writing techniques | Stella Tarakson

Cliches – avoid them like the plague

Stella

10/09/2013

Certain phrases have become a bone of contention for readers who like to call a spade a spade. At the risk of opening up a can of worms, I’m going to take the bull by the horns and cut to the chase. I’m talking about cliches, of course. A cliché is an expression or phrase …

Avoid adverb overload

Stella

5 comments

28/05/2013

It’s a mistake most of us make: overusing adverbs in an attempt to make our writing sound better, slicker. It doesn’t work. Writing that suffers from adverb overload is often weak, verbose and hard to read. It tries too hard to impress. In the process, it loses the magic spell that a tightly written piece …