Strong writing is crisp and distinct. Clichés are cheesy and amateurish. And you’re better than that. There are thousands of clichés out there, so it’s no wonder they sometimes creep into our writing during the drafting stage. But they can make your prose feel boring, unimaginative — or worse, amateurish. Now that you’re editing, it’s […]
Getting your story planned out in a solid three act structure is one of the first big wins when preparing to write your script. You’ve got your characters down pat; you’ve got your plot points spaced out where they need to be. You know your inciting incident; you know where the final battle will take […]
The week is drawing to a close, which means it’s time for the Weekly Roundup at AutoCrit! This time around: If you want to get the most out of your story’s conflict, Janice Hardy recommends you Put Baby in the Corner: Write Yourself Into a Corner. Writing Tips serves up a handy list of 50 […]
Rejection often comes part and parcel with any short story submission. Sad but true. But how can you start to make rejection less of a soul-crushing norm (the kind that makes you want to run and hide the moment you hit “Send”) and more of a random, but tolerable, hazard of the profession? Let’s face […]
There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define great, he said, “I want to write stuff the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, and howl […]
It’s that time of the week again! We hope you’ve managed to get some great writing down throughout the past few days (and not too many scrunched-up chapters piled in the trash!). To help you keep up your momentum, here’s this week’s Writing Roundup. Faye Kirwin at Writerology helps reduce distraction and increase productivity with […]
Dialogue tags – words such as said, replied or asked – have magical powers. Why are they magical? Well, because they disappear. Readers unconsciously skip right over them. And that’s what you want them to do! When writing dialogue in a book, tags exist for only one purpose: to identify who is speaking. That’s it. […]
A common worry when nearing the finale of your debut novel is whether you have a) enough words to qualify as a publishable, full-length novel or b) too many words packed into those pages – which will put off both publishers and readers, for different reasons. But how do you know when you’re toeing the […]
Welcome to this week’s AutoCrit Weekly Writing Roundup! Here are the results of our most recent comb through the fibres of the interweb (yes yes, that’s not a word) for insightful articles that help you improve both your writing and your status as an author. This time around: Tamar Sloan at PsychWriter walks us through […]
Got a book to sell, or a story to tell? Once you’re done whipping your manuscript into tip-top shape with AutoCrit, let us help you find a home for it with this month’s Writers’ Markets list. Here you’ll find a selection of publishers, anthologies and magazines all currently looking for submissions, along with the relevant […]