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About the Author
I'm an editor and cover designer for AspenHouse Publishing. I am also a host for AspenHouse's poscast, Writing Roots.

S48 Bonus – How to Identify Progress in Writing, AKA The Blackmail Episode

You do an awful lot of bad writing in order to do any good writing. Incredibly bad. I think it would be very interesting to make a collection of some of the worst writing by good writers. – William S Burroughs

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S48E7 – How to Identify Head Hopping

It is not the task of the writer to ‘tell all’, or even decide what to leave in, but to decide what to leave out. – Caitlin R. Kiernan

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S48E6 – How to Identify Contradictions in Writing

I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind – and to work some of those contradictions out for myself. – Michel de Montaigne

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S48E5 – How to Identify Poor and Excessive Descriptions

I write, “Jane came into the room and sat down on the blue couch,” read that, wince, cross out “came into the room” and “down” and “blue” (Why does she have to come into the room? Can someone sit UP on a couch? Why do we care if it’s blue?) and the sentence becomes “Jane sat on the couch – ” and suddenly, it’s better. – George Saunders

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S48E4 – How to Identify Sentences with Too Many Characters

Through an arbitrary problem, I had arrived at a tenet of good writing: brevity wins. – Michael Winter

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S48E3 – How to Identify: Extra Adjectives and Adverbs

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. – Thomas Jefferson

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S48E2 – How to Identify a Confusing Timeline

Making sure that the geography and timelines work is always the hardest part of writing. But you owe it to the readers to get it right. – Michael Scott

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S48E1 – How to Identify Good Writing

Good writing can be defined as having something to say and saying it well. – Edward Abbey

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S47E9 – Adding Foreshadowing During Editing

Jacques : This place… is cursed.
Red : What is it with you and curses?
Spivey : He ain’t happy without a good curse. ‘This is cursed. That is cursed. ‘
Red : Give it rest, will ya! – The Mummy Returns (2001)

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S47 Bonus – How Not to Foreshadow

Foreshadowing is the mysterious whisper that hints at the secrets yet to be unveiled. – Jocelyn Murray

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