All Write - Fiction Advice

Frequent Writing Faults Not the grammar or spelling type, but rather the kind of faults and habits that either creep into our writing,or stop us from writing altogether. Writers are subject to many mistakes when writing, particularly novice writers, but the most common faults are down to how writers approach their writing. Here is a list of my favourite common faults/habits: 1. Overconfidence 2. Weakness in writing 3. Laziness 4. Opinionated Writing 5. Inhibitions 6. Overwriting 7. Incorrect information Overconfidence – It’s universally known that when someone tells you how marvellous he or she is at something, there is a very high chance he or she is not. Take Britain’s Got Talent/American Idol – listen to those who espouse how fantastic they are and how the family think they’re great, only to indulge us, the audience, in toe curling car crash TV. Paradoxically, notice how those who are modest and humble, and are not quite sure about their ability, then come out and astound us. The s...

I've been asked to enlighten the path where split infinitives, apostrophes, adverbs and ambiguity are concerned, so hopefully this installment should clear up some grey areas. Split Infinitives – To split or not to split? That is the question. To answer that, firstly we need to ask: What is a split infinitive? Let’s break it down and start with the infinitive. This is an unmodified verb. There are two kinds of infinitives: full infinitives and bare infinitives. Bare infinitives refer to the basic verb, for instance: • Go • Run • Ask • Brush Full infinitives are created when the word ‘to’ is placed in front of the verb. For example: • To go • To run • To ask • To brush A split infinitive occurs when an infinitive is split in two by an adverb (a word that modifies the verb). I've highlighted the adverb in italics, placed between the split infinitive. For example: • to gracefully dance • to aggressively brush • to boldly go (probably the most famous split infinitive example) De...