Movies and TV shows thoroughly dominate our modern conception of storytelling, and I often worry that clear physical description in novels has become a bit of a lost and underappreciated art. Aspiring writers often rush past scene-setting to get to conversations, which carry disproportionate weight in scenes. Over-reliance on dialogue is one of the most […]
Prose
Describe characters and settings when they’re first introduced
An extremely common writing foible I see when I’m editing novels reads like this… “Hey!” Nathan heard a voice say. Nathan turned to see someone approach him on the sidewalk. “What are you doing?” the man asked. “Hey, Egya! Working on a blog post about why it’s confusing when characters and settings are only belatedly […]
Action, then reaction
It feels a bit strange posting writing advice into the void given the events of the past week, but since many of you are likely channeling your emotions into writing these days, I wanted to write a quick tip about action. I often see a peculiar writing tic where writers rush and put the dramatic […]
Don’t fear repeating pronouns
Allow me to reintroduce you to the word “they.” It is a useful word. A versatile word. A word that so completely disappears into the background you don’t need to worry about repeating it. For some reason lots of writers are scared of pronouns. They find all sorts of convoluted ways of avoiding them. For […]
