Stuart Aken's Blog, page 198

Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 40.

Writers enjoy sharing ideas to improve their craft. Here are some tricks to trim your writing. Readers will appreciate the absence of these common redundancies and flabby expressions. Dwindle down: Can you dwindle up? I don’t think so. e.g. Attendances at football matches have dwindled down since clubs started paying players ludicrous amounts and charging […]

Creative #Writing #Contests Page Update Reminder

This week’s reminder that the table has been updated on the website. Whenever you visit the page, the table will be as up to date as it is on my home computer; it updates each time I ‘save’ to the table. You can access it by clicking here.Filed under: Author, Creative Writer, Prizes Tagged: Author, […]

Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 39.

Writers like to share ideas to improve their craft. Here are some ways to trim your writing. Readers will appreciate the removal of these common redundancies and flabby expressions. Desirable benefit: Do you know of an undesirable benefit? I thought not. e.g. What desirable benefit does a racehorse owner obtain from his horse? Try: What […]

After rereading Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing …

Originally posted on Books: Publishing, Reading, Writing:
Ray Bradbury, 1997(Photo Credit: Steve Castillo/Associated Press) I’ve just finished rereading Ray Bradbury’s brilliant but brief book on writing – about how he wrote, and what he thought writing should mean to all authors – and I must say that I feel particularly exhilarated, refreshed, and ready to…

Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 38.

As writers, we generally share ideas to improve our craft. Here are some ways to trim our writing. Readers will appreciate us removing these common redundancies and flabby expressions. Descend down: I’m fairly certain it’s not possible to descend in any direction but down, so the qualifier is not needed. e.g. The pirate captain forced […]

Shortlist announced for the 2016 OWT Short Fiction Competition

Great news when one of your stories is selected. Source: Shortlist announced for the 2016 OWT Short Fiction CompetitionFiled under: Uncategorized

Creative Writing Contests Page Updated

Here’s this week’s reminder that the table has been updated on the website. In fact, whenever you visit the page, the table will be as up to date as it is on my home computer, as it updates each time I ‘save’ to the table. You can access it by clicking here.Filed under: Author, Creative […]

Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 37.

As writers, we generally share ideas to improve our craft. Here are some ways to trim our writing. Readers will appreciate us removing these common redundancies and flabby expressions. Depreciate in value: Can something depreciate in anything other than some form of value? I can’t think of anything, but by all means educate me. e.g. […]

Cut The Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 36.

We writers generally enjoy sharing ideas to improve our craft. Here are some ways to trim our writing. Readers will appreciate us removing these common redundancies and flabby expressions. The recent celebration of love via St. Valentine’s Day, that tacky, commercialised occasion much promoted by florists and the sellers of cards and chocolates, prompted me […]

Longlist announced for the 2016 OWT Short Fiction Prize

Originally posted on Online Writing Tips:
After numerous arguments, fallings out, and snide comments about each other’s judgement, we have a longlist! First, let me say a massive thank you to everyone who entered: it’s been a delight reading such a diverse range of writing from all over the world, and it’s been really hard…