Derek Haines

You might have read that starting sentences with the same word is a writing fault. That’s mostly very good advice. Except when it isn’t. Starting several sentences in a row with the same word isn’t automatically wrong. Very often, it’s unintentional or perhaps a sign that your writing needs more variety. However, sometimes repetition is…

When you start a sentence with a description, it’s a quick and easy way to make your writing much more interesting from the very first word. You don’t need to go to extremes because it usually takes only a handful of words to do the job well. Sometimes you already have a description appearing later…

The easiest way to avoid using “it’s important” so often in your writing is to delete it and simply say what is important. It might sound like a trite fix, but the phrase can sometimes sound like an instruction or, at least, a strong recommendation. A lot of the time, it’s just an empty fluff…

If you’re writing fiction, telling adjectives are an easy form of telling to overlook. It’s easy to skip past them because they’re such a quick way to move a story forward. However, speed is not always the best option. Very often, using a simple adjective is a missed opportunity to show a reader what’s happening,…

The reason I keep writing is because that’s what I’ve done since I was around fifteen. At first, it was poems and short stories, then song lyrics, and later, with the internet, blog posts and books. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t write, but I’ve never made it a daily ritual. However, most…