Great words of advice from an author I KNOW to be thorough in his work – and it DOES pay off! 🙂
As an author, it wasn’t until I took up writing seriously back in 1995 that I finally appreciated just how many of today’s books are the end product of lazy writing practises. A classic example is the endless use of things like, ‘he said’ or ‘she said’ when your characters are speaking. This is perfectly acceptable when writing the initial draft of your book. But never ever let them endlessly appear in the final draft. Once you have been picked up on it and other examples of literary lazyness by your harshest critics (your readers), until you mend your ways and the use of tools like your Dictionary and Thesaurus becomes second nature, don’t be surprised at the loss of your potential readership. The harsh reality of the writing world is that readers either make or break you! If one person likes your work, they will soon tell their…
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Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
You won’t find ‘bad language’ (offensive swearing) in any of my titles. I agree that writers need to be very careful of repetition, and to ruthlessly discard redundant words.
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Absolutely!
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No offense intended here.
I generally agree with you for that post. However, (by the way, I am no fan of bad language) swearing, or bad language is useful on occasion, especially in professions where it would be deemed acceptable under certain situation – Read soldier in the middle of a fight, and any in that sort of profession.
Now, if you want “cuss words”, but also want to be a writer who doesn’t bombard the readers with endless words that you wouldn’t say to your father, then invent words. Only you need to know what word means what! for an unfamiliar word like that, the readers will decipher whether it is a cuss word or not.
Dan Abnett, one of my favourite authors came up with the word ‘Feth’, which while may appear to be a cuss, is actually a Tree-God, this little tidbit didn’t get cleared up immediately though.
Hope I didn’t ramble!
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cheers Chris 🙂
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Welcome Jack – you make a lot of very good points 🙂
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We’re all of us guilty of varying degrees of Lazy Writing. anyone who says different is a liar. 🙂
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Agreed 🙂
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