Category Archives: Writing Tips

Today’s Writing Tip

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Using astrology for character development is helpful and fun. If you’re not familiar with the characteristics of the various zodiac signs, a book like my “Whobeda’s Guide to Basic Astrology” can help. Get your copy here. 

If you already have an idea what your character is like, it’s usually not too difficult to fit him or her with a Sun sign. You can find some basics here. This will be their core being and provide considerable help regarding how they’ll react to certain situations. If you define a birth date for him, it’s fun to get a natal chart reading from an astrology site like mine, ValkyrieAstrology.com, which will give you even more in-depth information about your character, perhaps even hinting at events in your story.

Actually, it was writing a novel that first introduced me to astrology. One of my characters was into it, forcing me to do some research. I discovered it worked as well as how handy it was for defining characters. It’s quite eerie how well it works, which you can read above in a previous blog.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Fully developing your backstories always pays off. Not only do they contribute to the quality of your characters and plot; you can always offer them as freebies to potential readers. Some background information can be referred to in your main story, but including too much can bog it down. Some can be dropped in here and there as flashbacks. However, lengthy explanations of past experiences that influenced the character aren’t always relevant to the story at hand. Nonetheless, if they’re interesting you can use them as a short story/teaser to readers who visit your website or sign up for your newsletter.

 

Today’s Writing Tip

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When you get to what you think is your final draft, start tightening your story by trimming adverbs, adjectives, and prepositional phrases. Many adverbs go away when you select the correct verb. Make sure adjectives contribute to imagery or emotional impact and avoid repeating them. Prepositional phrases are often necessary for clarity, but make sure it’s really needed and that you don’t repeat the same information later.  Read the sentence without each of these items to see what, if anything, they contribute.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Having your protagonist assess himself in the mirror is one of the most unoriginal ways to describe his or her appearance. Be more creative. Note how other authors do it and when you encounter a great description, study and emulate it.

One approach is to integrate what he or she looks like with action or emotion. Both are best described in a “show don’t tell” manner, which can easily include something regarding their appearance.

Today’s Writing Tip

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A fundamental rule of good writing is to show, not tell. Saying “He was angry” is telling. Saying “His eyes bore into his opponent like steel rods, fists clenched at his side” is showing.

Showing is especially important in rendering emotions, which are essential for sucking your reader into the story. Some emotions are anger, love, hate, betrayal, disappointment, grief, heartbreak, and so forth. These words are okay to use in your first draft, but when you start to edit, stop and consider how you can describe what the character is feeling instead of taking the easy way out. Aim to avoid using that word entirely, but to render it in such a way that the reader knows exactly how your character is feeling at that point in your story.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Economy of words makes your message stronger. Using too many that are extraneous distract and dilute it. This is why adverbs, adjectives, and prepositional phrases often add extra bulk that should be trimmed, just like the fat on a brisket.

Flowery writing or over-writing simply doesn’t work. Do you want your reader to get your message or get lost in a tangle of words? [Please note this is not to be confused with saying something so beautifully that your reader (most likely another writer) pauses to admire how well you expressed a thought or rendered a description.]

Being redundant is ever worse, and a special case of over-writing. As a reader, I feel somewhat insulted, like the author thought I wasn’t smart enough to catch it the first time. Doing so within the same sentence or paragraph is even worse. If this is part of your natural style, don’t let it hamper your creativity; worry about it when you start to edit.

 

 

 

Today’s Writing Tip

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Be aware of your most common typos. Mine are typing “you” instead of “your” or “the” instead of “that”. A simple spellchecker is very likely to miss such goofs when it’s an actual word and not misspelled, just not correct in context. These are also difficult to find when you’re proofreading or editing because that same disconnect that originated between your brain and fingers will come back to haunt you when reading it. However, an alert reader will trip over it in a heartbeat. During your final edit, be sure to take your time and read each word deliberately, looking for such things. If you’re beta reading for another author, be sure to point out such goofs because the author is less likely to catch it.

Today’s Writing Tip

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A good grammar checker should pick up various mistakes including subject-verb agreement and using the wrong homonym. The finer points of grammar can get lost in a creative frenzy, plus many talented writers were bored in English class and didn’t learn as much as they should have about proper use of the language. One mistake I hear a lot is “we was”.

Another mistake waiting to happen is when a sentence has something like a preposition phrase between the subject and verb, it’s easy to mess up. For example, “He looked over his list of grocery items, which was written on the back of his hand” (correct where “list” is what “was written”) versus “He looked over his list of grocery items, which were written on the back of his hand” (incorrect, i.e. “items” isn’t what’s written on his hand).

One homonym frequently used incorrectly, which drives me nuts every time, is using shutter (a window covering or decoration) instead of shudder (to shake or shiver with fear or cold.)  Look it up!

Today’s Writing Tip

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Always spellcheck your work, especially after completing each draft iteration or editing pass. I don’t know about you, but my fingers have a mind of their own and don’t always type the words my brain had in mind. I’m notorious for typing “you” when I mean “your” or “the” when I mean “that” and a host of others. I’m sure you have your own set, unless you’re more thoughtful with your keyboarding skills. I’m a fast typist, with such goofs the price I pay for speed. These types of errors are extremely difficult to find in your own work because you’ll tend to see it as the expected word as opposed to what’s there, kind of like a rerun of that disconnect between your fingers and your brain that caused it in the first place. A good grammar checker should find any misused words. Test it out by deliberately using the wrong word, then seeing if it shows up.