Goldberg recommends writing in many diverse environments: not just at home or in a cafe or at a workshop; how about setting up a spontaneous-writing booth at an outdoor fair or festival? It’s just like those kissing booths of yore — except that instead of giving out smooches for a dollar (did people actually do that once upon a time?), you write a poem on a topic of the customer’s choosing. She says the booth was always a hit.

Her advice ranges from the practical — she prefers to write in longhand rather than on a computer because it seems more personal and closer to the heart — to the spiritual, though even her Zen master is matter of fact: “No matter how many times they knock you down, get up again.” Not very profound, is it? But no writing guide will do the writing for you. All it does it kick you in the keister — and Writing Down the Bones gives you more than a year’s worth of weekly booting for about two dimes at a time.

Em dashes are woefully underused and misused. Here are five sentences that would be much improved by their proper use, or by proper use of other punctuation in cooperation with them. Determine how each sentence would benefit from changes in punctuation and compare your revisions with my suggested solutions at the bottom of the page:

1. “Not in years, like more than ten years, have I seen someone so committed to owning the stage.”

2. “Such pioneers trigger and indeed hope for gentrification — leading to more and more middle-class home buyers being willing to take a chance on the neighborhood.”

3. “You, yes you, can say you were there for the advent of the Apple iPod.”

4. “It’ll take years to know if it works in humans — but in mice — the tumors almost completely disappeared.”

5. “Consumer-oriented businesses are trying to find the words, logo, image — and, of course, products — that will indelibly brand themselves as environmentally friendly.”

Answers and Explanations

1. The phrase “like more than ten years” (with like, as an interjection, separated from the rest of the phrase with a comma), is more emphatic than one that would merely be parenthesized between commas: “Not in years — like, more than ten years — have I seen someone so committed to owning the stage.”

2. The clause beginning with leading does not merit being set off from the rest of the sentence with an em dash, but the phrase “and indeed hope for,” with the interjection indeed bracketed by commas, should be emphasized by being framed by a pair of em dashes: “Such pioneers trigger — and, indeed, hope for — gentrification, leading to more and more middle-class home buyers being willing to take a chance on the neighborhood.”

3. “Yes you,” with a necessary comma between the words, is such an interruptive element that bracketing by a pair of em dashes is necessary: “You—yes, you—can say you were there for the advent of the Apple iPod.”

4. Just as you’d do in the case of a pair of commas in a sentence that doesn’t sound quite right, diagnostically remove a parenthetical phrase framed by em dashes from an awkward sentence. In this case, “but in mice” is an essential dependent clause for the second half of the sentence, and the em dash following it is incorrect. The first em dash can be replaced by a comma, or the single dash can be retained: “It’ll take years to know if it works in humans — but in mice, the tumors almost completely disappeared.”

5. Parentheticals are just that — interjections, short or long, that are parenthetical to the main sentence, and any parts of speech within them are integral to the interjection alone. Therefore, without the parenthesis set off by em dashes, this sentence lacks a conjunction in the list of three elements preceding the first dash. Here’s the corrected version: “Consumer-oriented businesses are trying to find the words, logo, and image—and, of course, products—that will indelibly brand themselves as environmentally friendly.”

Many quotations attributed to famous people are at best paraphrases — though often superior to the original. Others might be subtly altered in the retelling, sometimes with little impact on their effect, at other times irresponsibly changing the meaning. Here is a selection of well-known sayings or writings that aren’t quite accurate (followed by a couple that are but are mistakenly identified as erroneous):

1. “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

This quotation attributed to Gandhi is a later invention by an unknown person, likely inspired by the following passage: “As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. . . . We need not wait to see what others do.”

2. “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they attack you. Then you win.”

