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Suggestions for Writers
A Practical Guide to the Craft
The links below are to pages containing information relevant to the many faces of being an author. From the legalities of copyrights to critiquing someone else's manuscript to editing your own work and beyond. Click the links to start reading. It's not a definitive list and should not be construed to be legal advice either. That's why this section is titled 'Suggestions'.
For legal information check out the links to the relevant laws and acts or do your own research. Or invest in the services of a lawyer specialising in publishing.
Drawn from various classes, conferences, books, critiques (both giving and receiving!), and practical experience, the following pages contain a fair chunk of what I've learnt over the years about writing. How I apply it in my own writing is still 'a work in progress'.
If you notice an error, have updated information, or a suggesion to offer, please email me.
~ The Legalities of Copyright ~
Copyrighting an Idea? The Idea/Expression Dichotomy
Copyrighting a Manuscript?
The Berne Convention
Public Domain
Derivative Works
Copyright Acts
~ Comments on Manuscript Style Elements ~
Word Usage
Textual Clarity & Conciseness
Story Structure
Authorial Intrusion
Grammar and Punctuation
Plot
~ The Following pages are still under construction but should all be active by the end of June 2007 ~
~ Essays ~
Show & Tell: Achieving the Essential Balance
Word Usage
Writing the Killer Novel - Mysteries and Suspense/Thrillers
Sustaining Narrative Tension
~ Pointers for Submission of a Manuscript ~
Manuscript Format
Sending Your Manuscript Out
Agents and Editors
General Bonus Features - what to remember
~ The Meat of Writing and Critiquing ~
Adjectives
Adverbs
Authorial Intrusion
Background Information
Black Space versus White Space
Chapter Hooks -- Grabbing Your Reader and Thrusting Them into Your Story
Character Construction
Character Continuity
Character Sympathy
Character Description Matching
Character Knowledge Base
Character Voice
Choreography
Choreography -- Scenes About Sex and Other Action
Cliches
Commas -- Missing in Action
Commas -- Nouns of Address
Comma Splice Error
Comma Use Goes Overboard
Confusing the Reader Unnecessarily
Could'a, Would'a and Should'a
Description -- How Much is Enough?
Dialogue
Dialogue -- Tag Usage
Dialogue -- Tags and Punctuation
Direct Thought
Ellipsis Usage in Stories
Emotion -- Avoiding Melodrama
Empty Phrases -- removing 'filler'
Figurative Techniques -- Types
Flashback -- Now versus Memory
Foreshadowing
Hyphenation
Implications through Word Choice
Inappropriate Language
Literary Terminology
Modify your use of Modifiers
Overblown and Overused Words -- some of the more common ones
Page Turning -- Moving the Reader Onwards Through Time
Paragraph Construction
Paragraph Structure
Paragraph -- Dialogue and its Structure I
Paragraph -- Dialogue and its Structure II
Paring Down Your Writing Through Elimination
Passage of Time
Passive Voice
Passive Voice -- to be and its variations
Planned Chronological Disorder
Plot -- Defining The Elements of Plot
Point of View -- Types Thereof
Possessive Apostrophe
Pronoun Reference
Punctuating Dialogue
Quotations
Reader Feeder
Reality in Description
Redundancy
Rhetorical/Figurative Devices/Techniques
Scene Breaks
Self-Editing -- Why Do This?
Sentences - run-on, unclear and unvaried
Sentence Structure -- Grammatically Correct Sentences
Showing Versus Telling - Summarizing Your Story is a Bad Idea
Starting before the best moment
Story Setting
Story Structure
Summary -- Avoid This and Go For the Guts of Your Story
Symbolism
Tags -- Additional Punctuation
Taking a Tangential Path
Target Audience
Textual Continuity
Time Frames -- Past and Present Tense
Tone in Your Writing
Tone - inconsistent/inappropriate
Transitions
Unnecessary Repetition -- General Confusion
Unnecessary Repetition -- Proper Names
Unnecessary words - analyse the use of
Variety within the sentence
Verbs
Weak Nouns
Word Choice
Wordiness - cutting excess words:
Writing Style
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2001-2008