Head Hopping
Has this ever happened to you? You’re reading along, getting into the mind of a great female character, when she remarks she would make a good father some day. Wait, you think. Wasn’t the character female? You’ve been the victim of head-hopping. Or as I like to call it: cheating. Head hopping is when the POV […]
You’re Too Picky
I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. At least for me it’s disturbing. It’s the, “You’re being too picky” trend. In other words, people tell me that because I’m an editor, I notice things others don’t, and because most readers don’t care about these things, I should just get over it and stop correcting them. To that […]
Viewpoint (Showing, Not Telling)
We’ve all heard about “showing, not telling” when it comes to writing, but I’d like to talk about one aspect in particular. With many beginning writers, I’m struck by how they wax poetic for paragraphs on end about…a living room. They proceed to describe, in detail, the exact shade of the color of the couch, […]