Beware!!!

This topic has been on my mind for some time now, so I'll have to address it to get some peace. We all know we have to beware of a lot of things, but there are a few we have to watch in writing.

We all know about ing, ed, ly,  as, such, and my favorite just. I always have too many of them in my sentences, and there is the all time favorite was. I think when I started writing I wrote, "It was just wonderful," or "It was just so pretty," a lot. I don't do that anymore, I think. We all slip back into our old ways if we don't constantly write.

My biggest beware was to listen to people who did not know what they were talking about. I knew practically nothing when I started writing, and I listened to people who thought they knew it all. It slowed me down so much in my writing. I've been guilty of doing the same thing to new writers and I've tried to stop it.

What have I learned? Listen to multi-published authors. Read books on writing. Go to conferences and listen to the speakers. Talk to authors. We have a small writers group and there are two authors in the group. They have been so helpful to me and to the other members of the group. They have helped and encouraged me so much. The rest of us are babes in the group, but they treat us like we are best-sellers.

One thing I have learned with Christian fiction writers, they are as common as an old shoe. There is no pretense with any of them. The successful ones are the most helpful. There is not any stabbing in the back. If we are to show we are Christians, we should act like one. I'm happy to be associated with these men and women.