Know your grammar. If you don’t, check it. Buy yourself a grammar book, dictionary and thesaurus, and use them. If you don’t, copy-editing will be a long, painful and costly process. Better to get it right yourself in the first place. And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet: Writers’ BLOCKbusters: know your grammar http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1ut #writingtips via @SandraDanby
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Archives for grammar
Writing tips: creating characters
Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for [tip: Kurt Vonnegut] And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet: Writers’ BLOCKbusters: creating characters http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1ur #writingtips via @SandraDanby
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Writing tips: read on the page not the screen
When re-drafting, print the m/s and read it on the page. Write your corrections in coloured pen so they are easy to spot, and tick them once you’ve made the correction. I date things too, but that’s just my journalistic background showing. Once I’ve corrected everything on a page, I draw a line across it. And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet: Writers’ BLOCKbusters: read on the page http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1uo #writingtips via @SandraDanby
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Writing tips: be disconnected
Work on a computer which is not connected to the internet. [tip: Zadie Smith] And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet: Writers’ BLOCKbusters: be disconnected http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1ul #writingtips via @SandraDanby
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Writing tips: no clichés
Cut all clichés. If you don’t know what a cliché is, Google it. And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet: Writers’ BLOCKbusters: no clichés http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1ui #writingtips via @SandraDanby
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Writing tips: if in doubt, cut it out
My second favourite George Orwell tip is ‘If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out’. And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet: Writers’ BLOCKbusters: cut it out http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1ud #writingtips via @SandraDanby
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Writing tips: learn to recognize repetition as you write
Develop a second sense for repetition. Not just words, but favourite phrases. If you know you are guilty of over-using a phrase, use ‘find’ on Word and change every repetition to red. Then re-write it. And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet: Writers’ BLOCKbusters: learn to recognize repetition as you write http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1tU #writingtips via @SandraDanby
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