Writing Blog Roundup: avoid clichés, sabotaging gift, forget theme, booklover sterotypes, setting scene

Some recent articles on writing that I have read:

• What’s A Cliché? Overused Words To Avoid In Your Writing. Pay attention to words that habitually end up on your editing room floor.
• How You May Be Sabotaging Your Gift to Write Words That Matter. As writers, we are by our very nature, critical thinkers, but for some reason we don’t think too much about the ramifications of our own counterintuitive self-talk.
• Forget theme! Instead ask, “And so, what’s my point?” Theme is something writers often talk about, especially literary writers.
• These Stereotypes About Book Lovers Are Absolutely True, And That’s A Good Thing. From grade school onwards, avid readers get a lot of flak.
• Setting the Scene for a Good Story. I know you are not supposed to, but I do judge a book, at least whether I am going to buy it or not, based on the picture on the front of the book.