Writing Advice / tips and looking at Blogs

If anyone has been reading and following my blog [Yay! Thanks! ;)] you will already know that I think Steve Berry is Terrific!

[And Don’t even get me started on his wife!!!]

I have talked about in posts before about the Writing Workshops that Steve and his wife give, that are totally Fabulous! No matter what your stage or where you are in your writing. [I talk abut them more, I assure you, just look thro' a few past entries and I'm sure you'll see mentions.]

Steve’s books are very good as well, and one of the very few writers that my husband has insisted we collect all the books.

So I am a big fan of Steve, and his wife, so when I came across this in a blog…

a Great blog b-t-w, you should definitely check it out as well - of course I had to bring notice to Steve’s great writing advice.

[If he and his wife ever write and put out a writing / marketing book - well, I’ll be All over That as well! ]

So here’s the great Writing Advice from Steve Berry.

Here’s the great blog where I saw it listed - Jody Renner Editing blog. And she has a great list of Conferences! Hopefully she’ll add the James River Writers Conference to the list as well. ;)

There really is a Lot of great info’ on the blog so be sure to check it out.

Also check out this other great blog I discovered - from a reading / book perspective. And who of us doesn’t need that, right? So many books to read - so much that gets in the way. :(

So you should know which ones you should move to the top of the ‘to read first’ stack, right?

And so many blogs to explore. Come on, I’m not the only one that ends up clicking on blogs and clicking on their blogs, and…. somehow end up coming out hours later on the other side of the known blog universe. Am I?

So where’ve you been lately? Come on, you can tell us. We’re all friends here. :::Grin::::

Check out blogs.

And of course go check out Steve’s Own site, and his books!

Then come back and let’s chat about the blog travels.

And books of course! ;)

From Jody Renner Editing blog

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2010

STEVE BERRY'S EIGHT RULES OF FICTION

When I was at Thrillerfest, the International Thriller Writers' Annual Writing Conference, in New York City last July, I attended an excellent workshop by bestselling thriller writer Steve Berry. He gave us eight key rules that all successful fiction writers should know and follow:

1. There are no rules. You can do anything you want as long as it works.

2. Don't bore the reader. You can bore the reader in a sentence, in a paragraph, by misusing words, poorly choosing words, using the wrong length, etc.

3. Don't confuse the reader. Don't misuse point of view. Don't do too much at once.

4. Don't get caught writing. Don't let you, the author, enter the story. (E.g., "And he never would see Memphis again." How would anyone other than the author know that the character would never see Memphis again?)

5. Shorter is always better. Write tight. It makes you use the best words in the right way.

6. Don't lie to the reader. It's okay to mislead, but don't lie. If you say the character's motivation is A and it turns out to be B (and you haven't foreshadowed it at all), the reader will feel cheated.

7. Don't annoy the reader. Don't use names that are hard to pronounce or write choppy sentences throughout the entire book. It keeps people from getting close to your characters.

8. You must tell a good story. Bad writing can be forgiven with a good story. A bad story with the most beautiful writing cannot.