GET YOUR WRITING STRAIGHT

I’ve seen some pretty messed up, lazy writing and people make all kinds of excuses for doing so.

“Oh, it’s all about the story.” Yeah, sure.

Nobody considers that the reader has to suffer through this crap.

Nobody considers that readers may not be as dumb as some writers think they are.

Self-publishing can be good or it can be extremely bad.

Don’t blame it all on self-publishing. There are some conventionally published books out there with very bad writing.

Unfortunately, bad writers always point to these bad examples. “See? So and so did it, had a huge best-seller and did just fine!”

I don’t buy that. Sorry.

ALL OVER THE PLACE

Mary went to the store, idly browsing the pasta aisle. I looked at the shelf and told myself I’m going to get some spaghetti this time and I don’t care if Don doesn’t like it. I set the box of noodles in my cart.

            Joann approaches and gives Mary the up and down. I hate her. She’s such a slut.

            Mary noticed a presence behind her but ignored it. She knew who was there and doesn’t want to address the ho-bag Joann. She looks at another box of pasta.

Where do I even begin with this crap? Head-hopping? Mixing tenses from past to present? Mixed third and first-person?

This is the kind of bad writing I see plenty of in drafts, before editing, let alone stuff that actually gets published. Try reading 100K words of this!

MORE AND MORE NO RULES

More and more people are pushing, suggesting, down right advocating not to follow rules of writing because “all that matters is the story.”

You really notice it when you try to slog through a badly written tome then get to one where the author follows the rules and you breeze right through it. There’s a noticeable difference!

A noticeable difference.

People, getting lazy isn’t doing anyone no favors.

I’m not advocating being completely rigid, but geez, let’s get real.

When we talk about breaking a rule, we’re talking a little slip here and there, not out and out ignoring all of them!

As an author, why should you be the one accused of being functionally illiterate?

Think about it.

Happy writing!