An ADVERB is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Here’s some examples: adjective form adverb form 1) happy happily 2) clear clearly 3) close closely 4) dear dearly 5) perfect perfectly Of course, not all adverbs in in “ly” as the following list demonstrates: 1) here 6) now 11) then…
Every time I turn on the television or pick up a new book at the book store, I see yet another cliche or variation on a cliche, and I roll my eyes. “Again?” I say. “Geez! Is everybody these days so lacking in imagination, so devoid of creative talent, that they can’t come up with…
For those of you who didn’t notice, (and I hope most of you noticed), only one or two of those words were necessary to properly and clearly convey the topic of my discussion. In the two words, “Superfluous Words”, was contained the information in all the other seven words combined. The definition of superfluous is:…
HUMAN LONGING – THE MOST POWERFUL EMOTION To “long for” something – to feel a strong desire for an object or person. To ache for, hunger or lust for, to pine or yearn for someone or something just out of reach. There’s no deeper or more powerful emotion in literature, or in life, for that…
WITHHOLDING- Withholding is one of the simplest and most effective ways to create tension and build suspense. Remember Christmas as a child? Did you ever pick up a gift-wrapped box with your name on it days before Christmas and shake it in an effort to determine its contents? Though you were outwardly chafed, there was…
Building Suspense and Tension – Part One The most important thing you can do as a writer of fiction is make the reader want to turn the page. In fact, there is no other job more important to a writer. If the reader doesn’t care what happens next in your story, then you’ve failed as…
If you’re a writer, YOU do. Every story needs a conflict at the center of it. If plot is the fundamental building block of a story, then conflict is the fundamental building block of plot. No conflict, no plot. No plot, no story. Because if everyone in your story already has everything they need, if…
The most important part of any story is the characters. Indeed, the characters ARE the story. If you don’t have believable characters, you don’t have a story – no matter how good the rest of the writing may be. When creating fun and realistic characters, the thing you want most is for your characters to…
The First Fifty – Crucial – Pages of Your Book The first fifty pages of your book are crucial for setting the hook in your readers. Something has to happen. Something exciting, or intriguing, or you risk losing your reader’s interest. Limit Backstory – It’s always tempting in the beginning to fill the reader in…
Benefits and Drawbacks of Each POV in Your MS As a beginning writer who chose to write my first book in first-person narrative, I discovered the drawbacks of such an approach the hard way. Halfway through the book, I started all over in third-person – something I wouldn’t recommend. Briefly, Point of View – when…
Are You Overwhelming Your Readers? Have you ever run across a prologue like this: (usually in sci-fi books) Captain Briggs took the helm and began shouting orders. “Ensign, optimize the traspositional filtration valves to ignite the gravitational destabilizers.” “I can’t do that,” Ensign Scott replied. “If I optimize the filtration valve, the axomital diffusionators will…
Should I use sentence fragments in my book manuscript? Is this bad writing or style? Sentence fragments. Who cares? You? Me? Anyone? Depends. Writing nonfiction? Probably wouldn’t. Work, that is. Writing fiction? Could be. Depends. On what? Style. With some authors? Might work. Others? Not so much. A hundred years ago? Wouldn’t have been acceptable….
