A place for writing

Virginia Woolf wrote about a place of her own. Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, and Walt Whitman have homes that you can tour because they are so intrinsically linked to their writing.

Yet, not all of us can easily find our own space.

Some of us have family and roommates and budgets. Space can be limited.

But you can still carve yourself a space to write. You can still find a space and make it your own.

Maybe that means wearing a pair of headphones that lets everyone know you are not to be interrupted. Maybe it means finding your favourite seat in your local café. Maybe it means having a chair in the house that you only use when you're writing.

You might not be able to buy a cottage in the woods or afford a writer's retreat to find your own space, but you can make a space of your own wherever you are. And then get to writing.

The serial comma

The serial comma makes sense. It clarifies lists and makes sure there is no confusion about how many items you are listing.

It's easy to insert and takes little to no space.

The serial comma is just logical. Once you use it a few times, it becomes second nature. Easy as that.

Proofread it all

Proofreading is an important part of your work. It is imperative that you check every word, sentence, and punctuation mark to make sure that your message is getting across clearly.

Here is the thing not to forget: You need to check more than just your story words.

Make sure your title and chapter titles are correct. Make sure you didn't accidentally follow chapter seven with what you called chapter six. Check your table of contents and your image captions if you include these in your writing.

This might sound silly, but it's important if you want to be taken seriously. When reviewing your writing check every piece of it.

Once done, you're ready for the next step of your writing journey.

Why the scene feels wrong

There are some times when you want to try and write a scene and it just isn't working for you.

Maybe you aren't comfortable writing sex scenes. Maybe you don't agree with what your character is doing. Maybe the situation in your story is just too realistic to your past.

There can be a lot of reasons why a scene is hard to write or feels wrong.

But there is one key reason you should consider: Maybe you don't need the scene. Maybe you are writing it to fit something in the story that doesn't need to be there.

If you're having a hard time with a scene, take one basic step first. Make sure that scene is required.

If it is, take the time you need to get it right from there.

Overestimating science

Science is amazing. It can explain so many things and solve so many problems.

Science can't solve everything, however.

DNA evidence has been misinterpreted. Blood splatter analysis is questionable. There are diseases that are decades old and still cannot be cured.

It might be convenient to use science to solve whatever mystery or crime is happening in your story, but it isn't always realistic.

It's hard to find complete fingerprints. You can't use forensic evidence to identify someone if their information is not in any system. Sometimes, there are traces of too many humans in a public place to pick out one suspect.

Science is great and can solve many things, but it can't solve everything. Exaggerating its abilities in crime solving can turn off your readers. Make sure that your science is realistic when you want your readers to believe your words.

Eventually, stop the exercises

There are lots of things you can do to improve your writing.

There are things you can do to get to know your characters better. There are things you can do to improve your grammar. You can work on building tension. You can work on dialogue.

There are so many aspects to writing that you can work on that you can spend your entire life doing that and never actually get any writing done.

Make sure that you carve out time every day to stop learning and to actually do some writing. You can know everything in the world, but if you never do any writing, you’ll never get to use all that knowledge.

So write. Maybe now.

Learn with every edit

Sometimes, you need external help. You need to ask someone to edit your work because you have seen your words one time too many and you're never going to spot errors when you know exactly what you meant to say in the first place.

When you get to that point and you have someone else help you edit your work, make sure that you don't just accept and move on. Absorb everything you can from this gift that you've received.

Really take a look at those edits.

Did every one of your semi-colons have to be changed? Is your dialogue full of filler words? Are you redundant with adjectives?

If you get help from an editor, don't only let them help you with this one piece. Take a real look at the work they've done and try to catch those errors in your future work—no help required.