Writers Tricks of the Trade Issue 3 Volume 9 | Page 21

R HYTHM . It contains no vowels but keep in
mind it sports two "h's." And my personal tricky word that sneaks
up on my fingers over the keyboard:
D ESSERT V S . D ESERT . Visualize strawberry
shortcake with dessert. As for desert, think
of the land around Las Vegas, with drought-
resistant cactus. G AUGE . Also shortened as gage, it means
measurement according to some standard.
I get tricked into spelling it guage.
D ILEMMA . It's easy to drop the second "m."
So think of Emma, a girl's name, that is
contained after the third letter. That way,
dilemma won't put you in an undesirable or
unpleasant position.
Of course, you can always simplify things
by using the free Spell Check at:
https://www.online-spellcheck.com
A BOUT THE A UTHOR :
Hal Morris spent two decades at Times-Mirror Co. — Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles
Mirror. Early bylines, while a young, full-time editorial staffer at The Times, were as campus
correspondent, Los Angeles City College, and frequent contributor to The Times’ glossy Sunday
Home Magazine, writing mostly about plants and flowers. He was one of the first nine editorial
people hired when the Los Angeles Mirror started. Through the years he filled assignments as
either reporter or columnist for a variety of topics. He also hosted an FM radio show interview-
ing a different celebrity every week.
F ALL 2019
P AGE 17
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE