wordiness

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

Read More
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

Read More
Bad writing habitsBasics of writingNovel writingStory Details

Overwritten: a surfeit of words—PART 1

From Rick: Mark Twain’s essay “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” is famous both for its typical Twain humor and for Twain’s rules for good writing. I’ve mentioned this essay before. You can do a Google search for it, or you can

Read More