sentence structure

Happy 10th Anniversary–To Me!

Posted on by Brenda Poulos
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It’s the ten year anniversary of the publishing of my first book, Runaways: The Long Journey Home. Curious to see if I had improved as a writer over the last ten years—and eleven books later—I decided to begin rereading all of my books in the order in which I wrote them. 

So far, I see my biggest growth over time has been in the technical aspects, in sentence structure, vocabulary, and point of view.

Runaways is filled with flawed characters who face the challenges of life—and I have continued on that path for the rest of my books. My message of hope and forgiveness has run throughout the last ten years. I suspect future books will also proclaim the same central theme because if there’s anything the world needs right now, it’s hope and forgiveness.

I am enjoying the process of reading my own work after such a long period of time. I think it would prove to be a good exercise for any author wanting to improve their craft.

If you’re a writer, share your thoughts on this process and what you’d like to discover about yourself.

You CAN Learn From Others’ Mistakes

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

I’m an avid reader—and writer.

And I’ve come to this conclusion: we writers need to read examples of good writing. We can learn so much from reading the works of renowned authors.

Sentence structure, plotting, character development, just to name a few.

But we also need to read the works of beginning authors and perhaps those not so “accomplished” writers. We will see mistakes that weaken their stories, make plots confusing, make characters flat and unappealing, and so on.

By contrasting the two writing examples, we can identify strengths and weaknesses in our own writing. We can learn from writers at both extremes.

And strive for perfection!!