bad writing habits

Bad writing habitsBasics of writingCritiquesNovel writing

Writing advice: Who should you listen to?

From Rick: Here’s the problem: Advice on writing is easy to come by, but who should you listen to for the most reliable advice? What do you do when the advice is contradictory? —Should you listen to the bestselling authors

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Basics of writingEditing

Analyzing your story, Part-4: Keeping your story moving

From Rick: So far in this series, I’ve dealt with three aspects: (1) your story’s purpose in terms of what you want to convey to your reader (2) keeping the reader with you in terms of understanding the characters’ motives

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Basics of writingHow to write a storyNovel writing

Story flaws: Finding and fixing them—PART 2

From Rick: In PART-1, I talked about three major flaws a story can have: (1) The story fails to engage the reader (2) The characters fail to engage the reader (3) The story takes too long to become interesting (or

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Basics of writingHow to write a story

Story flaws: Finding and fixing them—PART 1

From Rick: What’s wrong with your story? Why are magazine editors rejecting your short stories? Are your novels getting mixed reviews (or no reviews)? In a series of two posts I’m going to offer some suggestions for things you can

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Bad writing habitsBasics of writingCritiquesNovel writingStory Details

Overwritten manuscripts: how to fix—PART 3

From Rick: In Part 2, I talked about two ways in which writers may overwrite: —unnecessary use of characters’ names —repeated words and phrases In this last part I’ll finish up this series by talking about three other ways writers

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Bad writing habitsBasics of writingNovel writingStory Details

Overwritten manuscripts: how to fix—PART 2

From Rick: Last time, I pointed out several ways in which writers overwrite their stories and novels: —unnecessary dialogue tags —wordiness in general —unnecessary repetition of information To that list I want to add: —unnecessary use of characters’ names —repeated

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