Sunday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

BAD WRITING HABITS YOU MUSTN’T FALL INTO!

By: Hannah

While I know that all writers have their own style and habits and writing is fairly subjective, there are some bad habits out there. The only way to break them is to suddenly become aware of them! These habits are often the tell-tale sign of an amateur writer. They are little but distracting as hell and make your work frustrating to read. So, without further ado, here they are:

1. Too much in bold. Bold type is pretty rare to see in novels and works incredibly well when placed well. It’s used effectively in The Book Thief. But other than that, I’ve seen some bad use of bold type. Once so bad, I tried to see if the words made up a secret message or something, but no. It was just incredibly distracting bold print meant to emphasize certain words. 
2. Too much in italics. Words are usually italicized for the same reason they are bolded - for emphasis. Too many words that are in italics on a page is incredibly distracting. Every time the reader comes across an italicized word, they must slow down the pace of their reading to understand the emphasis. It’s like a speed bump when reading. Treat it like that. No one likes to drive on roads with a ton of speed bumps. 
3. One ellipsis (…) is too many. . . 

Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. The Importance of a Great Author Headshot - She Writes http://ow.ly/HtObx
2. Janet Reid, Literary Agent: Query question: asking to resubmit a manuscript http://ow.ly/HtOfS
3. The Not-So-Classically Trained Writer • Bad Writing Habits You Mustn't Fall Into! http://ow.ly/HtOho
4. Reference For Writers, Writing More Diverse Characters-The TCI http://ow.ly/HtOiY
5. Writer Unboxed » Flog a Pro: would you turn this bestselling author’s first page? http://ow.ly/HtOsr
6. How to Make, Meet, and Exceed Your 2015 Writing Goals - @PenandMuse | @PenandMuse http://ow.ly/HtOvO
7. Establishing Your Unique Author Brand : Books & Such Literary Management http://ow.ly/HtOyw
8. Social Media Marketing Insights: Free Download! - Where Writers Win http://ow.ly/HtOGd
9. To Kill Or Not To Kill A Character | Book Marketing Tools Blog http://ow.ly/HtOW7
10. Decreased Facebook Visibility: What Can You Do? - Heidi Cohen http://ow.ly/HtP5K
11. Kindle Unlimited Myths | chrismcmullen http://ow.ly/HtPJn
12. Karen Woodward: The Second Half of Act Two: A Story Structure In Three Acts (Part 3 of 4) http://ow.ly/HtRdL
13. 10 Twitter Tips For Creating Better Social Media Content http://ow.ly/HtRjw
14. The Psychology Behind Messy Rooms: Why The Most Creative People Flourish In Clutter http://ow.ly/HtRp4
15. Author, Jody Hedlund: Do Agents Still Hold the Gatekeeper Key to Getting Published? http://ow.ly/HtT19
16. Filtering Out Google Analytics Junk to Read Your Numbers Better : @ProBlogger http://ow.ly/HtT3J
17. Reminder: In Publishing, There Is No Debate « terribleminds: chuck wendig http://ow.ly/HuDgS
18. Creating a Mastermind Group to Meet Your 2015 Writer Goals! - Where Writers Win http://ow.ly/HuDs0
19. Information, Intelligence and Opinion. Not at all the same. | Write on the River http://ow.ly/HuDEW
20. Fiction University: Real Life Diagnostics: Does This YA Mystery Opening Hook You? http://ow.ly/HuESm
21. Writing with Color — Writing "Authentic" Characters of Color in First... http://ow.ly/HuF5j

Happy writing and running, Kathy