Finding the time to write and live a balanced life

Finding the time to write and live a balanced life

You may have noticed that we ask everyone who joins our mailing list what is holding them back from being a successful writer. Something that keeps cropping up, unsurprisingly, is finding the time to write and juggling it with a busy lifestyle.

This article will be a little different than usual because I’m going to mostly talk about my own experiences and how I try (and sometimes fail) to fit writing into an already hectic schedule...

Common Writing 'Mistakes' - Part 3: Overwriting

Common Writing 'Mistakes' - Part 3: Overwriting

This is the final part of our series on common mistakes (click to read part one and two) and today we’re looking at overwriting.

What goes wrong?

Overwriting can come in many forms but at its heart it can be summed up as writing too much. When the writing is particularly elaborate, it’s sometimes called purple or flowery prose. The fact is, less is often more.

Some examples of overwriting:

  • Describing something in too much detail: The woman...

Common Writing 'Mistakes' – Part 2: Sentence fragments

Common Writing 'Mistakes' – Part 2: Sentence fragments

This article is the second of a three part series where we look at common flaws in the submissions we receive. If you missed it, part 1 was on the misuse of speech marks. Next up we cast a critical eye on sentence fragments.

What goes wrong?

Let’s keep this simple, for a moment. A fragment is part of a sentence, but not a full sentence. A complete sentence has, at least, a noun (acting as the ‘subject’) and a verb (used as the ‘predicate’, to tell us more about the ‘subject’; for example, what it is or what it does).

Examples of real sentences:

Common Writing 'Mistakes' – Part 1: Speech marks

Common Writing 'Mistakes' – Part 1: Speech marks

This article is the first of a three part series where we shine a light on the most common mistakes we see in submissions. We want to try to help you avoid them, but also find out why these errors are so common. First up is the most frequent mistake we see: incorrect speech marks.

What goes wrong?

Are they speech marks, inverted commas or quotation marks? Whatever you want to call them, these little symbols are hugely important to the reading experience. Errors in their usage can take a number of forms...