No dallying today. Right into it. When examples are given, what you shouldn't do will be in red, what you should do will be in green.
- Use active voice. Don't use were. Reconstruct your sentences to read as it is. Example: There were fifteen girls standing on the field. Fifteen girls stand on the field.
- Kill the truth. If reality is blocking, make up new rules. You're writing fiction, after all.
- Unite common phrases. Things that go together, stay together. Example: Molly lifted her arm and then, with a roar like a lion, she began beating the door. Molly lifted her arm, roared like a lion, and beat the door.
- Write as you see. When you're writing, think visually about the scene, and use the imagery as fodder.
- Catch the beat. All writing has a rhythm. You know it. Use it.
- IT is a horror story. Beware of dangling "it" in your prose. Example: I thought it was strange. I thought the chair scooting across the floor by itself was strange.
- Sentence structure variation. Don't write the same sentence over and over. Example: I walked into the kitchen. I got a glass from the cabinet. I filled the glass with water, and I drank. I drank it in one gulp. I walked into the kitchen, grabbed a glass, and filled it with water. As thirsty as I was, it went down in one gulp.
- Marry related words. Keep things together that go together. Example: Henry stared at the float in the pool that was spinning in the middle. Henry stared at the float spinning in the middle of the pool.
- Allow the reader to infer. Don't over explain. Example: "I'll do anything I can to help," Tina said lovingly. "I'll do anything I can to help," Tina said.
- Create parallels. Mix some ideas and compare two unrelated things.
- Kill repetition. Don't use the same word more than once in a paragraph; your reader will feel like they're reading the same sentence again and again.
- Use one instead of two. If you can delete a word and not lose meaning, do so. Example: A scary, creepy spider is crawling up my leg. A creepy spider is crawling up my leg.
- Beef up with stronger verbs and concrete nouns. Use these to replace adverbs and adjectives.
Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!
Jo