Recently I was beta-reading a book for another author and found an annoying recurrence of what I consider to be a newbie mistake. The book was fiction, telling the story in omniscient third person as if the reader were a fly on the wall watching the drama unfold. Good enough as far as it went, but then suddenly, with a single word, it catapulted me right out of the telling. Continue reading “Addressing the Reader: Breaking the Fourth Wall”
Tag: writing tips
A Writer’s Bane: The Disease’s of Apostrophe’s
I first began to notice it many years ago. Some people had trouble with its and it’s, a common confusion. But then it began to spread, like a cancer, across Facebook and Twitter, those bastions of common usage and colloquialism. When it began showing up in writers’ forums, I knew it was reaching epic proportions. The virulent, creeping Disease’s of the Apostrophe’s.
- “I bought some DVD’s …”
- “How many like’s can I get …”
- “Where can I promote my book’s for Kindle…”
Continue reading “A Writer’s Bane: The Disease’s of Apostrophe’s”
Nasty Little Filter Words
It’s easy to fall into bad habits with our writing — lazy prose we’ve become so accustomed to that we don’t even notice it, even during the editing process. I had fallen into a really bad habit without even realizing it, and it wasn’t until I read an article on filter words that I had my lightbulb moment.
Filter words, those little words we throw into our text without noticing; those are the words that pull the reader out of your story. They’re unnecessary, yet writers use them all the time.
So, what are filter words? Continue reading “Nasty Little Filter Words”
10 Important Things Writers Often Omit from Their Scenes
In my work as a professional freelance copyeditor and critiquer for publishers, literary agents, and authors in six continents, I wade through something like two hundred manuscripts a year. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that I come across certain flaws repeatedly in many — if not most — of the manuscripts I examine. These issues are especially endemic to first novels, and when pointed out to the authors, they seem so obvious. They say, “Why didn’t I notice these problems?”
Because of lack of adequate writing experience, helpful critical feedback, and sufficient skill development and training, writers don’t realize they aren’t showing enough — and especially in a scene’s opening paragraphs — to help readers picture where a character is and when the scene is taking place in the story.
The challenge for writers is in determining how and how much to convey to readers what the writer is seeing in her own mind. Continue reading “10 Important Things Writers Often Omit from Their Scenes”