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Rank: Matriarch
Joined: 12/6/2006
Posts: 22,366
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Add yours here, basic or otherwise   Paragraphs - start a new paragraph as often as it is logically possible. Paragraphs are units of composition, they help you organize your ideas so that they flow freely from one to the other.
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Rank: Moderator
Joined: 3/3/2009
Posts: 4,265
Location: Victoria, Australia
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Try to avoid using the word "was" as much as possible when writing. It'll turn your story from passive to active voice and make your writing that much stronger.
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Rank: Divine Rapscallion
Joined: 8/14/2010
Posts: 3,047
Location: On the ragged edge of disaster
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Only allow yourself one instance of "there was" (any construction of the phrase) in a piece — and when you've whittled it down to just that one, see if you can't eliminate it as well.
Maggie Rascal
(Please note, I am no longer active on Lush and will not be responding to messages or friend requests.)
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Rank: Matriarch
Joined: 12/6/2006
Posts: 22,366
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Avoid cliches and jargon.
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Rank: Matriarch
Joined: 12/6/2006
Posts: 22,366
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Avoid unnecessary words. If in doubt, leave it out.
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Rank: Divine Rapscallion
Joined: 8/14/2010
Posts: 3,047
Location: On the ragged edge of disaster
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Maintain the same perspective and a consistent verb tense throughout a story.
Maggie Rascal
(Please note, I am no longer active on Lush and will not be responding to messages or friend requests.)
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Rank: Divine Rapscallion
Joined: 8/14/2010
Posts: 3,047
Location: On the ragged edge of disaster
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Do not switch frame of reference multiple times or mid-paragraph. If the entire story has been told from Joe's viewpoint, it would cause confusion to shift suddenly to what Sally is thinking without a hard stop or any transition.
Maggie Rascal
(Please note, I am no longer active on Lush and will not be responding to messages or friend requests.)
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Rank: Matriarch
Joined: 12/6/2006
Posts: 22,366
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Read your work thoroughly to make sure it makes sense. Do not rely on the spellchecker only - two, to and too are all valid words which are often misused.
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Rank: Matriarch
Joined: 12/6/2006
Posts: 22,366
Location: Sydney, Australia
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A space always follows a full stop or comma in a sentence.
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Rank: Matriarch
Joined: 12/6/2006
Posts: 22,366
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Each new sentence should start with a capital letter. This also applies to sentences contained within quotation marks.
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Rank: Active Ink Slinger
Joined: 5/24/2010
Posts: 27
Location: New York
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Close off sentences with either a period, question mark or exclamation mark.
Please read and comment on my first story, it's for the Halloween Competition, entitled "Pumped Kin."
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Rank: Matriarch
Joined: 12/6/2006
Posts: 22,366
Location: Sydney, Australia
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To be in a state of extreme passion is to be in the “throes” of it.
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Rank: Matriarch
Joined: 12/6/2006
Posts: 22,366
Location: Sydney, Australia
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There's some really good advice on this site: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/34-writing-tips-that-will-make-you-a-better-writer/Pete Bollini"I sometimes write out 8 to 10 pages from the book of my favorite writer… in longhand. This helps me to get started and swing into the style I wish to write in." I've never tried that.
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Rank: Lurker
Joined: 11/30/2006
Posts: 326,974
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When hitting the dreaded writers block- try a new genre out.
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Rank: Lurker
Joined: 11/30/2006
Posts: 326,974
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 9/10/2010
Posts: 143
Location: Zef Side
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But not too many. Some people just seem to throw them in because they look good or something. Also, say no to commas after 'but' and 'and' except in rare circumstances.
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Rank: Constant Gardener
Joined: 9/30/2009
Posts: 9,498
Location: Cakeland, United States
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Capitalizing the words, mom or dad or mother or father, is only done when you are using those words as your parent's monikers. example: My father is a big fat pig. No capitalization needed. "Father, you're a big fat pig."
 The best thing you can do for your fellow,
next to rousing his conscience, is - not to give him things
to think about, but to wake things up that are in him...
to make him think things for himself - George MacDonald
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 10/27/2009
Posts: 1,276
Location: United States
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Every time you want to use the word 'very' replace it with the word 'shit'. After you are done writing go back and delete all the shit.
