So I lied, Squiders, and found one more common writing mistake. Today we’re going to talk about conflict. Conflict in the writing sense is when something stands in your protagonist’s way of getting what he/she/it wants. (NOTE: The protagonist of a scene
Common Writing Mistakes: Wrong Audience
Good morning/afternoon cusp, squiders! I think this will be the last post in this series, and I’ll save the rest for the book. Also, it is cold and I forgot to put a coat on like an idiot. Today we’re
Common Writing Mistakes: Ending in the Wrong Place
Good morning, squiders. Last week we discussed starting in the wrong place. But one can end a story in the wrong place as well. (To be fair, there are a lot of issues that have to do with what scenes
Common Writing Mistakes: Starting in the Wrong Place
Trucking right along, squiders. (As an aside, Pinterest now allows you to create sub-boards, so I spent a lot of yesterday organizing my most problematic board, unhelpfully called “Your Pinterest Likes” and left over from when you could like pins.
Common Writing Mistakes: Pacing and Plot Flow
Back to it, squiders! Also, a reminder that we’ll discuss Dream Thief by Stephen R. Lawhead next Thursday, if you’re planning on reading that along with me. (Have you been reading it? Once again we have a future where all the scientists
Common Writing Mistakes: Point of View and Filtering (Part 2)
Sorry it’s a bit late, squiders! Also, I haven’t started wrapping Christmas presents yet and aaaaaahhhhhhhh So, last week we talked about common issues with Point of View, and today we’re going to be looking at a specific, sneaky issue
Common Writing Mistakes: Point of View and Filtering (Part 1)
Happy Thursday, squiders! I’m doing #SFFPit over on Twitter today, so if you follow me there I apologize for the amount of pitch tweets you may or may not be seeing. Before we get going, I just want to talk
Common Writing Mistakes: Tenses and Passive Voice
Hi, squiders! Today we’re going to talk about tenses and passive voice, since they tend to be related, and because this is a good segue from our grammatical issues into our storytelling issues. Tense in this case refers to the form
Common Writing Mistakes: Pronoun Confusion
Full confession, Squiders–this is something I had problems with for a LONG time. (Doing this today because I make no guarantees about Thursday.) What is pronoun confusion? Well, take a look at this example: Doug and Larry decide to go
Common Writing Mistakes: Speech Tags
Happy Friday, squiders! Today we’re going to continue on with our series on common writing mistakes. We’re still in our first section, which is basic grammar/bad writing issues. Today, we’re going to discuss speech tags. Just to be absolutely clear,
