Writing Lesson 3.22_Verbs That Leap, Love, or . . . Lose

Verbs, verbs, verbs. Get used to it, because now that you’re a writer, you’ll hear about them often and be told again and again to make them stronger. What in the world is a stronger verb anyway? It’s one that leaps into a reader’s visualization of a scene. It shows love or pain in such […]

Writing Lesson 2.32 – Pass the Action, Please!

In its most basic form, a sentence consists of a noun and a verb, an actor and an action, someone doing something. Jesus wept. The cat sat. A quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. We can extend this action by adding a direct object–something that carries the action. This structure tells us, in […]

Writing Lesson 2.21 – Get Into Character

Experimenting with First Person Point of View I’ve noticed lately how many best-sellers are written in 1st person point of view–especially young adult novels. When a story is written in 1st person, the author writes as if they are the main character, telling the story in their own words. (As opposed to 3rd person, where […]

Writing Lesson 2.16 – Write Better-Read & Review

You may have heard it said that good writers are those who read. Chances are you already love reading. Each of us has our own tastes and preferences when it comes to reading. Some love action books, others prefer a sweet romance.  And within each book genre there are many flavors, so that one action […]

Writing Lesson 2.9 – 10 Common Mistakes Writers Make

After teaching writing and critiquing many chapters for the past several years, I’ve come up with a list of the common mistakes I see in manuscripts.