Writing

For any piece of writing, knowing when to stop editing is as important as editing itself. Whether it’s an article, an essay, or a book manuscript, over-editing can be a mistake. The more you edit, the more chance you have of losing your writing voice. The value of editing is greatest in the early stages.…

Yes, it’s absolutely grammatically correct to modify an adverb with another adverb. However, being grammatically correct doesn’t necessarily mean that a phrase sounds natural or is easy to read. It’s perfectly normal to say, “He did quite well in the essay competition.” But does “He did absolutely horribly in the essay competition” sound like a…

You know that repetitive sentence starters make for poor writing and, worse, poor reading. A quick scan down your draft can reveal repeated sentence starters, particularly at the beginning of paragraphs. With a little more proofreading, you’ll probably find more. Luckily, it’s a pretty easy problem to overcome. All you need to do is change…

Most advice on wasted words in writing focuses on removing weak modifiers, unnecessary adverbs, and empty sentence starters. The usual targets are words like just, really, very, and actually, along with phrases such as “With that in mind…” or “Just to be clear…” When I use my writing checker, it highlights plenty of words and…

Plot holes are one of the most annoying parts of writing a novel. It takes so long to write a book that it’s easy to get events or timelines wrong when the details might be chapters apart. The problems can be simple things, minor details, or a glaring inconsistency that readers will definitely notice. But…

If you use free writing tools, will they help make you a better writer? No, they will rarely improve your writing skills, but they can help you spot things you might miss. That’s the big upside with online writing tools, because you can treat them as a second pair of eyes. Keep in mind, though,…

Is it true that you need to avoid starting sentences with certain words? You’ve probably read many times that you shouldn’t begin a sentence with and, but, or so. But are these rules, guidance, or simply opinions repeated so often online that they sound like rules? No, they’re not rules you need to follow to…

If you want to break the comma rules, go right ahead. Before you do, though, make sure you understand the rules. That way, you’ll know exactly which one you’re breaking. When you use a grammar checking tool, I’m sure you’ve seen your checker telling you to omit a comma, and if you do, it immediately…

I know the advice. I understand the advice. I even give writing advice. And then I happily break things when I think I have a better idea. That’s the great thing about advice. It’s not a set of rules you can’t break, but a collection of options, opinions, and suggestions you can choose to use.…

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…