"you might make a social faux pas." And a social faux pas you will make.

I hope you don't mind me reviewing this essay four years after the post, but I really couldn't help myself.

This essay has really opened my eyes to the art of writing. Ever since I began taking writing seriously, I've been trying really hard to make my stories look "professional" and smart (creating a major turn-off for me). After reading this essay however, I soon came to realize that while you're writing, you honestly don't need to try so hard. Most essays I have read before always seem to focus on technicalities and what is right and wrong in writing. Your essay though focuses more on how to make one's story look good and actually be fun to read. You don't ramble on explaining what's right and what's wrong, when in reality everybody writes their own way. Truth be told, there is no right and wrong when it comes to writing. Sure, there might be grammar mistakes, but all in all how can someone say that another person has written something wrong?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that your essay helped me out. A lot. I am no where NEAR a great writer (I like to use the fact that I'm only 15 as an excuse, heh), and it's nice to read a helpful guide that doesn't state how one must write. As the title of your essay states, you wrote with diversity. You posted an essay on Fictionpress that everybody can relate to and won't have to walk away from the computer wondering if they'll ever be a good writer.

Thanks!

Just letting you know that I found this "guide", as it were, very useful and I am going to add it onto my favourites. I did find it very interesting that you went on to speak about how to open sentences, I for one don't usually notice this. So thanks for the eye opener!

(PS: I'll probably be mentioining this helpful guide on HPHaven's blog, if you don't mind that is).

This is wonderful! It's been really helpful for my stories that my beta cannot beta yet. I still need work on the sentence openers, but I think I'm getting better.

In chapter six, you stated: “Would not” because “Wouldn’t”. I think you mean: “Would not” becomes “Wouldn’t”.

amusingly written essay, engaging enough to hold my attention right through to the last chapter. didn't read like a lecture, which was good. i especially enjoyed your analogy about a meal being a story, etc.

i don't think i gleaned any new knowledge from this, but like Narc, i am also of the view that the chapter on dialogue and the use of the Thesaurus was a little squicky. now, i myself am definitely not perfect grammar-wise or certainly writing-wise, but i have read many stories which had only a smattering of dialogue, and i enjoyed them. it is a different writing style altogether- sort of like lomography is to photography, i suppose, if you consider dialogue essential to a story.

to me, i feel refraining from using dialogue gives a sort of ethereal, breathless quality to the piece. i guess the word i'm looking for here is 'appropriate'. however, i agree that too much dialogue is definitely bad. unless it's extremely amusing and entertaining, of course. i have read published works by sufficiently famous authors that contain only dialogue- furthermore, dialogue without the quotation marks!! gasp shock horror.

i suppose writing is definitely a "to each his own" thing.

and the thesaurus: in my opinion, to be used only as a last resort, when you can't find the word you're looking for. not to add colour to your writing. i do remember an episode of Friends where Joey (yes, the stupid actor one) wrote a letter that suffered from an overdose of thesaurus use.

unless, of course, your vocabulary is seriously limited, in which case reading the dictionary should become one of your pursuits.

however, an entertaining read. simply that my opinions differ,if only slightly.

Very useful piece. This is sure to help me and other people with writing. Kudos.

I really enjoy reading this. You bring out little odd points that I don't really think about when I write. This'll really help me I think. :-3

~Signed,

♥ Kittie ♥

Except for the dialogue chapter, this is a decent essay for a raw beginner. However, almost everything you said in your dialogue chapter will lead the unsuspecting young writer in the wrong direction ... completely, and that's upsetting. Several other reviewers have mentioned it as well.

You encourage the use of adverbs to convey mood. Adverbs (such as your example of 'Eyetk said enthusiastically' are usually either redundant because the dialogue already conveys that by itself, or are a cop-out for poor writing. You emphasize 'show, not tell', but these adverbs are really an example of 'tell'. You are 'telling' us that Eyetk is enthusiastic, instead of showing the actions and expressions that portray that fact.

I say usually, because there are sometimes a few cases where an adverb is acceptable, like when it describes the words themselves (the speed of speech, for instance). And they aren't death to a story. Just not the best way to tag dialogue.

The worst advice you gave in this entire article was avoiding 'said'. They are bad for many of the same reasons as the adverbs, because they are either redundant or they tell what should have been shown. Substitutes for said are known in the writing world as 'said-bookisms'.

I think I understand why you feel this way about said. You think it adds 'diversity' to writing. The problem here, however, that your diversity is detracting from the story. 'Said' is a very simple, short word. Thus it takes almost no time to read. When you start going into things like 'announced', 'exclaimed', 'implored' etc. you are adding unnecessary wordiness that doesn't actually add anything.

Along those lines, you mentioned later on how wonderful a thesaurus is. If you don't know the word, why would you write with it? Do you think your reader will enjoy having to look it up in a dictionary?

As a technical essay this is fine. But as an advice on writing I feel like there's not a whole lot of experience to back it up.

And reading over that last review, I worded an 'its' wrong. Cry.

You are Godsend! I was watching Harry Potter 5 today with my parents, when suddenly I went, "My stories would do SO much better if I had more variety and description to my sentences." And then I went around thinking about reading random good stories on Fictionpress and pay attention to how the authors word their dialog and descriptions. But I stumbled upon this and it's saved me a lot of time. YAY!
I'm usually a stickler for grammar and spelling when I'm reading stories, but I hate editing my own. And then I find mistakes, but am too annoyed with the whole Fictionpress thing about where you have to replace the entire chapter every time you fix something. =(
This was wonderfully, spectacularly, stupendously great and to the point. I love it. :)

Well...I have to say that I'm utterly speechless...and now I'm not anymore! This was actually really helpful. Most people will look at one of these and think, "Stupid Grammar Guru..." I personally think that this will come in handy for my current story (the only one in my account). Yes, I do think I need to go back and space out some paragraphs (just looking at it made my stomach churn, but I wasn't sure whether changing the spaces was right for the flow or not). I guess I'll just have to see how it goes from here. Good thing they created Export Document! I'm already 3 chaps into my fic and wouldn't like to start over...though it isn't that bad of a problem. Thanks a bundle for posting this! -Haley

You are a godsend.

The chapter re: sentence starters was exactly what I needed. I've been making my own list by perusing various works of fiction -- if only I'd known someone else had already done it for me! LOL.

I'll be linking this article to friends, etc., you big bad bucket of epic win, you. :>

- Catfish

Excellent! A very well-written piece, and certainly useful, to boot. More props to ya!

I support you, I think you did very well to post this. There are many writers out there who have good ideas, yet, they don't express themselves so clearly. Thanks =)

**Nessya**

Adverbs. My goodness. That and your insistance to stay away from 'said' really get me. I'm sorry, but that's just the way I am. I'll explain though, so it doesn't sound like I'm criticizing you for no reason.

See, when you have to put in 'he said brightly', or 'cheerily', or 'firmly', I think that's pointless. Because what about all the enlightening story before the word? Shouldn't that tell how the person said what he did? And if it does (which it should), isn't 'brightly', 'cheerily', or whatever, redundant?

The same applies to adverbs in sentence structure, for the most part.

And there you have it. Overall, your guide is very helpful, a sort of online, user-made 'The Elements of Style'. I hope you see my point. And good luck.

Good thing this is here.
I'm here on reccomendation
LOL
Yeah I'm here about using all my sentences with nouns
but thanks to this I think I can make an improvement to my writing.
So thanks! and thanks to Fractured Illusion, who directed me here
lol