A few words from Gary Davison's blog...

 I was looking for something in my bookshelf and came across this little beauty. A note book. RRP 69p, but it means so much more to me. This is one of the first set of notes I made when I started teaching myself to write. Must have been getting on for ten years ago, and it’s unbelievable how I started off.

Can you read that? Here're a few of the corkers:

Too many his and her

Too many adjectives - his green old battered Honda

Use dialogue more to reveal characters and move story along quicker

Watch out for wordiness - using same word a lot

Try not to make judgements about a character

Mix dialogue with actions

When editing if you have mentioned the senses, try changing them for actions ie I could smell the cigar smoke - his face was obscured by a puff of cigar smoke

Replace verbs with strong verbs

Don’t use single quotes for thoughts use italics

I’m exhausted just thinking about it! Christ almighty, them were t’days. If you’re starting out writing, this should be the boost you need to know you can get published. I’m far from the real deal or finished article and I’m still teaching myself, but if I can get from that level to Waterstones, there’s hope for us all.

Gary

To read more blogs from Gary visit www.gary-davison.com