Zoe M. McCarthy's Blog, page 26
October 8, 2015
6 Questions to Ask to Take Your Paragraphs from Blah to Ah
“I huff and puff and struggle with every sentence, paragraph and page – sometimes every word as well.” — Aidan Chambers Ask these 6 questions about your paragraphs. I’ll use the following paragraph as an example. 1Before the fateful telephone call, Ella put cut up peaches on a baking sheet. 2She thought Cal would be […]
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October 1, 2015
16 Words You May Avoid Because You Can’t Recall 8 Rules
“[Word usage is] something teachers generally expect you to pick up on your own, and it’s the thing you’re most likely to get skewered for if you screw up.” — Mignon Fogarty Below are common word-usage errors. My resources are Mignon Fogarty’s Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing and Kathy Ide’s Proofreading […]
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September 24, 2015
A Timesaving, Stress-Reducing & Content-Refining Model for Bloggers
“Create content that teaches. You can’t give up. You need to be consistently awesome.” — Neil Patel Here’s a model that has kept me: Constant in publishing blogs Consistent outside and inside my content Concise in wording my content Clear in my content Creative in brainstorming blog ideas and selecting photos and quotes 1. Decide […]
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September 17, 2015
How You Can Use Life’s Connections to Inspire Your Writing
My guest today is LoRee Peery. LoRee shares an example of how she received inspiration and employed it in writing Where Hearts Meet. LoRee is generously offering a PDF giveaway of Where Hearts Meet to one of this week’s commenters (9/17 – 9/23/2015). Be sure to learn more about LoRee and Where Hearts Meet following […]
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September 10, 2015
After Research, I Know What the Elusive Writer’s Voice Really Is
“To me, your writer’s voice is the expression of YOU on the page.” — Rachelle Gardner A few years ago, I found my writer’s voice while I wrote a short story. At that time, I couldn’t define what writer’s voice is. Now I’ve done research, and made a list of writers’ definitions. On my list, […]
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September 3, 2015
5 Steps to Find the Comparable Novels Publishers Want in Your Proposal
“Include books that are similar to yours in theme, tone, style and/or genre.” — Rachelle Gardner I’ve noticed writers, myself included, struggling to find comparable books for publishers. Many blogs explain why publishers want Comparable Titles and how to write this proposal section. But, I found little on how to find novels comparable to mine. […]
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August 27, 2015
10 Awesome Quotes from Writing Experts to Stick on Your Computer
“The skill of a skilled writer tricks you into thinking that there is no skill.” —Dwight V. Swain (Techniques of the Selling Writer) I recommend the following books on the craft of writing. Here are quotes from each to inspire you to get a copy or reread the one on your shelf. On Writing by […]
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August 20, 2015
Greatly Improve Your Manuscript by Reducing One Word
“Of is a proposition, and although not an inherently evil word, overusing it can make your writing sound passive and fussy.” — Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl) In a recent post, I promoted the word processor Find feature to eliminate weak words and phrases. On my own manuscript, I discovered reducing one particular word greatly improved […]
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August 13, 2015
8 Smart Questions to Ask as You Start, Alter, or Join a Critique Group
“The process of critiquing other writers’ work thoughtfully and intelligently will help you strengthen your own writing.” — Melissa Donovan Critiquing is valuable to success…unless you find yourself in the wrong critique group. Use the following questionnaire to: Revamp your floundering group Start a new compatible group Join the right existing group Questionnaire […]
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August 6, 2015
Devious Clichés Masquerading as Fine Writing in Your Stories
“One of the standard Words of Advice that writers—new and old—get, is to avoid clichés. The advice itself is rather a cliché but, like all clichés, it is based on truth, and it would be wrong to reflexively ignore it.” — Madeleine Robbins I like today’s quote. So, what do writing professionals say about clichés? […]
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