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As the (often) token writer in my (mostly Asian) friend groups, I get asked some variation of this question a lot:

“If I want to become a better writer, more specifically a better storyteller, where should I start?”

After a friend asked this very question to me, I sat down, mulled it over, then wrote up a letter with my own take on the topic. Posting it here in hopes it helps anyone else looking for similar advice (slightly edted for general audiences).

When it comes to that and which, consistency is absolutely key for making sure you’re conveying the message that you mean to convey. Here’s why they should not be used interchangeably*.

When I was working as a magazine editor, one of the things I most hated to correct was quotation marks. No one ever seeming to know (nor care) when to use straight (‘ and “) vs. curly quotes (‘’ and “”) was one thing. But then you had the writers who’d use them interchangeably, throughout the document and often around a single word (like so: “stupid”).

In a word? Annoying.

So without ado, here are my guidelines for using quotes properly and earning the love of your copy editor forever.

A lot of people seem to think that in order to be a good writer, you need to have a mental dictionary akin to an entire set of Oxford English Dictionaries. While it’s certainly true that having access to just the right 10-cent word at just the right occasion can be an invaluable tool, elusive multi-syllabic terminology is certainly not the only way to demonstrate linguistic prowess (like this).

Here’s another short story I wrote years ago. Enjoy.

“For a girl, I’ve always thought I have one too many scars. There’s the gash above my right knee, the oblong dip in my left shin, the aura of the half-moon scar on my inner calf, the faint echo of a slash on my left arm, and the branding of my right hand. All in all, it’s almost embarrassing to wear a sleeveless and a skirt for fear that guys will see the remnants of my childhood laid out to bear all over my limbs…”

Here’s a little, romantic nonfiction short story I wrote years ago. Enjoy.

I see pieces of art as marble spheres hanging in space. As we float along aimlessly in the atmosphere, we long to grab hold of these spheres as if we own them; yet our fingers slip off their smooth, glossy surface. To comprehend them, we begin to “analyze,” “interpret” – we create false definitions and fabricate stories to describe its identity, its history, its origin. As we do this, we etch into the perfect orb, destroying the flawless plane so that we can greedily slip our fingers into the crevices and fool ourselves into believing that our thoughts and insights have some great value…