http://www.everybodyscribbles.com/ Weekly syndicated writing tips from EverybodyScribbles.com http://www.everybodyscribbles.com/tips.php
The first paragraph of your story should contain closely associated thoughts; there should be no breaks in the attention; everything should be done at this point to awaken interest and to hold the attention of the reader. Any description of scenes and characters can be done after the reader has begun to care about those characters.

Elinor Glyn wrote: " Remember that the beginning is your initial bow to the public, your first strike for fame, and unless you seize the attention right from the start, you will have failed before you fully realize why."

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Thou shalt not:

1. Describe a scene that is merely beautiful and not vital to the action or the plot


2. Describe in detail a picture of a character who has no connection to the main plot.


3. Pay attention to stylistic effects before fully working out the plot.

]]> Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:26:23 -0400 http://www.everybodyscribbles.com/tips.php

1. Don't try to be funny if the good Lord didn't make you that way.


2. Don't be afraid to study other humorists for suggestions. Humor begets humor.


3. That said, don't think you can borrow and rehash and get along without originality. You can't.


4. Don't waste a good situation in a two line joke if you can make it the basis or nucleus of a story.


5. Don't try to write humor until you know what and how others have written, the kind you can do best, and the way you can best present your humor.

Read more about writing humor at
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Franklin would choose a subject that a well respected writer had covered, and study it.

After carefully studying it, he would rewrite the original article, mixing up the order and arrangement of the material.

Then, without referencing the original, he would reconstruct it as best he could.

After he was done, he would compare it with the original to discover where and why he failed. He might find that some important point had been omitted, that words had been chosen that weakened the meaning, or that a witty exclamation had been changed into a flat, prosey sentence.

After going over the flaws, he would again rewrite the article and continue to do so until his version compared favorably to the original.

Read more writing tips at http://www.publishingcentral.com]]> Fri, 19 May 2006 08:46:26 -0400