Elmore Leonard (Get Shorty, Justified) said: “All the information you need can be given in dialogue.” He’s on to something. I can’t tell you how quickly poor dialogue ruins a novel for me. The sad thing is I have started a book before where the “telling” starts off very, very well. I am intrigued. I […]
Yes, I know it’s a conundrum. If you never say never, then how can you ever say never, even in telling someone to never say never? And Sean Connery, the greatest Bond EVER, did it again. (If you liked that, you’ll get the section on repetition. If not? Eh, you might still enjoy it. And […]
My last couple of posts were a little heavy. Serious subject matter, and not a lot of advice to writers. So I plan to rectify both counts today. Not that what I am about to share is not serious—it is—but it’s not very deep. And it definitely qualifies as “advice”. Imagine your elation. Last week […]
I can’t be the only writer who feels this way. I believe in my work. I am my own worst critic, so it’s not like I lay around eating sugar sandwiches knowing the gravy train can only be a few minutes from the station. Okay, the part about sugar sandwiches, maybe—but I only eat them […]
I recently blogged on passive voice and using too many clichés. A responder on Twitter wrote that, while what I said was true, it is entertainment and exposure that make bestsellers in the fiction genre. This response, while not all that uncommon, really got me to thinking. I believe there are few misconceptions in what […]
Wow. I read some books today that made my brain want to pull the curtains, pop a few Percocet, and sleep for a fortnight. Bad. Not grammatically so, yet so littered with clichés (to use my own) and streaming so much weak, passive writing that, well, it made me want to blog about it. Each […]
Recent Comments