Rees's Writing Notes

This is just a rough list of things, so I have it somewhere. Might be expanded.

Punctuation.

Apostrophes for possessive - John's Hat, Germany's Soccer Team  - but not for 'it', its fur, its duration, not it's fur - after s for multiple possessive, The Germans' Soccer Team / The Germans's Soccer Team

Punctuation inside quotations - "Hello there," he said, "My name is John."   /   "Hello there!" Tim said.   /   "Is it Tuesday?" John asked.   /   But never use a fullstop before more attached dialogue info. "Hello there." John said.

Dialogue

Use 'said' as much as possible in dialogue, as other tags stand out to the reader and distract them, whereas said is invisible (apparently).

"Over here," John said. Avoid yelled, whispered, etc. Character behaviour should be obvious in how they speak. Even avoid 'asked' and 'replied' a lot of the time, as it's obvious they've just done it. (There are writers who don't agree with this)

Identify who is speaking as early as possible, so that the reader doesn't have to backtrack once finding out. If it doesn't fit in the flow of conversation, put it before the conversation. Jim sighed. "Very well, let's get started."

Cut Adjectives and Adverbs mercilessly

"As to the adjective, when in doubt, strike it out." - Mark Twain

Cut down qualifiers/descriptors/whatever, and combine dual words which describe an action, into a single word which better describes the action.

"He walked quietly" (bad) "He Snuck" or "He crept"

"He crossed the road quickly" (bad) "He crossed the road" or "He ran across the road"

"He ran excitedly into the freezing rain" (bad)" "He ran into the rain"

Passive vs Active Voice

The hammer was slammed against the table (bad, something was happening to the hammer, yet hammer doing the action).
The hammer slammed against the table (better) or Billy slammed the hammer against the table.

The idea came to John as he was driving home from work. (bad)
The idea came to John as he drove home from work. (better)

Mary phoned when I was eating my lunch. (bad)
Mary phoned as I ate my lunch. (better)

Stained Glass vs Transparent Writing

Whether or not the writing is noticeable to the reader (flowery or simple).

e.g. might open a chapter with beautiful poetic writing, which is quite noticeable (like a stained glass window), then switch to simple non-distracting writing once the action gets moving (which is transparent).

Foreshadowing

Mention things at least 3 times in appropriate places to foreshadow