I’m going to try something a little different today and instead of posting links to writing-related articles, I’m going to share some links I found to Friday the 13th myths, legends, and superstitions. And just to be clear, I’m not talking about the awesome movie franchise, but the actual day. This is mostly for fun, […]
3 Fantasy clichés I found in my writing (and 2 more you should avoid)
I go through phases all the time when it comes to music, to reading, and even to writing. Right now, I’ve really been trying to write more fantasy. It’s not easy, since this isn’t my number one genre. In fact, other than dabbling in a little bit of urban fantasy, I haven’t written much fantasy […]
WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING AT ME!!!
As the only dude reading submissions for Theme of Absence, I see a lot of “rules” of writing that should never be broken. (Yes, I understand that rules are meant to be broken, but that comes in a more general sense, and you need to understand why exactly the unofficial rules of writing exist before […]
The most used words in my novels
The other day I told someone an submission editor at a place I sent something to counted the number of “that”s on the first page and included that in the rejection now. I just remembered that I was wrong. The word he counted was “was”. And the number was 34. Even in this small post […]
Five Type of Endings I Don’t Like to See
Since yesterday I talked about some of the ways I don’t like to see a story begin at Theme of Absence, I thought it would be a good idea to share what types of endings maybe lead to a rejection. A predictable (or cliche) twist ending I’ve written about these things before, but if you’re […]
Five Things I Don’t Like to See in a First Sentence
I’ve often claimed that I can tell if I’ll accept or reject a story at Theme of Absence as early as the first sentence. Mind you, I don’t actually make that decision until I finish the piece (if flash fiction) or read at least of third of it (if a longer piece). But still, in […]
Looking at Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules for Good Writing
I saw a pin the other day that listed ten short writing tips and attributed it to a guy named Elmore Leonard. So I looked him up and his story checks out. In addition to selling tens of millions of copies of his novels and selling screenplays to a handful of successful Hollywood movies, he […]
When Should You Use a Prologue?
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that seemingly everybody “in the know” says you should avoid using a prologue in your novel. I would tend to agree for a couple of reasons. First off, if you’re pitching a book to an agent who says “I don’t like to see a prologue” then you shouldn’t use one. […]
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