The Write Life for You Series: WORDS

Becoming a Lifelong Learner of the Craft of WritingBy author, editor, educator Shon Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

The Write Life for You is a series of articles on the writing craft. Past articles have focused on building character, developing a solid plot, and harnessing a writing style. In May's article, I look at WORDS - overwriting, commonly confused words, and more.


Here's a snippet...

OVERWRITING

Overwriting is a redundancy issue. We see this in newspaper articles all the time. A writer will quote a source, and then he/shewill paraphrase the quote. The paraphrase is repetitive, redundant.

In stories, we can see this when an action occurs and then the characters talk about what just happened instead of moving the story forward. We see this when a writer uses dialogue to “tell” instead of to “reveal” - especially when what he/she is telling has already been shown.

When we overwrite, we slow the reading for the readers because they want to know what happens NEXT - not what already happened.

Outlining can help to combat some overwriting issues. If you have an outline, you can look from scene to scene, from chapter to chapter to see if each component is moving your story forward.

Head to APOOOBOOKS.COM to read the rest of my latest article in The Write Life for You series!

Leave comments!