Writing Tips |
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I thought I was a good writer. That illusion dissolved after I received my first edited manuscript to review back in 2007, I was guilty of typical amateurish writing mistakes. I used passive voice too much, used the word that way too much, used too many adjectives ending in ly, wrote sentences that were too long, over-used italics, quotation marks, semi-colons and exclamation points, and generally wrote too much on a given point or subject. I had to learn to cut and gut. If you can eliminate a sentence from a paragraph without losing or changing the meaning, you didn't need that sentence. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. William Strunk, Jr. The Elements of Style, 1918 A useful link for writing tips is writershelper.com. Do yourself a favor; print it out and keep it handy. You will make it easier on your editor when you submit your manuscript. An equally useful link for writers is thewritersfriend.net. For more writing tips and related editing information, go to the Editing page. You are on the Writing Tips page. HOME Updated October 3, 2024 |