UPGRADE AIDE CONTEST

"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader. Not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon." - E.L. Doctorow

"Writing is a lot easier if you have something to say" - Sholem Asch

"You can take for granted that people know more or less what a street, a shop, a beach, a sky, an oak tree look like. Tell them what makes this one different." - Neil Gaiman

"If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write." - Stephen King

"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme." - Herman Melville

"Resist the temptation to try to use dazzling style to conceal weakness of substance." - Stanley Schmidt


         We all have our own pet peeves when it comes to reading other's works. Pet peeves may differ from person to person, but I believe that any good writer cannot stand a multitude of errors in one piece. Those errors can range from bad spelling or grammar to a piece that lacks any plot or theme at all. You may dislike one more so than another, but they are all an annoyance with which none of us like to deal.

Top Five Pet Peeves:

5. No Details/Too Many Details –
         Writers are all about sitting on the fence – maintaining a certain balance. For example, if you want to get published you have to be confident enough to believe you can get published, but you also have to be humble enough to know that your pieces will need some work. The same goes for anything anyone writes. There has to be enough details to engage the reader but not so many that it throws the reader off.

4. Incorrect Usage of Punctuation –
         To put this on here is to reprimand myself, but it is a pet peeve of mine nonetheless. Improper use of punctuation will throw the reader out of a story just like any error would. Punctuation may not always seem like an important aspect of a story, but it most certainly is. It can completely change the way your audience reads a sentence.

3. Spelling Errors/Grammatical Errors –
         In simple terms, if I can’t read what you’ve wrote than how am I supposed to review it? This includes anything from bad education to chat speak. I cannot and will not review a piece full of spelling and grammatical errors. With the technology we have, there is no excuse for it.

2. Underdeveloped Characters –
         Character development is one of the most vital processes in creating a story. Honestly, if you do not have characters that your readers can relate to then you do not have a story.

1. Absence of Plot/Theme –
         *crickets* Do I honestly need to say something for this one?

Rachael