I have nothing to add

I received this email from my friend Roy:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/18/this-is-bacon-kitty-hauser-review

Lots of adverbs and adjectives. Lost interest.

When the killer sentence tries to kill you

The rules of good writing are all very well but an obsession with crafting a killer sentence can end up killing the writer.

I was working with a colleague who writes about games when we were side-swiped by this sentence in a piece about the use of colour*:

Engaging your audience one word at a time

Words are like clothes. If we choose wisely we look clever and stylish. A bad choice can make us look like a dolt.

Story-telling example: salami tactics

Telling a story concisely involves three elements:

1. A character the reader can identify with.
2. A plot that makes things interesting.
3. Context that tells the reader why they should be reading and how it fits into their own world.

Why story-telling is a thing

Good writers also need to be experts at telling stories

Pretty much everyone has looked at a cloud and seen a face. This is called pareidolia and is such a common experience one might stop to ask why.

Fewer subtleties make for less effective writing

It may only have been I and six other pedants who stopped to worry about whether when Finish claims its dishwasher powder uses less chemicals, the company actually means fewer chemicals.

5 ways to be a better writer

Writing starts with an empty space. It is a void of opportunity, and most of us set off with the earnest desire to fill it with wild, vivid, engaging prose. Then something goes wrong.