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Rank: Divine Rapscallion
Joined: 8/14/2010
Posts: 3,047
Location: On the ragged edge of disaster
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Jillicious wrote:Every time you want to use the word 'very' replace it with the word 'shit'. After you are done writing go back and delete all the shit. That made me laugh.  It's good advice, too!
Maggie Rascal(Please note, I am no longer active on Lush and will not be responding to messages or friend requests.)
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Rank: Active Ink Slinger
Joined: 10/9/2010
Posts: 23
Location: mid west
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write what you know, if you want to write about something you know little about, take the time to research!
An open mind is the greatest thing on earth, it allows creativity, acceptance, and new ideas. It can encourage those locked in their own minds to break free and experience everything life has to offer. Open your mind to anything and everything, you never know what pleasures you may be missing!
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Rank: Lurker
Joined: 11/30/2006
Posts: 326,974
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Develop your characters.
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Rank: Lurker
Joined: 11/30/2006
Posts: 326,974
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Step back from the story once it is finished, leave it for at least 24 hours or longer, and PROOFREAD IT.
Then correct it. Rewrite sections if need be.
Don't kid yourself, it isn't perfect, (only your mother on a bad day would tell you that, and she has more literary sense than you credit her with), and needs to be proofread and have corrections done.
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 9/10/2010
Posts: 143
Location: Zef Side
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Don't use too much overemphasis, at all. There's absolutely no need, whatsoever. 
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 3/17/2010
Posts: 962
Location: .showyourdick.org/
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concise-concise-concise-expressing or covering much in few words; brief in form but comprehensive in scope : ) love this thread
Torture the data long enough and they will confess to anything.
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 9/10/2010
Posts: 143
Location: Zef Side
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myself wrote:concise-concise-concise-expressing or covering much in few words; brief in form but comprehensive in scope This is true. Less is more. It's so common to see tautology and unnecessary words and phrases, and it's so frustrating.
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 9/10/2010
Posts: 143
Location: Zef Side
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You're - contraction of you are! Your - possessive adjective describing a noun! Their - possessive! They're - contraction of they are! There - as opposed to here! Urgh! Damn pms.
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Rank: Constant Gardener
Joined: 9/30/2009
Posts: 9,498
Location: Cakeland, United States
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Use a consistent tense, unless you are really talented. You know if you are or not.
The best thing you can do for your fellow,
next to rousing his conscience, is - not to give him things
to think about, but to wake things up that are in him...
to make him think things for himself - George MacDonald
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Rank: Lurker
Joined: 11/30/2006
Posts: 326,974
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Take a book that you admire, and study the sentence structure.
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Rank: Lurker
Joined: 11/30/2006
Posts: 326,974
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loose vs lose
Loose [lOOs] adj not fastened or pre-packed; not tied up or confined; able to move freely; not tight, not firmly fixed; not close-fitting; careless, inaccurate, vague; dissolute, immoral; not closely woven; flabby; (of bowels) inclined to diarrhoea; l. box stable or van in which an animal can move about; at a l. end uncertain what to do next; unoccupied ~ loose adv in a loose way; play fast and l. behave rashly or unscupulously ~ loose n release; on the l. free from restraint; on a spree; ~ loose v/t untie, undo; release from confinement or constraint, set free; detatch; fire (gun); shoot (arrow); (eccles) absolve.
lose (p/t and p/part lost) [lOOz] v/t and I no longer have; be deprived of by accident or misfortune; mislay, fail to find; fail to get or win; be too late for; be bereaved of; waste; be defeated or beaten; suffer loss, become worse off; fail to hear, see or understand; cause or allow to perish; (of clock or watch) go too slowly; (refl) miss the right path; become absorbed in; l. one's head become flustered, panic; l. one's temper grow angry; l. one's way fail to find the right path; l. out (US) be defeated after a struggle.
Example of where I continuously find it used incorrectly
I loose myself in the music -WRONG
I lose myself in the music -RIGHT
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Rank: Lurker
Joined: 11/30/2006
Posts: 326,974
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God should always be written in a capital letter even if you don't believe in God.
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