Post by The Muse on Sept 26, 2011 18:20:57 GMT -5
This is a list of all the old tips of the week, that way you can catch any you've missed or go over old ones if you want to improve your writing. They are listed by date. If a week was missed then it does not appear.
July 16th 2011
July 30th 2011
September 17th 2011
September 24th 2011
October 1st 2011
July 16th 2011
- Try to refrain from starting a story with how the main character woke up or the alarm clock went off. Same goes for the weather, such as "the rain was pouring down as..." or "the sun shone brightly in the sky as..." While tempting, this is common and unoriginal.
July 30th 2011
- All details of a story should be important in some way and tie together in the end. While it's okay to throw out Red Herrings every now and then, avoid rambling so kids forced to read it won't feel the need to explode.
September 17th 2011
- When you write about something, be sure you know what you’re writing about. Don't help spread false information by blindly accepting what you read or heard. Before incorporating historical events great or small into your fiction or nonfiction, investigate and fact-check.
September 24th 2011
- Alliteration, the pattern of two or more words within a phrase or sentence that begin with the same sound, is an effective form of emphasis that adds lyricism to even straightforward prose and influences the mood.
October 1st 2011
- Believe it or not, using commas does matter. For example "Let's eat grandma!" means you're planning to devour your grandmother whereas "Let's eat, grandma!" means you're telling your grandmother that you should eat. Proper punctuation helps convey your meaning, and while misusing it can be cured by a good tutor or editor, not using it at all (i.e. laziness) is as yet incurable.