I have a plug-in on my website that constantly tells me to rewrite my content because I use passive voice too much. If I were to import my content into an online text analyser, I’d get the same result. “Don’t […]
“Said is dead,” says one camp. “Only use said,” says another. So which rule should we follow? The erroneous death of said Some writers think said is dead because it’s overused, but if using a word a lot means we […]
Video transcript ‘Make every word count’ means that every word you use in your story should contribute to the story in some way. I’m not just talking about individual words here, but also sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters and subplots. Everything […]
(Video transcript) I’m sure most writers have heard the advice that they should cut out adverbs from their writing and there are a few reasons why they should take this advice on board but I’m going to focus on the […]
Video transcript If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ve probably heard me say you shouldn’t stop the narrative for description. But what does that mean? What does “don’t stop the narrative for description” mean? Stopping the narrative […]
(Video transcript) Filter words are words that put distance between the reader and the story. They’re words that call attention to the fact that the story is filtered through the point-of-view character’s point of view. And they can cause a […]
Active voice tells us the subject is doing the action (The dog chased the cat). Passive voice tells us that the subject is having the action done to it (The cat was chased by the dog). Easy enough to understand in […]
Have you ever read through your work and found that he said this, she did that, and then he walked over there and saw her do something else? She laughed, he cried, she felt embarrassed and then he sat down. […]
Falling short of a required word count? Trying to sound more formal? I’m sure we’ve all committed the crime of wordiness at some stage. But what does it actually do for our writing? Wordy writing uses more words than necessary […]