Writing And Reviewing

'..any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated' Go into 'word' or 'notepad', take a deep breath, and type as fast as you can. Don't hesitate, stop to correct anything, or spend any time contemplating what you're writing; just write. Spend about 5 minutes doing this. When you're finished, read through it, and be surprised how you've just emptied everything in your subconcious. It's a nice warm up before getting down to some proper writing time. ;) There's nothing more mind-teasing than the incomprehensible eagerly avowed - Dennett

reading your work in progress a number of things stand out that you need to work on if your writing is to be taken seriously. Always check spelling and grammar carefully. You use 'starred' when you mean 'stared' a few times. punctuation always goes inside the speech marks. Always read your work out loud, if you stumble over sentences then the reader will. separate para's with a line break for e-publishing and put speech on separate lines. very difficult to read on screen. Avoid cliches e.g, chiselled face. A writer needs to explain every day things in a fresh way. Show not tell. e.g. my face was hot. I touched my cheek, the heat seeped into my fingers. (something like that) And read as much as you can. Juliet

Hi Ronald I've only glanced at your piece so far, but just a quick thought - I notice you type, as some people do, without leaving any space after punctuation. There really should be a space after every comma, full stop, etc., otherwise the readability suffers. Every little helps, eh? Lou ~ www.fabulousmother.com

Oh well. ~ www.fabulousmother.com

Hi Ron Sorry, just me being an overly fussy typesetter. What I meant was, just because there's a punctuation mark, doesn't mean you can do without the white space between words. There should be a space after the punctuation mark and before the word that follows it. As in, blah, blah. Blah. Not,blah,blah.Blah. I've expressed that very badly but I hope it makes some sort of sense… Good luck with your writing. Lou ~ www.fabulousmother.com

Dear Ron, of course you can email - but there is tons of good advice on the net that will help you to improve. Joining a writers group is also a useful way to get feedback. Local libraries should know of any of any in your area. And yes i am from UK good luck and sort the punctuation out :) Juliet