Hire a hit man. Yes, you heard me. Go find a scary guy with scissors who can slash those condescending redundancies out of your writing. Unless you do, readers will feel patronized, like you don’t trust them enough to use their God-given brains to figure things out on their own. Keep in mind, however, that even big-name authors like Daniel Silva are guilty of using these. So if you struggle, you’re not alone. Maybe you’re one of the few who doesn’t make these mistakes, but given the hundreds of manuscripts I’ve edited over the last decade, trust me when I say I’ve seen a lot of the same flaws. And redundancy is so common. Let’s get right down to what I mean. These are some of the common ones I see every day. He squinted his eyes. He nodded his head. He waved his hand. He shrugged his shoulders. What’s wrong with these…
Hey, all those fiction writers out there, here’s an excellent breakdown of what “to do” and what “not to do” in good dialogue writing. I hope this is encouraging to you. If only half of the fiction authors I edit would take this advice to heart, my job would be much easier. Thank you, C. S. Lakin! http://www.livewritethrive.com/2015/03/18/6386/
Have you ever wondered what a novel looks like in a spreadsheet? The outline, I mean. Maybe you’re wondering what a novel outline even is. When I say outline, what pops in your head? Is it something like this? I. This is the first heading. A. This is a subheading. 1. This is a subsubheading. No, I’m not referring to an outline for a high school English term paper. I’m referring to a novel. When I say outline, I’m merely referring to some kind of organizational structure behind the story—a blueprint, if you will, that shows all the critical ingredients that must work together behind the scenes for the story to work. You may be surprised to learn how many organizational details must work together to make a good story, especially for a suspense novel with multiple characters and settings on a timeline. There are actually lots of ways to…
I was recently editing a novel and came across a recurring problem I thought would make a good, informative post about fiction writing. Here’s an example of what I want to address. John yelped as Mitch smacked him hard across the jaw while he was watching his baby sister. This sentence poses several problems for the fiction editor and the reader. Do you see what’s wrong with it? First, way too much is going on in this sentence. 1. John yelps. 2. Mitch smacks John hard across the jaw. 3. And one of the guys is watching his baby sister, but we don’t know which one because “he” is unclear. Who’s the babysitter—John or Mitch? A lot of beginning writers think they can join all sorts of details using the word and as if the word were Scotch tape. Technically, this is true—the sentence may make fine grammatical sense. But if…
