THE GROWING WRITER | What Are Your Writing Sins? by Vanessa Riley


headshot_VanessaRileyTWhat Are Your Writing Sins?

by Vanessa Riley

If a list of your writing sins were presented to you, what would you do?

In my debut release, Madeline’s Protector, my hero, Lord Devonshire, is a reforming rake. As a second son, the one his father thought was expendable, he’s lived his life seeking the approval he never gained from the ‘old man’. Just as Devonshire’s about to commit his life to the heroine, a list of all the scandalous things he’d ever done is presented, and he’s mortified. The shame takes him down a destructive path.

As a writer, a list of our sins frequently arrives from critique partners, agents, editors, and sometimes readers: unintentional telling, an accidental head-hop, a sentence so purple it could be mistaken for eggplants. Once you’ve dusted yourself off and stopped drinking gutter water, use these steps to help make it better:

  1. Put down the list and do something to get your mind in a positive place: Go for a jog, eat a piece of good chocolate.
  2. Hours or days later, give the list a second look and decide if the critique is fair and accurate. Try to avoid explaining why you wrote what you did. The reader won’t have the benefit of knowing these reasons. It is okay to agree that something is wrong or not written as well as it could be. Or, sometimes a dog is just a dog. No amount of cute sweaters (or excuses) will make a pup a human child. Critiques require an open mind. You will never improve if you can’t handle honest criticism.
  3. Take proactive steps to “improve”. Even if you’re not sold on all the items on the list, you are a writer. Imagine how you could make the sentences better so it conveys your intent and voice but doesn’t stumble the reader or pull them from the story.
    1. Maybe this paragraph could be more exciting and draw a reader into the action if I show the happenings.
    2. Okay, I’m trapped in the hero’s head. What is he thinking? Can he interpret the heroine’s thoughts from her facial features.
    3. Okay, I’ll scrap four of the adjectives and the precious metaphor to get the point across more clearly.
    4. Reward yourself. Celebrate your professionalism with a bite of dark chocolate. This will get those happy endorphins going enabling you to write more.

Fine, I do think chocolate offers a panacea of benefits. For me, it makes the pain go away as I improve my craft.

About the Book





 About the Author






Madeline’s Protector can be purchased at BNAmazonCBD: