by Zoe M. McCarthy | Nov 2, 2017 | Writing
“Your goal is to entice your reader to read the next paragraph. The worst way for your reader to leave each paragraph is reading a vague word, such as his, it, with, there, or was. These words leave the reader with no gist of the paragraph’s meaning or how he should...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Oct 26, 2017 | Writing
Try this exercise and see if you can make the example below more concise by substituting a word for wordy phrases. Have fun. Passage With Wordy Phrases Greg went inside of the house. He didn’t know where Alice had gone to, but the fact of the matter was that he was...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Oct 19, 2017 | Writing
Try this exercise and see if you can improve the example below that over details the movements of the characters. You’ll replace movements with fewer words or delete them. Have fun. First, read the detailed paragraph. The Passage Loaded With Details Dan gripped the...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Oct 12, 2017 | Writing
Try this exercise and see if you can improve the example below containing weak words and phrases. You’ll replace them with stronger words, cut wordiness, and add power words to spice up the piece. Have fun. First, read the flavorless paragraph. The Weak Passage I went...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Oct 5, 2017 | Writing
Like many new writers, I thought I had to create a string of interesting events to make a good story. Some scary, some romantic, some brave, etc. I didn’t see the story as my protagonist’s journey to become someone better. Goals Now I know my protagonist’s internal...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Sep 28, 2017 | Writing
Have you ever felt so frazzled, you couldn’t find the panic button? You may even ask, “How could this happen? I’m an organized person.” Last week as I shuffled through my Writer’s Digest magazines, I spotted the February 2017 issue’s article, “Map Your Writing Time”...
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