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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Writing Style Check List, Most Recent at Top [Help]
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1. Critiquing? Revising? 10 Writing Style Elements to Check

Yesterday we looked at nine elements to check when doing a critique of your own manuscript or someone elses.  Today we are going a step further by reading with Writing Style in mind.  I want to thank Anita Nolan for writing these ten writing style elements up, so we can refer to them while critiquing a manuscript.

• Voice: Strong? Too passive?

• Any problems with point of view? If there are multiple points of view, are the POV changes handled well?

• Does the dialogue sound natural? Is the dialogue of each character distinct, or does everyone sound the same?

• Does the dialogue move the story forward?

• Were there too many “he said” dialogue tags, or awkward substitutes for “said?” (snarled, hissed.)

• As to back story: Is it woven into the story, or are there any info dumps or “As you know, Bob”s (use of dialogue to dump information into the story.)

• Is there too much narrative? Too many flashbacks?

• Are the sentences clear, or do they need to be reworded to improve clarity?

• Is the story well-paced, or does it slow in places?

• Is there plenty of white space, or is the writing dense? (In other words, are the paragraphs short and interspersed with dialogue, or are they long blocks of type running a half page—or more.)

Tomorrow, we’ll go over what to check, when reading a synopsis.  You can find Anita Nolan at: www.anitnolan.com

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy


Filed under: Advice, authors and illustrators, demystify, need to know, Process, revisions, Tips Tagged: Flashbacks, Manuscript Critiquing, Pacing, Voice, Writing Style Check List

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