Saturday So What: Writing Tips

This fall marks the conclusion of my first year as a writer. I've learned a few things along the way. And with everybody busy with holidays and NaNoWriMo, I figured I keep this week's post short and tangy. Here's a few writing tips I have come up with or collected this year:

1. Avoid cliches like the plague

2. It is a good idea to break up really long sentences and complex thoughts into more digestible bits, because otherwise, the writing can be dense, hard to follow, and may leave the reader utterly lost, confused, and wishing they had a match in which to burn the pages of what could possible be a very nice book.

3. Proper punctuation is super important?

4. Many stories were killed by passive voice.

5. It is confusing when a writer switched tense in the middle of a sentence.

6. Sound like a person rather than emerging oneself in superfluous words to imitate the tonality of a book.

7. "Characters should sound different," Bob said. "Yes, characters should sound different," Mary said in agreement.

8. No you're homophones. Their tricky things when too words sound the same, but are spelled differently.

9. The deadline that doesn't kill you, makes you a writer.

10. Never give up. Every thought, every story, is worth finishing. Even the ones