The 5 articles that writers should be reading this week

From the appropriate terminology for earthquakes—which I botched in a story last week—to a list of 10 novels you can’t finish, here are the stories about writing that every wordsmith should read (or bookmark for later).

It’s temblor, idiot. In a story I wrote about last week’s earthquake on the East Coast, I twice referred to the quake as a trembler, to which a commenter gently pointed out: “It’s temblor.” If only Merriam-Webster had published this article sooner, I might have avoided the gaffe. According to M-W, lookups for the word “temblor” spiked on Aug. 23, the day of the quake. The appropriate spelling, the dictionary points out, is temblor. I wish my copy editor hadn’t been out sick that day.