The Importance of Verb-Choice
Type ‘writing tips’ or anything similar into Google and you’ll get all sorts of advice on what to do, what not to do, and how to do things better than you currently are. You’ll hear a lot about why adverbs are bad, why ‘was’ is evil, why passive voice...
Adverbs: That Old Chestnut
You’ve heard this one before: adverbs are bad – don’t use adverbs – blah, blah, blah. Well, there’s a number of excellent reasons behind that old mantra. Adverbs can ‘mostly’ be spotted by words ending in -ly which describe a verb: happily, sadly, hopefully,...
Are You Still Doing This? Stop!
For much of the past month, I’ve had my head down, ploughing through the first chapters of more than twenty different novels, offering critiques and advice on how I thought they could be improved. While doing so, I noticed the majority of the authors...
Writing My First Novel
There are plenty of blogs and guides that can tell you how to write. This isn’t one of them. Sure, I could tell you what to do, but a thousand people online are already doing that, some good, some not so good. This entry has more to do with my impressions...
