Zoe M. McCarthy's Blog, page 25
December 17, 2015
5 Authors Show How To Avoid Writing a Sagging Middle
“The middle of our story should be the ‘meat’ of the story, as far as conflicts and arcs. Without setting up the obstacles here, any solution in the final act will seem too easy and won’t be as satisfying.” —Jamie Gold I pulled 5 books from my shelves. I paged to the middle scene of […]
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December 10, 2015
7 Writing Habits That Bog Down Your Story
“Avoid on-the-nose writing.” —Jerry Jenkins Here’s a passage from a book published in the 20’s: The Marriage of Barry Wicklow by Ruby M. Ayres. It contains 7 problems that bog the story for today’s reader. I’ve superscripted instances with the problem numbers from the list after the passage. There was1,7 a moment of silence. Barry was […]
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December 3, 2015
5 Things to Do When You Feel Maxed, Empty, and Pressed
“A bee is never as busy as it seems; it’s just that it can’t buzz any slower.” —Kin Hubbard We’re between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Time for commitments has been cut at least by a third to get ready for Christmas. Earlier today, I was behind in my scheduled tasks. During Thanksgiving week, I was to […]
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November 26, 2015
12 Solid Ways to Make Your Writing More Vivid
“Simplicity is a virtue in writing, true; but never the primary virtue. … Vividness is.” —Dwight V. Swain I created the following paragraph, ignoring Dwight V. Swain’s recommendations for vivid writing in his book, Techniques of the Selling Writer. Her car had stopped. She tried to start it again. The engine wouldn’t start. Lissa fearfully evaluated her […]
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November 19, 2015
Make a Splash in Your Story With These “Little” Things
“If you can take a little slice of the world and a little piece of dirt and really focus on details, you can drive large, seemingly spectacular movements.” —David Baldacci (Writer’s Digest November/December 2015) Note the quote from David Baldacci above. It’s from his interview, “Absolute Writer,” by Jessica Strawser. Baldacci’s quote from the interview […]
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November 12, 2015
10 Devices to Increase Your Story’s Pace
“Pacing is a tool that controls the speed and rhythm at which a story is told and the readers are pulled through the story events.” —Jessica Page Morrell We’d wince at these comments in reviews: Too much description and explaining bogged down the story. Everything happened too fast. Left me wanting to know more. Jessica […]
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November 5, 2015
A Smart Strategy: Let Readers Write Portions of Our Stories
“Radio shows of old … Listeners heard simple sound effects and limited descriptions, then filled in the details in their minds. Suddenly they were no longer sitting in front of a radio—they were there.” —Marie Lamba Let readers help write our stories? In the September 2015 Writer’s Digest article, “Reader Is My Copilot,” Marie Lamba convinced […]
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October 29, 2015
Overwhelmed Revising Your Book? Revise in Theses Bites
“It’s hard to see a middle ground between marking up your book line by line and doing a complete rewrite. It’s also hard to know what to fix in revision, and even harder to know when that process is finished.” —Gabriela Pereira In the September 2015 issue of Writer’s Digest, I read Gabriela Pereira’s article, […]
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October 22, 2015
5 Tips to Diagnose Your Website for Problems That Confuse Visitors
“In an endless jungle of websites with text-based content, a beautiful image with a lot of space and colour can be like walking into a clearing. It’s a relief.” —David McCandless (data-journalist, and information designer) I think watching what your website visitors do is important. Tip 1: Make sure your visitors take the action they […]
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October 15, 2015
What Two Experts Say About Writing Dialogue
“What’s the first thing acquisition editors look for when they begin reading a fiction submission? … ‘The first thing I do is find a scene with some dialogue. If the dialogue doesn’t work, the manuscript gets bounced. If it’s good, I start reading.’” —Renni Browne and Dave King (Self-Editing for Fiction Writers) For me, dialogue: […]
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