Steven

Sin#10: Not murdering your darlings This is going to be a hard post. I’m writing without pause and I’m not going to go back and edit any part of it. Well, I will run it through a spell check and…

Sin#9: Another word for… Who doesn’t like a bit of argot*? Maybe it will spice up your novel, lend it a sense of credibility. Or maybe it will acerbate* readers and make you look magniloquent* and vainglorious*. Jargon can soon…

Sin #8: Information overload! For some strange reason, a lot of ‘writers’ feel the need to infodump within the first few pages of their novels – and most won’t stop there. It’s an easy for them to get their point…

Sin#7: Hyperbole misuse Hyperbole is a deliberate and obvious exaggeration, or extravagant statement, used to provoke an emotional response – for example: – This bag weighs a tonne– I’ll die if she doesn’t notice me– I could sleep for a…

Sin#6: Not understanding genre Genre, a word that evokes fear in most writers…myself included. The dictionary defines genre as: One of the categories, based on form, style, or subject matter, into which artistic works of all kinds can be divided.…

Sin#5: Crap at foreshadowing Foreshadowing is one of my favourite literary devices, which means it really pisses me off when people get it wrong. For those who don’t know, foreshadowing is the technique of hinting at events yet to unfold…

Sin# 4: Get em’ wet then leave em’ dripping A really bad ending can turn a great book into a disaster. In my opinion it’s one of the worst of all of my twenty-five deadly sins of writing. I can’t…

Sin #3: Writer cop out! Even if you don’t know what the term deus ex machina means, I can still guarantee you’ve come across this technique in a book or film many times in your lifetime. Deus ex machina translates…

Sin #2: No conflict! It is one of the most important rules of fiction writing, one that is universal for all books regardless of genre or scope or audience: A character must grow through conflict. I’ve lost count of the…