Gandhi was also credited with this pithy progression, but something like it was actually uttered in a speech at a union meeting in the United States in 1914: “First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”

3. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

This is an amended version of a line by playwright William Congreve, who flourished around the turn of the eighteenth century. The actual comment is “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”

4. “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

As with many of these lines, the person to whom it is attributed — in this case, Voltaire, perhaps would have wished he had been so eloquent. This ringing pronouncement, however, derives not from the French philosopher’s own pen, but from an early-twentieth-century biography of him.

5. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

This is a slightly recast alteration of Queen Gertrude’s response to Hamlet’s query about how his mother likes the play he has, unbeknownst to her, scripted to prompt a guilty reaction from her and King Claudius, who Hamlet believes conspired to murder his father. She is saying that the character of the queen is trying too hard to appear innocent. The original, no better or worse — merely measured differently — is “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

6. “Money is the root of all evil.”

This alteration of a biblical verse, by omitting a vital element of the original, changes the meaning significantly. The verse actually reads, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.”

7. “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

This misquotation lacks the equivocation of British historian Lord Action’s actual statement, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely” — and omits the blunt next sentence: “Great men are almost always bad men.”

8. “Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast.”

The actual quote, from the same play from which the line in the third entry above is taken, is “Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast.” The next line, elaborating on the theme, is “To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.”

9. “Nice guys finish last.”

Legendary baseball manager Leo Durocher wasn’t making a blanket statement when he uttered these four words. They are a contracted repetition of his assessment of a baseball team’s prospects for the season. The entire quotation is “All nice guys. They’ll finish last. Nice guys — finish last.”

10. “No rest for the wicked.”

This line, uttered jocularly by a busy person, perhaps as an excuse for departing, is probably inspired by the biblical verse “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”

11. “Now is the winter of our discontent.”

These first few words of Shakespeare’s Richard III are often expressed to mean “The present time is the winter of our discontent.” What the titular character means, however, is made clear by including the second part of the statement, which demonstrates that the phrase is merely a preface to the counterpoint of a reference to better times: “Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York.”

12. “Pride comes before a fall.”

This is a contracted version of the biblical verse “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

13. “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Mark Twain’s actual comment is more straightforward: “The report of my death is an exaggeration.” In addition, the statement is in reference not to a prematurely printed obituary but to a reporter’s inquiry about his health.

14. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

This quotation is a vast improvement over this vaguely similar statement by Irish-born British statesman Edmund Burke: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

15. “Theirs but to do or die.”

The legendary phrase from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Charge Of The Light Brigade” has a subtly but significantly different penultimate word. The entire line reads, “Theirs not to reason why / Theirs but to do and die.”

16. “Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.”

The line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” has been tidied up a bit. The original is “Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink.”

Two other well-known statements considered to be misquotes are actually later versions of lesser-known comments. Winston Churchill’s phrase “Blood, sweat, and tears,” widely believed to be an erroneous version of “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat,” is actually a more concise and euphonious update of the more extended form.

By the same token, “I laughed all the way to the bank” is an alleged misquotation (and misunderstanding of Liberace’s quip “I cried all the way to the bank,” but he actually did use laughed in response to a poor review of a financially successful concert of his. When he later won a lawsuit — with compensation — stemming from a newspaper’s veiled contention that he was gay (the nerve!), he altered the earlier utterance with a change of verb to reply to a query about whether the accusation made him distraught.

What’s the big idea? Or, more appropriately, what kind of idea is it? Many ways of expressing the idea of an idea await your consideration; here’s an extensive but not necessarily comprehensive list (including other connotations and meanings of the various synonyms):

