Editing your work the right way
From Rick: There is no such thing as the perfect editor or the perfect way to edit your work. I freely admit that I do slip up despite my best efforts and intentions. Even good editors can slip up. This
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Common writing mistakes plus other tips
From Rick: I recently watched a short video from Reedsy.com on common new writer mistakes. It’s a short video (13 minutes) and worth watching. However, I’m going to summarize them below, add a few comments, and add some other tips
Read moreProper use of “as,” “while,” “when”
From Rick: I’ve previously talked about the evils of “as” clauses, and I lumped the overuse of present participles (“-ing” words) in with those. In my 3/22/2021 post I briefly touched on present participles as well and some issues with
Read moreYou don’t say: More thoughts on dialogue tags
From Rick: In my 3/8/2021 post I talked about overusing “said” in dialogue tags, and in the second sentence of that post I said, “I want to make it clear that I AM NOT ADVOCATING REPLACING “SAID” WITH OTHER WORDS
Read moreA smattering of tips to sharpen your writing
From Rick: (1) Consider the following passage, which is an excerpt from a novel I read. I changed the characters’ names and replaced one term with “mutants”: ===== As soon as Tom put away the radio, something immense and heavy
Read moreOverusing “said” in dialogue tags
From Rick: Before any of you stomp on me for the title of this post, I want to make it clear that I AM NOT ADVOCATING REPLACING “SAID” WITH OTHER WORDS as a matter of course. The purpose of this
Read moreAnalyzing your story, Part-5: questions and responses
From Rick: This time I’m going to wrap up my advice on analyzing your story. I certainly haven’t covered everything, but I have tried to cover most of the essentials for ensuring your story has the right impact on your
Read moreAnalyzing 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
Read moreAnalyzing your story, PART-2: Keeping your reader in the loop
In PART-1 I looked at your story’s purpose, focusing on what you, the writer, want to convey to your reader and what you want your reader to think about. I maintain that every good story does this. Perhaps the most
Read moreAnalyzing your story, PART-1: Your story’s purpose
In the online writing group I’m involved in, one of the members is very good at pointing out story flaws from a reader’s perspective. Over the next few posts, I’m going to delve into these issues with the goal of
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