Narrative flow can be difficult to define, which makes it difficult to understand. However, most writers are also readers, so you may be more familiar with narrative flow than you might think! While reading, have you ever: Found yourself turning page after page, unable to put a book down? Been so engrossed you haven’t noticed […]
June 28, 2013 by 23 Comments ProseHow to Make Adverbs Work for You
This post is by Janice Hardy (@Janice_Hardy). We hear it all the time: never use adverbs in your writing. Sound advice, but if we follow it to the extreme, we could miss out on their very useful properties. As bad a rep as adverbs have, they’re actually pretty handy during a first draft. They allow us to […]
April 7, 2013 by 66 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Overusing “Suddenly”
What’s one of the most overused and unnecessary words in a writer’s repertoire? Try “suddenly.” Now, at first glance, “suddenly” seems pretty innocuous. After all, it’s just a little adverb. It’s so commonplace, it’s almost invisible. And it’s important. Unlike so many useless modifiers, it tells readers exactly how some important action is happening. It […]
September 21, 2012 by 8 Comments ProseUse Adverbs to Create Music for Your Readers’ Ears
The problem with modifiers in general, and adverbs in particular, is they are notorious tellers and a hindrance to good showing. Instead of telling us, “He stormed out of the room angrily,” show us by his actions how an angry man storms out of the room. Show us his clenched fists with white knuckles. Let us hear the boom of […]
September 19, 2012 by 27 Comments Prose3 Reasons to Cut Unnecessary Adverbs From Your Writing
Perhaps the most famous condemnation of adverbs is Mark Twain’s: If you see an adverb, kill it. And yet, the adverb still lives! I’m the first to admit the dreaded adverb still crops up in my work—both inadvertently and purposefully—just as I’m sure it shows up in yours. For that matter, it still makes frequent […]
April 25, 2010 by 63 Comments Editing Your Novel10 Ways to Write Skinny Sentences
If brevity is the soul of wit, then economy is the energy of prose. Let’s hear it for skinny sentences! Don’t get me wrong: I love complex, twisty, beautiful sentences. As Aleksandar Hemon pointed out in an interview with The Writer magazine: I like to push language toward poetry, to activate the dormant possibilities inherent in it. […]
April 6, 2008 by 17 Comments ProseKill the Big Ugly Modifier!
Among writers, one of the ever-quotable Mark Twain’s most quoted witticisms is the succinct bit of advice found in Pudd’nhead Wilson: As to the Adjective: When in doubt, strike it out. Ah, adjectives! What writer hasn’t had a joyous fling or two with that most seductive of all parts of speech? In an effort to […]
