Don’t use the almost-right word.
by Andy Scheer
Some writers could learn a lesson from Horton. That’s Horton the elephant, in whose mouth Ted Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) put these words: “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. ”
Sometimes, to their detriment, writers don’t quite … Continue reading
Make your visual descriptions more vivid.
by Andy Scheer
How many crayons does your box hold. Sixteen? Thirty-two? How about two-hundred forty?
That’s the number of terms author Ingrid Sundberg placed in the color thesaurus she compiled to aid her writing.
She started with a dozen basics (white, tan, yellow, orange, red, … Continue reading
Are your novel’s characters distinctive? 
by Andy Scheer
The first writer to “Hints from Heloise” asked if you can use high efficiency detergent in older top-loaders. You can. Standard stuff for Heloise.
But the next item wasn’t. “A.M. in Ohio” wrote:
Dear Heloise: I read a lot. … Continue reading