Wednesday, June 1, 2011

My ABC's of Writing: Brought to You by the Letter C


Uh-oh! Three days in a row. This is really happening! Today's entry is brought to you by the letter "C."


We writers are a tortured, protective, and superstitious lot. We fixate on the idea of someone stealing our ideas, we guard our stories like mother hens. But the solitary life of a writer is lonely and unfulfilling. So we form secret critique group cells with clandestine email lists and meet in strange, dark places...like the basement of our local library.

Thank you, critique group.

Without your cold, hard, literate "suggestions," we couldn't begin to write anything of consequence.

Without your unrelenting observations about the glaring weaknesses in our writing--the overuse of the semicolon, the tendency to use "that" too often, our inexplicable love for the em dash--we would be nothing.

A is for AGENT
B is for BETA READERS

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