Before I started working in charity communications, I spent four years teaching English as a foreign language in Prague and London. One of my first classes was full of Czech bankers who gave up their Saturdays to learn English. They were an intermediate-level group, so they could make themselves understood but were far from fluent.… Continue reading Tools for culling repetitious words from your writing
Tag: language
Are men worse at writing sex than women?
The Literary Review has announced its nominees for the 2011 Bad Sex in Fiction Award. If you’re not familiar with the Bad Sex in Fiction award, I can’t describe it any better than Jezebel magazine does: [E]ach year the Literary Review has singled out an author who writes awkwardly enough about sex to convince readers… Continue reading Are men worse at writing sex than women?
Ten tips on writing characters with accents, by Rose Lerner
Anyone who’s read one of Rose Lerner’s novels (In for a Penny and A Lily Among Thorns) will know that her characters come from a wide range of backgrounds. Rose is a master at writing accents so a reader can hear her characters’ distinctive voices. She’s very generously written this post on how she writes… Continue reading Ten tips on writing characters with accents, by Rose Lerner
Five things novelists should do when writing for the web
In my day job, I manage the content for a large charity website. I spend lots of time training my colleagues on writing for the web. When I visit authors’ websites, I’m sometimes struck by the simple ways they could make their sites easier to use. Last week Roni Loren wrote about the ten components… Continue reading Five things novelists should do when writing for the web
Attack of the overbearing body parts
For some reason, my first drafts tend to be dominated by one body part, and it’s probably not one you’d expect, considering I’m a romance writer. I hadn’t realized I had a bullying body part until one of my beta readers returned her incredibly helpful comments on the novel manuscript I wrote last year. Throughout… Continue reading Attack of the overbearing body parts