How NOT To Write a Story, a most excellent blog post by J.A. Konrath.
Truly, there are conflicting Dos and Don’ts out there, so many in fact that you may find yourself quite confused. There are a few things on Konrath’s Don’t list that other sources might not agree with. (I’m all for watching your exclamation points and using them as sparingly as possible, but not eliminating them altogether. It’s stupid, if you don’t use a tag, to have your character yell with a period or a comma. “I said get out of there,” doesn’t cut it in the yelling department.) However… if you’re still in the beginning and intermediate stages of honing your craft and finding your way, Konrath’s list will definitely give you a leg up on the competition and erase the “amateur” stamp on your forehead.
He knows what he’s talking about.
Filed under: fiction writing, help for writers
