Kurt Vonnegut was a great writer. He was an author with a unique voice, and he once published some of his insight with a short piece that I now want to share, titled How to write with style. He published fourteen novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five non-fiction books throughout his career. After…
Tag: editing
How to Edit Well: 14 Micro Editing Tips.
Here’s an editing cheat sheet. I’ve used it for almost ten years since the most influential teacher of my life handed it to me. In ‘The best writing advice anyone has given me‘ and ‘Should writers worry about offending readers,’ I shared advice from Carl Tighe and Moy McCrory. But it was Adrian Buckner, another…
Be Succinct in your Writing.
Your writing is more cluttered than you realise. Mine, too. I know because I see it every time I read through and edit. When working through our first and second drafts, be on the lookout for everything that doesn’t need to be there. Be succinct in your writing, focus on one flower instead of the entire…
Kill Your Darlings.
For some, it’s a fundamental and obvious piece of writing advice that they’ve practiced for years. To others, it sounds so odd that following it would be detrimental to your writing. Because why would you want to kill your darlings? Aren’t they supposed to be cherished and nurtured? This post will show what the phrase…
Carver and Lish: how much editing is too much?
Raymond Carver was a short story writer and poet, recognized as one of America’s greatest writers. But how much of that is down to his editor, Gordon Lish? And how much editing is too much? Creative Writing degrees love Carver. His stories are short, and his writing is a perfect model for minimalism. And at university, Carver became…