Author: andrewmfriday
-
Writing Style Outcasts: Adverbs
High school cliques appear in most young adult fiction. And in real life. Yes, they are tropes found in 13 Reasons Why, The Hate You Give and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but that’s only because cliques actually do exist in high schools. Yes, the popular kids roam around like royalty because they’ve managed…
-
Friday’s Findings
Sometimes I find myself using the same gestures for my characters over and under and over again. I think I’m guilty of making them “furrow their eyebrows” a lot. While the gestures and body language suggestions from the first item in today’s list is not exhaustive, it can give you ideas for your own variety…
-
15 Amazing Ways to Create a Book Title
I think I’ve changed the name of my WIP three times; however, I’m glad I did. Here is an infographic I found on creating book titles.
-
Friday’s Findings
Semicolons. I think of them as the yellow on a traffic stoplight. But I admit it. I love using the semicolon. When I write a rough draft, I indulge my semicolon addiction, but when I self-edit, I have to rewrite most of the sentences where I use them. They are like spice; I use them…
-
Show Don’t Tell: Misunderstood But Important
Call me weird, but I find “Show Don’t Tell” articles interesting. The following is a recent post at Reddit.com about this writing concept in the Writing subreddit: This is one of the most misunderstood rules in all of prose fiction. It’s important to understand that every single sentence you write is simultaneously telling one thing…
-
The Worst Thing About All This
I wrote this last week as I tried to grasp how much sacrifice we are all going to make. My heart goes out to those families who have lost loved ones, the biggest sacrifice of all. Even though the following is about something less devastating, it is my attempt to express how I came to…
-
Friday’s Findings
While being at home this week, I took a Udemy.com course called How to Plan and Outline Novels (Using Scrivener). I loved the simplicity of how the instructor, novelist Sean Platt, broke down the novel writing process. And I got a lot of great ideas for using Scrivener. The course is only about two hours…
-
Some Reading Suggestions for the Socially-Isolated
I am actually on vacation this week, not just socially-isolated. But I am doing everything to protect myself and others: staying home, washing my hands, wearing gloves when shopping, staying home, staying home, and staying home. Did I say I’m staying home? No coffee shop? No church? No movies? No getting together with friends? By…
-
Friday's Findings
I always think of my first draft as a lump of clay I’ve been working on for only a few minutes. It’s wet and soggy and unpainted, but I know it’s unfinished and the best is yet to come. Why Your First Draft Isn’t Crap Stop Killing Your Creative Genius How a Career Can Reveal…
Andrew M. Friday 