Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 100

Thoughts on Cringing

 Q: Is there any of your published writing that you’re not particularly proud of any more? Give us an example of something you’ve written that made you cringe. Why does it make you feel that way and what have you learned since you wrote it?

- from Susan

The question means my crime writing fiction, I think? I’ve written and had published a lot more than that over time. (At a convention bar, ask me about my hard-hitting investigative reporting on a local funeral home and crematorium.) 

Probably a few...

Style Counsel

 by Abir

Has your writing style evolved over the years? If so, tell us how, and what the drivers of those changes were.

I’m going to tell you a secret. I find it hard to read, A Rising Man, my first published novel. I only started writing it 2014, and it was published a mere five years ago, but I find myself cringing at so many passages: so many clunky turns of phrase; so many over-florid metaphors; so many over-detailed descriptions. 

 

I find it difficult to read the second novel, A Necessary Evil...

Talkin’ ’bout My Evolution

Has your writing style evolved over the years? If so, tell us how, and what the drivers of those changes were.

I know my writing style has evolved over the years. To quantify how much is hard to say, but I feel I have progressed, nay, improved, as a writer. That’s not to say I’m a fine writer or even a serviceable one. It only means I’m better today than I was yesterday. And certainly an improvement over what I was when my first book was published.

Let’s discuss how I think my writing has improved...

A Little Pizzazz

Has your writing style evolved over the years? If so, tell us how, and what the drivers of those changes were.

by Dietrich

I don’t know if my style has changed that much, but, there’s a different approach going from one story to the next — a different attitude, rhythm, tone, and pace.

The early novels were set in present time, and I used simple language and often relied on short, clipped or fragmented sentences, which lent a staccato rhythm. When I started writing historical novels, I went a little...

Which Came First?

 

Terry Shames here talking about writing style—has it changed? And what drove the change? 
 Here’s a good definition of “style”: Style means the mechanical or technical aspects of writing, and may be specific to the requirements of the subject or topic. 
 A couple of years ago, I bought a new desk. In honor of it, I decided to go through all my old, abandoned manuscripts and see if there were any worth keeping. When I started reading, I was shocked at how amateurish the writing was. There were not...

Cha ... cha... cha... Changes

Has your writing style evolved over the years? If so, tell us how, and what the drivers of those changes were.

Brenda Chapman starting off the week.

I'm certainly hoping that my writing style has evolved since I look at the craft as a moving target that improves with experience and practice. I'd think it a rare writer who comes out fully developed, writing their best work from the get go, never learning or improving. What's the challenge and fun in that?!

I started writing poetry and studied creati...

Stop Rebelling and Learn to Take Editorial Advice. By Josh Stallings

 Q: Bad Advice – Not everything works for everybody. Give us some examples of writing advice, given to you in good faith, which just didn’t work for you. Tell us why you think it didn’t work.

“What am I rebelling against? Whadda you got?” - That’s from Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones. Words young me lived by. I distrusted authority and advice sounded like rules to be broken. This allowed me to create inventive and award winning movie trailers in my early twenties. It also made learning tough.

I did...

Just do everything that I'm didactically telling you to. By Catriona

Q: Not everything works for everybody. Give us some examples of writing advice, given to you in good faith, which just didn’t work for you. Tell us why you think it didn’t work.

Give some examples, you say?  Looks to me like this is a job for a listicle. So, in acsending order of . . . hm . . . controversialty? . . . here are my top five pieces of bad advice I've been given. They don't work for me. They might work for you. (Listen to what I'm saying = the worst advice of all.)

5. Time Travel

I'v...

GUEST POST: Clea Simon and HOLD ME DOWN

It's my pleasure to welcome Clea Simon this week, as my guest. Although we enjoyed a lovely lunch together at Bouchercon, Dallas, in 2019, this photo was taken (at the bar - no surprises there!) at Bouchercon, St. Petersburg, in 2018.
As some wag famously said, “Writing about music is like bicycling about architecture.”   What that wit didn’t say is that it’s also a great opportunity for crime fiction.

The rock and roll subculture of the ‘80s and ‘90s, a world that I came up in as a critic and so...

Advice Is NOT Universal...

Bad Advice – Not everything works for everybody. Give us some examples of writing advice, given to you in good faith, which just didn’t work for you. Tell us why you think it didn’t work.

From Frank

Look, I'm all for writing advice. It's how we get better - listening and learning from our peers (and especially our betters). And the basic tenets of good writing are what they are.

But.

Like the headline says, advice is not universal. Nothing applies to everyone, all the time. And feedback is just some...