With this example, we begin with a good picture in fifty-seven words and make a much stronger picture in forty-six words. That’s 20 percent fewer words, which will make readers...

We cannot evoke a feeling of fear in readers’ hearts by telling them “she was frightened.” We must describe the conditions, observations, and actions that show the fear. Paula Hawkins does...

Movies give us only sight and sound, but with words we can stir all five senses and deepen the emotion. Great words from False Memory by Dean Koontz: Crossing the...

A need to be forgiven is a feeling that will touch many hearts. The below paragraph does well. But if we can make it even better, readers might feel an...

What is real to the author may not seem real to readers. When the scene seems less than believable, not entirely true to life, then readers become disengaged to some...

As we write, edit, and rewrite our first, second, and third manuscript drafts, we need to focus on the important point of each paragraph, sharpen it, and drive it home....

Paula Hawkins writes a wonderful paragraph in The Girl on the Train. My days feel empty now I don’t have the gallery to go to any longer. I really miss...

Great words from The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins: The train isn’t stopping today, it trundles slowly past. I can hear the wheels clacking over the points, can...

Your writing will be stronger if you strive to begin a sentence with something other that “it” or “there.” Great words from The Queen by Steven James: It seemed obvious...

Much has been written about Point of View but not much about Point of Focus. What’s the difference? Point of View is the perspective from which a story is told,...