Category Archives: Writing Rules
Curiosity Versus Confusion
Some time ago I read an article in the Writer’s Digest by Steve Almond in which he stated what he considers to be the writers Hippocratic oath: “Never confuse the reader.” Initially this seems to clash with much advice about … Continue reading
Filed under Backstory, Writing Rules
Repetition and Redundancy
At first glance, someone might think the title to this post is redundant, but these two phenomena—repetition and redundancy—are actually different and therefore I am not truly saying the same thing using different words. Indeed, the one can sometimes serve … Continue reading
Filed under Word Use, Writing Rules
Write Tight
I love contests. Besides reading and critique partners, contests may be the best means by which my writing has improve. For one thing, most contests give feedback, either through judges’ scoring sheets or through comments from other participants. Then too, … Continue reading
Filed under Word Use, Writing Rules
The Many Layers Of Editing
A group of published authors blogging as a team at Novel Matters recently discussed what an author faces in the editing process. The posts are informative and helpful, I think. Sadly, these articles introduced a contest that is now over. … Continue reading
Filed under Resources, Writing Rules
New Chicago Rules
The Chicago Manual of Style, used widely by fiction writers and editors and by many working with non-fiction, recently came out with their newest edition—number sixteen. The hardback guide isn’t cheap, though Amazon has reduced the price to something more … Continue reading
Filed under Punctuation, Resources, Writing Rules
The Art of Storytelling, Part 2
As I see it, we writers need to be teachable the same way teachers do. At the end of every school year, I would do an evaluation, formal or otherwise, thinking of the ways I wanted to improve the following … Continue reading
Filed under Story, Writing Rules
Good Grammar Does Not Make Good Writing
I’ve been a little surprised to see that the writing-tip posts receiving the greatest number of hits here at Rewrite, Reword, Rework are those on punctuation. I suppose I should have expected this from my teaching experience, but it caught … Continue reading
Filed under Content, Writing Rules
Writing with Intentionality
At the excellent blog Write to Done, I recently read a good article, “The Golden Rule of Writing”, that gave The One Writing Rule for all writers: intend every word you write. Or as I paraphrase it, write with intention. … Continue reading
Filed under Writing Rules
Are Rules Really Rules?
When an editor or critique partner dissects a manuscript, often he or she points out places where the author has “broken” some writer rule. One such common rule is to avoid using -ly adverbs. But are these rules real? They … Continue reading
Filed under Writing Rules
