When I wrote my first novel, The Lucidity Programme, I had no mentor, writing coach, or writing group to bounce ideas off. I found myself taking two steps forwards and one step backwards. Halfway through writing the novel I would discover new ideas, and tools to help me make improvements - rewrite followed rewrite. Here are some thoughts and excellent links which may help you avoid the pitfalls I fell into.
As Stephen King once said: "The road to hell is paved with adverbs!"
And Mark Twain's offering: “When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are far apart.”
So, starting with a clean up of unnecessary words.
Free software to help you improve your statistics. Depending on your genre, using your word count, aim for the appropriate book length, chapter length, and sentence length. As a percentage how much, or how little dialogue is in your book? These free links will you find out.
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