Some of the worst writing advice I keep hearing is along the lines of “Don’t use any dialogue tags other than ‘said’.” I believe this originates from “Elmore Leonard Rules of Good (aka bland) Writing”. I fully intend to write an article addressing Elmore Leonard’s terrible rules, but the one...
One of the most common pieces of writing advice you are likely to hear is “write what you know.” In fact, “write what you know” and “show don’t tell” are parroted by English teachers so often as to reduce the advice to mere hackney adages with about as much weight...
If you’ve ever taken any creative writing courses, then you’ve heard it countless times before: “show, don’t tell.” In fact, you are probably sick of hearing it. But for a beginning writer, this simple bit of common writing advice is actually quite unhelpful. What does it actually mean when we...
If you’re anything like me, you’re terrible at spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. Incidentally, those are four key elements of writing that all aspiring authors should master. In fact, as far as obstacles to writing go, this is perhaps the next biggest obstacle next to plotting and story development....
I’m going to start a series of short articles on writing tips for aspiring authors, mainly focused on spec-fic (i.e., fantasy and science fiction). As an aspiring fantasy author myself, I feel that my own experience in learning the craft, world-building, character-building, and plot-building may be helpful to other aspiring...
While I have been writing for approximately 20 years, accumulating thousands of pages of written work, I am quite ashamed to say that I have never been published. And it has not been for the lack of trying. I have failed to have a single book published by any of...
