When writers do follow you, why exactly should they care about your announcement? They followed you because you're a writer, not for your writing. You're selling to writers with little personal investment in your work.
Disclaimer: the following writing advice is base on the author’s personal experience of writing and does not represent any hard or fast rules. Your mileage may vary. The Very, Very Beginning Deep down, or maybe not so deep down, writers know the value of a good opening sentence. Because writers are readers and have read … Continue reading Opening Sentences: Central Conflict as the Narrative Hook
Disclaimer: the following writing advice is base on the author’s personal experience of writing and does not represent any hard or fast rules. Your mileage may vary. The Plight of the Back-loaded Writer Do your sentences ramble with a bunch of important details attached to the the ends? Like the equivalent of remembering relevant information … Continue reading The Power of Rearranging Your Sentences
I'm not telling you to develop a thick skin, because you may never manage that. But I am telling you to be brave. And most of all, clever.
Disclaimer: the following writing advice is base on the author’s personal experience of writing and does not represent any hard or fast rules. Your mileage may vary. The Passive Voice Narrative How to talk about passive voice as a useful thing? An okay thing? An allowed thing? So many of us as writers have received … Continue reading The Time and Place for Passive Voice
While passive voice has its place in prose, most of the time, you will hold a reader's attention better with active voice.
I'm getting better at making pancakes. Rather, I'm getting better at making pancakes the way I like them, which is, of course, the point. Buttery golden brown, soft in the middle, with a rim of good, light crunch around the edge. Weekend mornings of my childhood featured light smoke drifting from the kitchen into the … Continue reading Pancake-Making as a Metaphor for Writing
I have one particular writing nemesis, and that's the time change. Every year at around this time -- when it's getting dark at 7p and earlier -- my writing suffers. I write in the evening, after coming home from work, but now, the encroaching darkness tricks my brain into thinking it's bedtime. I can't possibly … Continue reading Writing Life: Time Change
Anxiety in writing often derives not from a fear of writing itself. In truth, we writers fear audience judgement.
I want to address some arguments for NaNoWriMo and present other solutions to your writing woes.
S. G. Baker's Blog 