From the monthly archives:

November 2008

He Said, She Said

Writing Tips

Gone are the days of the simple “he said” or “she said”.  Today’s writers often times feel the need to end their character’s dialogue with a descriptive tag.  While there is nothing inherently wrong in doing so, it does show a certain amount of laziness when taken to the extreme.  ”Laziness!?”.  I can see your eyebrows arched [...]

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Surefire Ways to Have Your Stories Rejected

Selling Your Work

It’s time to submit the short story you’ve labored over.  You’ve developed the characters, tightened the action, and created the perfect ending.  You love it and you’re sure your readers will love it.  So it’s time to get it in front of them.  The best way to do that is to have it published.  Time [...]

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How About That Prologue?

Writing Tips

I’ve written many prologues.  In classic literature they are abundant so I always thought “why not?”.  They look professional right?
Well….

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Adverbs Over Easy

Grammar & Punctuation

You know what adverbs are right?  They are those pretty
little descriptive words that modifies an adjective, verb or word group.  If you’ve forgotten what they are let me help you.

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Are You Up for Writing Horror?

Interesting Tidbits

With the recent launch of the Absent Willow Review I have received quite a few inquiries regarding the content of the site.  While it is open to horror, fantasy, and science fiction there seems to be a lot of interest in the horror aspect.  I’m a fan of horror fiction.  I have my opinion on [...]

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The Tricky Little Comma

Grammar & Punctuation

The comma seems like a simple little guy.  He’s small and easy to use.  So easy to use that the careless writer often begins to use him in places he’s not needed.  In time, the over-used comma can become a plague.  One that transforms an otherwise stellar piece of work into one fraught with unnecessary pauses and [...]

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Writing For Kids

Interesting Tidbits

If you’re a children’s book writer, or an aspiring one, this website may be the place for you.  Check out Write4Kids.  I spent some time on it to make sure it would be of use to you and it appears to be a chock full of ideas. It made the Writers Digest.com list of websites for [...]

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Do You Have to Read to Be a Great Writer?

Inspiration

In a word. YES.
It’s a funny thing.  When I was younger I held on to this odd notion that if I read alot while I was writing one of my books or stories I would inadvertently pick up the author’s voice and my story would no longer sound like me.  I thought it would hamper [...]

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How To Keep Track of Your Ideas

Writing Tips

As a writer, how do you keep track of your ideas? Especially when you are bombarded with them during the day?  This is the opposite of writer’s block.  So what do you do?
I once read an interview where Stephen King talked about having a drawer full of scraps of paper.  Each paper contained a thought [...]

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