Sharing Tips for Writers Week

I'm on sabbatical this week so I'm running a few of my favorite tips selected from my SharingwithWriters newsletters. Subscribe so you never miss a single one at http://howtodoitfrugally.com. There's a subscription form in the upper right column of every page of the site including all the Writers' Resources pages, just as I suggest in my The Frugal Book Promoter.  You'll get a freebie e-booklet, Great Little Last Minute Edits, too.

 

Editing Tip: An article on my new most unfavorite phrase in the passive voice lexicon (along with a mini rant) is posted in my editing blog: http://thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com/2013/10/new-passive-voice-pet-peeve.html Yes, you want to avoid it, but you can’t avoid it if it hasn’t begun to annoy you. You will actually be able to use it if you ever need to lampoon the pharmaceutical industry.

PS: To read a few recent issues of SharingwithWriters newsletters in .pdf got to http://howtodoitfrugally.com/newsletter_copies.htm.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Passive Writing Plagues Us All

Passive writing has its place. Truly.  The passive tense and voice wouldn't be in our language if it weren't useful. You can learn more about how and when it is useful in The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (pages 40-54), but today I want to concentrate on how to rid your writing of it when it isn't useful! In fact, when it's a big, fat nuisance.  Well, OK. I'm not going to concentrate on it. I'll let Aggie Villanueva tell you about it with her new video. Here goes!

Passive Writing Plagues Us All

By Aggie Villaneuva

Passive writing plagues us all. I blame the sometimes antiquated grammar still taught in schools. Try this tip to auto-force an actively written sentence. Begin your sentence with a verb or at least an active phrase. It’s nearly impossible to write draggy, boring sentences when you start off with energy.

Here's some new examples of the art of rewriting beyond those in my book, The Rewritten Word: How to Sculpt Literary Art No Matter The Genre. Learn to whittle away what buries the art of your words beneath pulp, no matter the topic, no matter the genre. Absolutely eliminate passive voice with these two basic, but dynamic tips in my video.
 

Or go directly to YouTube to see it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cGOvkRJ5Do&feature=channel_video_title

An Example:

Wordy: The wisest choice is to always choose the active form over the passive. 10 words.
Active Rewrite: Always choose active writing over passive. 6 words.

Here's more about Aggie:

To learn more about the art of rewriting, purchase Aggie’s book  The Rewritten Word: How to Sculpt Literary Art, No Matter the Genre. A published author at Thomas Nelson before she was 30, bestselling author Aggie Villanueva published Chase the Wind and Rightfully Mine, both Thomas Nelson 1980s, she is now a multiple fiction & nonfiction Amazon/Kindle category bestseller, also making Top Rated list in three categories for her how-to The Rewritten Word: How to Sculpt Literary Art, No Matter the Genre. Aggie founded Promotion á la Carte, author promotional services July 2010 and 6 months later was voted #2 at Preditors & Editors in the Promotion category. Among other sites, she regularly teaches author promotion at BookBuzzr Blog, Book Marketing Technoligies Center Webinars, Promotion a la Carte Blog and Promotion a la Carte Radio. Villanueva is also a critically acclaimed photographic artist represented by galleries nationwide, including Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. Contact Villanueva at aggie@promotionalacarte.com.

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  Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog: