Skip to main content

What is your greatest nemisis when it comes to writing

For many of us who write part time, time is the biggest enemy we have. Still others its grammar and sintext. After all if you're writing 9th century druids how do you stay within the sintax of the era without having been there.

Research is the key. I spent more hours reading about Ireland and Viking history than I did doing anything else. It took me months to get the information I needed and even then not all of it was correct. There was contradictory information, vague half details, and enough road blocks that more than once I thought about switching time periods. I stuck with it and am happy with the end results.

Of course beyond the syntax of the story there were other challenges. Challenges that I don't really understand because lets face it English is not the easiest language to speak or write. Now you're saying, yeah right. It is so. Nope, I've got friends all over the place that speak and writing in a variety of languages and more than once they've asked me about something and I haven't been able to give them an honest answer - simply because there's three rules for everything we say or do.

Then of course there's the plot. Sticking within the plot would be easy, if you weren't stopping and starting. There's a very good reason that you should have an outline - it'll help you through the dry spells when you're writing. If you just wing it and leave it up, then when you go back, there are plot wholes and characterization problems that may be the deal breaker.

Which brings me to the fact that I love my crit partners and my beta reader. They'll catch things that I would otherwise miss. I can't say thank you often and loud enough.

So those are my pet peeves about writing...what are yours?

Comments

Grammer is the worst for me, and I put in too many commas, and I write run on sentaces can you tell?

And with four finished book length books and two half way done, I need to do revision but keep putting it off by working on yet another book length manuscript.

Janice~
Unknown said…
Hi Janice,

Grammar is a killer. I know I've had a lot of problems with the dreaded comma. Quite frankly I hate the little guy.

I see you've got several finished book length manuscripts, have you ever considered getting a critique and or beta partner to look them over? If you have questions please feel free to read the week long series I did on them, and perhaps I can put your name up on the wanted section of my newsletter coming out this summer!

Popular posts from this blog

Beachwalk Blog Hop

(IN ORDER TO BE IN THE DRAWING FOR PRIZES YOU MUST LEAVE A COMMENT WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS. THERE ARE MANY PRIZES BEING OFFERED IN THIS BLOG HOP. SO DON'T BE SHY, LEAVE A COMMENT AND MESSAGE TO POSSIBLY BE A WINNER.) BEACHWALK PRESS is a great place to be. When I was looking for another home for my short erotic holiday romance, The Cowgirl's Christmas, Pam Tyner was very enthusiastic. She's always shown herself to be someone who is passionate about this business, about the books she has. She's been my editor from the first day and has shown a great amount of skill and passion for it. Not only does she do an amazing job as the editor but she's also a great marketing and promotional support person. Never too busy to answer a question or talk about a new idea for promo. She's one of the best I've ever seen when it comes to communication with both staff and authors. We're a team - a fellowship of writers if you will who can share our trials and trib

What I love about Halloween

In today's world Halloween is often a time to dress up and go door to door looking for treats. Its sort of a time which over the years has become commercialized...and honestly that isn't my favorite part of the holiday. No, I love Halloween for the meaning behind it...for the celebrations of life, of the harvest...for the myths and the legends, for the chance to be someone else for a few hours. Its the ultimate expression of a false face created ages and ages ago for a specific reason. When masks and costumes were designed to ward off the evil spirits which rose from the grave. Regardless of its origins (and yes there is controversy about that) Halloween is a great time to celebrate family. To gather to carve pumpkins, and make treats (not so much anymore), to play pranks on others, and to really just experience life and joy.  For me, Halloween is a time when the paranormal is more readily accepted...when ghosts and goblins roam about with the living and it will always have

Ray Rhamey has arrived!

Thank you Mr. Rhamey for coming by. Its a great pleasure to have you here today. I hope our readers will stop in and ask a lot of questions, maybe post a paragraph or two of their current project to get some fresh insight. "Thank you for having me." 1. How long have you been part of the industry? In the sense that I’ve devoured novels since I was a boy, virtually a lifetime. My first interest in publishing sparked when I graduated from college. But I had a degree in psychology, was in Texas, and had a family that I needed to support--I couldn’t figure out how to get into publishing. So I left that ambition behind. Dissolve to decades later when my advertising career had pretty much run its course due to ageism and economic downturn. I had been writing novels and was a member of a critique group. Based on what I did in our weekly sessions, two members separately asked me to edit their novels. They found what I did to be very helpful. You should understand that I h