Improve Your Writing
Tips
Begin with a grabber sentence
Find the point in your story that will inspire the reader to stay with it.
Show, don’t tell
Tell: She was very tall.
Show: She was the only one in the room who didn’t need a stool to reach the shelf.
Detail enhances your story
Not: a car: but a chevrolet
Not: a cup of soup – but a cup of pea soup
Not: she was watching TV – but she was watching CSI
Be generous with your use of the senses
What did it feel like, sound like, look like, taste like, smell like?
Use dialogue
It can keep a story moving and can substitute for narration by filling in necessary facts.
Traps
Falling in love with your own words (we all do!).
Do I really NEED that adjective?
Clichés
No-Nos : hot as hell; crazy as a loon; fat as a pig
Switching tenses in the middle of your story
Is your story in the present – or the past? Keep it there!
Losing your focus
Can you say, in one sentence what your story is about?
Using redundancies
Have you said the same thing in more than one way?
Painting With Words
Simile- An EXPRESSED comparison of two different things or ideas
.Cold as a Buffalo winter
Confusing as a maze
Metaphor – An IMPLIED comparison between two different things or ideas
Cotton-ball sky
Velvet cheeks