Cut Empty Phrases

Readers don’t want filler.

“Vigorous writing is concise,” says William Strunk Jr. in his classic book The Elements of Style. “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that … Continue reading

Review it Cold

You’ll see a lot.

I was proud of the layout I’d just completed. Getting the brief text and the multiple photos to fit took several tries, but finally the elements came together.

Satisfied, I sent the pages to my first reader.

A few hours later, he pointed out a typo, which I marked to fix the next morning.

But the next morning, I reviewed the pages … Continue reading

The Danger of Washboard Prose

Will your readers enjoy the journey?

The other weekend, I started reading two novels. I’d not meant to begin the second so soon, but after several attempts to engage with the first, I gave up.

They were both mass paperback international thrillers. Despite my interest in plot of the first, its prose reminded me of a bad gravel road.

I’d recently encountered such a washboard … Continue reading