More on Writing Well

Writing well is not merely writing grammatically correct, properly spelled and punctuated prose, it's also a matter of writing what people will want to read. When it comes to writing professionally, writing to a market, you will have to be able to a) find something out that people want to know, and b) package it so that they will get what they want as quickly as possible. "A" involves being in tune with your readers, knowing what they are looking for, perhaps because you are looking for the same things. "B" involves knowing what not to say as much as it does knowing what information to put out there. Kill the filler. Remember that you are selling something, in the case of fiction, you are selling a combination of entertainment and insight, that's the product, the story is merely the vessel. Above all, never forget that you are a retailer, all art is product, your work is not your child.

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