1. Abstraction: a theoretical idea; also, the process of abstracting, the condition of being disassociated, an abstract work of art, or the quality of being preoccupied
2. Apprehension: the act or quality of becoming aware or grasping a meaning; also, the act of arresting someone or to a sense of foreboding
3. Assumption: a statement taken for granted; also, the act of taking for granted that something is true, or taking something on or laying claim to it, or arrogance or pretension
4. Belief: something held to be true or proper; also, a conviction that something is true, or the state of mind in which someone places confidence in someone or something
5. Brain wave: see brainstorm; also, variations in voltage in the brain, and resulting electrical currents
6. Brainchild: an idea or product one has thought up or created
7. Brainstorm: A sudden idea; also, a brief bout of insanity
8. Caprice: a sudden change in an idea or way of thinking; also, a whimsical inclination, or a lively musical composition
9. Chimera: a fantasy or unrealistic idea; also, an imaginary or mythological creature with anatomical features of various animals or biological phenomena involving genetic diversity in a single organism
10. Cogitation: a distinct idea; also, the act of thinking, or the capacity to do so
11. Cognition: the result of a mental process; also, the mental process itself
12. Conceit: an imaginative idea, or an idea held to be true or appropriate; also, excessive self-regard, a complicated or far-reaching metaphor, a theme, or a fancy trinket
13. Conception: an idea, or the result of abstract thinking; also, the forming or understanding of ideas, the body of ideas that constitute one’s understanding of something, or a beginning or the process of beginning pregnancy
14. Conclusion: an idea formed based on consideration, or a judgment or inference; also, a result or the act of bringing something to an end, or of deciding or summing up a legal case
15. Conjecture: an idea inferred or supposed, or reached by deduction; also, something that has yet to be proven or disproven
16. Conviction: a strongly held idea; also, the state of mind of someone who firmly holds an idea as true, or the act of finding someone guilty of a crime or the state of being found or having been found guilty
17. Delusion: an idea that is mistaken or misleading; also, the act of state of having false ideas, or holding such a false idea as a symptom of mental illness
18. Fancy: see primary definition of whim; also, liking for something, or imagination
19. Freak: see primary definition of whim; also, a strange event, person, or thing, or a person who is enthusiastic about or obsessed with something
20. Guess: an idea one has based on initial or incomplete information
21. Hallucination: an idea or sensory phenomenon produced by a drug or a mental disorder
22. Hunch: see intuition; also, a bulge or lump
23. Hypothesis: an unproven idea assumed to be true as a basis for experimentation or investigation
24. Illusion: see the primary definition of delusion; also, a misleading phenomenon, or the fact or state of being misled
25. Image: a mental picture, or an idea one is able to envision based on words; also, a depiction or picture, the ideal depiction of someone or something based on propaganda or publicity, or someone who closely resembles another
26. Impression: an uncertain or vague idea; also, the act of pressing something into a medium or material to make an outline of it, or producing a figurative equivalent in someone’s mind, or the literal or figurative result of such an action, or an imitation, for the purposes of entertainment, of a well-known person
27. Inspiration: an imaginative idea or feeling; also, something that prompts or is the product of such an idea or feeling, the quality or state of this condition, or the prompting of emotion or thinking, or the act of breathing in
28. Intellection: the act of thinking or reasoning
29. Intuition: an idea based on a sudden realization, or on feeling without conscious thinking
30. Kink: see the primary definition of whim; also, an unusual or clever approach, an eccentricity or fetish, a curl, twist, or other imperfection, or a cramp
31. Mind’s eye: the ability to envision ideas or depictions, or the product of this ability
32. Notion: an idea or understanding that may be imaginative or speculative; also, something believed to be true or appropriate, or, in plural form, practical personal or hygienic items
33. Observation: an idea based on awareness or notice; also, adherence to a custom, principle, or rule, the act of seeing or thinking about something or the ability to do so, the gathering of information or evidence, or the state of being noticed or watched
34. Opinion: a statement or idea one holds to be true or appropriate; also, a judicial statement summarizing a decision about a case
35. Perception: an idea based on noticing; also, awareness, or the ability to understand
36. Phantasm: a misleading idea; also, a fantasy, a ghost, or an illusion
37. Picture: a mental image; also, a copy, depiction, or image, an exemplar, or a set of circumstances
38. Preconception: an idea assumed before careful consideration
39. Prejudice: an idea or feeling of dislike or animosity about someone or something; also, wrong done to someone
40. Premonition: an idea or feeling of impending action or occurrence
41. Prepossession: see the primary definition of prejudice; also, an obsession with one idea or thing
42. Presentiment: see premonition
43. Reflection: an idea formed, or a comment made, after careful thinking; also, the act of careful thinking, or something that causes a negative response, or the return of light or sound waves from a surface, the creation of such a phenomenon, or the phenomenon itself
44. Speculation: consideration of what may be true or what may happen; also, a risky investment with potential for great profit, or the act of investing in this manner
45. Supposition: an idea based on preliminary consideration, or one that someone believes
46. Surmise: see guess
47. Theory: an unproven idea, or one presented for consideration; also, a group of ideas or principles
48. Thought: an idea formed in one’s mind; also, the act of thinking, a way of thinking, or an intention, or consideration or the power to consider
49. Vagary: an odd or unpredictable idea
50. Whim: an unusual and perhaps sudden idea; also, a rotating drum or shaft

