S.A.A. Calvert
First: keep reading and keep writing, but get someone else to look at what you produce and be ready to accept criticism constructively offered.
Second:, most writers have a Big Scene in mind, and it is tempting to shorten and compress plot and character development in order to get there as soon as possible. Be patient.
Third: good prose should either stun the reader with its grace and power or seamlessly draw the reader into the story. Anything that gets in the way of that is a Very Bad Thing. A certain fantasy novelist, for example, makes far too much use of words unfamiliar to most of his readers. Other factors that intrude are misuse of words or simple grammar and spelling failures. Learn the differences, for example, between its/it's, whose/who's, your/you're and there/their/they're, and PLEASE never use the nonsense phrase 'would of'.
Second:, most writers have a Big Scene in mind, and it is tempting to shorten and compress plot and character development in order to get there as soon as possible. Be patient.
Third: good prose should either stun the reader with its grace and power or seamlessly draw the reader into the story. Anything that gets in the way of that is a Very Bad Thing. A certain fantasy novelist, for example, makes far too much use of words unfamiliar to most of his readers. Other factors that intrude are misuse of words or simple grammar and spelling failures. Learn the differences, for example, between its/it's, whose/who's, your/you're and there/their/they're, and PLEASE never use the nonsense phrase 'would of'.
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