Birthday: Hardie Gramatky (1907), Beverly Cleary (1916), Carol Emshwiller (1921), Alan Ayckbourn (1939), Tom Clancy (1947), Scott Turow (1949), Gary Soto (1952), Jon Krakauer (1954), Elliot Ackerman (1980)

Quote: “The truth of the matter is that the people who succeed in the arts most often are the people who get up again after getting knocked down. Persistence is critical.” – Scott Turow

Tip: Like redundancies, may writers pad their work with wordiness. Check out wordy phrases you tend to overuse. Some to look for: for the reason that (because); both of them are (both are); until such time as (until); the true fact is (the fact is)

Jumpstart: Go to the engagement/wedding section of your newspaper and pick out several couples. Write brief character sketches for the people. What are they really like? Why are they together? Mix and match couples and give them different mates. Why those?