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Passive Voice = Passé by Amy Sue Nathan |
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 One of my favorite parts of Stephen King’s On Writing is when he moves his desk out of the middle of his office to a place against the wall, noting that the world doesn’t revolve around him and that he didn’t need to sit there and wait for the stories to pop into his head, that the stories are all out there and he needed to go get them. He pursues his stories.
King is adamant in his opinion of using active vs. passive voice and in the editing I’ve done for several writers, I’d say that this is the snafu even the best and most seasoned writers run into from time to time. In novices it’s lack of experience and in experienced writers it can be just a lapse, the failure to re-read and catch something - which is why it’s always good to have more eyes on your work than just your own. So why is active better than passive? In life it’s always better to do than not do. |
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Writing a Non-Fiction Book Proposal by Scott Mendel |
 A Primer for the First-Time Nonfiction Book Writer
It will probably seem obvious to you that the nonfiction book proposal is a tool your agent will use to sell your work at the best possible terms, and to secure the strongest possible commitment from your publisher to promote and sell your book. What many first-time writers for the trade publishing market do not usually appreciate is how much the book proposal is a tool for the interested editor who wants to acquire your book. That editor is in the difficult position of not only choosing those projects she is convinced her company should publish, but also of making the case to her colleagues who, in many cases, must collectively authorize her to make an offer for your book. |
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Writing Without Writing: 10 Ways to be a Better Writer... With a Twist by Jael McHenry |
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As originally appeared on Intrepid Media  You already know how to be better. You know all the pitfalls, all the traps, all the flaws. You know that to be a better writer, you need to hone your manuscript over and over. You need to work on it until it's the best possible piece of writing you can make it. You need to write and rewrite and re-rewrite. You need to craft your sentences, build your plot, develop your characters. You need to polish that sucker til it shines.
Forget all that for now.
There are 10 things you can do to be a better writer that have absolutely nothing to do with working on your writing project.
You can succeed without doing any of them. Sure. Know what? You'll be a lot better off if you try at least some. And I'm coming at this from a novelist's perspective, so that's where I'm picking my examples from, but a lot of this applies to short stories, memoirs, poems, essays, the whole bit.
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