Category advice

Sin #12: Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Ma•crol•o•gy n. Long and tedious talk without much substance; superfluity of words. As writers we have lots to say. Fair enough, but don’t try and put it all in one story! I…

Sin#11: Say what now? Ayup theear, ‘a’s teur bin? Ariite thuz, y’alright? Aareet thor, y’aareet? Well I ne’ah! Hoh spiffing it is to see you, one’s old bean, hoe the deevil aaaare you, one’s old bean? Heavens above! How smashing!…

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…