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Craft of Writing: Scour Fragments from Your WritingFragments should be used rarely. While they can be used for rhetorical effect, for that to be successful, the fragment needs to stand out from the rest of the text – and it won’t if your manuscript is full of incomplete sentences. READ MORE Writing Advice: Mastering Point…

Craft of Writing: Vary Syntax to Give Writing Flavor, TextureWhen writing, you’ll want to vary the syntax, which is the pattern of the sentence’s words – that is, the order of the parts of speech within a sentence. READ MORE Writing Tips: How to Create Your Story’s CharactersSuccessful stories require characters who face some challenge or…

Craft of Writing: Eschew Clichés Like a Toxic Waste DumpA quick way to strengthen your writing is to replace (or just avoid altogether) overused expressions and phrases. Such expressions and phrases are known as clichés. They include terms such as “avoid like the plague”, “beat around the bush” or “kiss of death.” READ MORE Writing Tips:…

Craft of Writing: Improve Writing’s Texture by Avoiding RepetitionOne of the quickest ways to ruin a story’s texture is to repeat the same word between sentences and paragraphs. READ MORE Make Sure the First Page of Your Story is the Best it can Be My writing guidebook Write Your Story’s First Page looks at the 11 must-have components of…

Craft of Writing: Stop Weighing Down Passages with AdverbsAdverbs are words that typically describe a verb (Though they also can describe adjectives and other adverbs, which can be a real symptom of a bloated passage.). READ MORE How to Devise Your Story’s PlotWhen writers come up with a great story idea but don’t know how to…

Craft of Writing: Ditch the Begin FallacyOne way to tighten your writing is to eliminate the begin fallacy. This occurs when the writer introduces an action to the reader by saying “began to,” as in “My nerves began to calm.” READ MORE 200+ Writing Prompts That Lead To StoriesYou’re stuck on what to write so…

Craft of Writing: Eliminate AmbiguitySometimes when writing, we unintentionally create ambiguity – that is, we write a sentence that can be interpreted in more than one way. You’ve probably ran into this when reading instructions for a do-it-yourself kit or when trying to resolve some technical issue with your computer. READ MORE Never Experience Self-Doubt about…

Craft of Writing: Tell Readers What ‘It’ IsAvoid starting sentences – and especially paragraphs – with “it.” By starting a sentence with “it,” you can confuse the reader. After all, what exactly does “it” refer to? READ MORE How to Master the Craft of WritingYou’ve written a short story or a novel. You keep receiving rejection slips from editors…