Writing is often compromised by a writer’s failure to think a sentence through to its logical conclusion. Often, along the way, a small but crucial word or phrase is omitted that leaves a gap in a parallel construction, thereby contributing to the reader’s confusion. In each sentence below, determine the missing element, then check my revisions at the bottom of the page to see how our solutions compare:

1. “The corporation runs hydropower plants from Maine to Montana.”

2. “Because Martinez was so young, it was natural to compare his potential with Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax.”

3. “If she could, she would travel to Saturn to see the rings as well as other galaxies to see if there is life elsewhere.”

4. “Remember the sixties dream of an entire meal served in a pill, like the Jetsons?”

5. “The practice field utilizes the same dirt on the warning track as the team’s home stadium.”

Answers and Explanations

1. The impression is that the plants are somehow interconnected in a continuous string from one state to the next, rather than that the plants can be found in various states in and between the two states mentioned. Complete the thought with the addition of a phrase that clarifies that the plants are located intermittently and eliminates the possible misapprehension: “The corporation runs hydropower plants in many parts of the country, from Maine to Montana.”

2. The comparison should not be described as the one between Martinez’s potential and Sandy Koufax; it should be between the respective potentials of the two men. That distinction is clarified by the addition of two words that indicate the true parallel relationship: “Because Martinez was so young, it was natural to compare his potential with that of Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax.”

3. As written, the sentence suggests that the subject desires to travel to Saturn to see two features — the planets rings and other galaxies – both for the purposes of determining whether life exists elsewhere besides Earth. But the two things she wishes to experience are Saturn’s rings and other galaxies — and only in the latter case because she’s curious about the possible existence of extraterrestrial life. This significant misunderstanding is due to one small but important omission: The sentence is missing a preposition before the reference to other galaxies that parallels the one before “Saturn to see the rings”: “If she could, she would travel to Saturn to see the rings, as well as to other galaxies to see if there is life elsewhere.”

4. This sentence implies that the Jetsons constituted an entire meal served in a pill. However, the writer is referring to a futuristic idea reminiscent of something that might have appeared, or perhaps did appear, in the 1960s animated television series The Jetsons — referring to the program, not the family featured in it — and that’s what the sentence should indicate: “Remember the sixties dream of an entire meal served in a pill, as in The Jetsons?”

5. The suggestion here is that the dirt on the warning track at the practice field is dug up and deposited in the home stadium — and that it is shuttled back and forth repeatedly. What the writer means is that the dirt on the practice field’s warning track and the dirt on the home stadium’s warning track are from the same source. This fact must be explicated in such detail, including specifying that the dirt in question at the home stadium is to be found not just generally within the structure, but, more precisely, on its warning track: “The practice field utilizes the same type of dirt on the warning track as that found on the perimeter of the team’s home stadium.”