Writing Guidelines

Today, I was reading the Mystery Newsletter I get on writing.com and it had this list of pointers for authors in it. I'm mostly saving it here as a reminder to myself.

When you are ready to start revising your piece, keep these eight things in mind.

1. Read it aloud. Your ears will catch awkward wording your eyes missed. If you are stumbling over parts, or having to go back and re-read something, then it needs to be either reworded or expanded.

2. Listen to your characters' dialogue. Does it sound natural? Does it fit the characters? Be sure you don't have too much dialect in your dialogue. Ya'll is a nice way to show a character is from the South, but if every other word out of your character's mouth is ya'll, then it can get tedious to read. Remember a little goes a long way.

3. Tie up all the loose ends of your story's plot. If you have a minor plot line going be sure to end it. Don't leave your reader hanging at the end wondering what happened to Tony when he went off down that dark alley to help the main character look for clues.

4. Avoid using the same word over and over. Every writer does this, even the most famous. If you are careful, you can catch these minor repeats and replace the overused word with a more suitable one. Buy a good thesaurus and use it.

5. Beware of run-on sentences. A sentence with too many clauses and phrases can be confusing. Try breaking a run-on sentence into two, or shortening it.

6. Be careful of words that sound the same, but have different meanings. They're-there-their all sound the same, but don't mean the same. Same with it's-its. Remember your spell checker isn't going to catch these kinds of typos, you have to.

7. Use exclamation points only when one of the characters, or the writer, is actually exclaiming. It was a wild, exciting ride. Period. No exclamation point. But with, "What a wild, exciting ride!" the exclamation point is right. Be sure to use question marks correctly too.

8. Use your spell check or dictionary to make sure that words you're unsure of are spelled correctly. Spell checker will catch probably 95% of all misspells. The rest you'll have to catch by reading your piece.

Having another person read your work and circle any parts that don't make sense, or need to be revised, will also help you polish your prose. I know some writers, especially new ones, have trouble allowing others to read their work. But that is part of the writing process, allowing the outside world a look at your story.

According to these standards - I am a goddess. Why do I still have so much to work on then? Blah. My sentence structure is naturally confusing. It's because I watched all those 'British Literary' movies when I was a teenager. I'm never going to get that taste out of my mouth and they use unnecessary words all over the place. Especially the ones that take place in the 18 hundreds.

I'm prolly better than I think, and I don't actually think I'm a goddess. I'm more like - a mortal.