Friday, February 12, 2016

Tidbits from JOURNEY TO PUBLICATION: Avoid Overuse of Certain Words

   When writing you should avoid the overuse of certain words. This doesn't mean you should NEVER use them, it means use them sparingly. Using them over and over becomes boring--and even humorous--to a reader. And if you have your protagonist in the midst of a serious romantic moment or at the height of a battle or in a life-threatening situation, the last thing you need to do is make the reader laugh because of your overuse of some word or words. Take the following, for example:
        Sheawanda gazed into the man's beautiful eyes, and he gazed back into hers. They gazed at the 
        silhouettes of each others' bodies in the dim light, gazing across the sensuous curves of their
        necks, waists, hips, and legs.
I'm going to assume that you have gazed long enough at the paragraph to pick out the overused word. Did it make you giggle? Or at least smile in amusement? I'm willing to bet that outcome is not what the author had in mind. 
   In addition to the above scenario, there are some common words that simply need to be avoided in general--not totally avoided, merely used in moderation. Here's a list: was/were, had, that, still, felt, noticed, saw, just, nice, thought, up/down, suddenly, really, dark, beautiful, almost, very, many, so. Keep them to a minimum. 
        Just because you want to just really say someone's beautiful, you can't just say nice things over 
        and over very many times, or suddenly you'll realize that you just noticed that almost all of the 
        really nice words were just suddenly sounding very funny. 
YIKES! Does it make sense? Well, maybe. Does it make you feel like you want to read more of this person's work? Probably not. Are you getting the idea about overusing certain words? I sure hope so.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Spark Your Creativity!

Every Wednesday we offer you a special photo taken by our CEO Janet Beasley to help spark your creativity. Whether you're an author, a painter, a musician, or clay sculpture artist we think you'll find her photos very inspiring!


Lunch at High Noon!
Happy creating!

Monday, February 8, 2016

Featured Author Thom Battisto

Hello fans! 

Welcome to the JLB Creatives Blog. Here is where you'll find a wide variety of artful news including books, authors, publishing, unique creations, and educational information regarding the writing world.

Today we'd like to introduce you to our children's author, Thom Battisto. Thom and his therapy dog Sydney are making quite a splash in the literary world. Thom recently sent us this awesome, audible public service announcement. We took the liberty to add some cool photos of Sydney, Thom, and friends in action so that you can get acquainted with this talented writer and his worthwhile organization, Read to Sydney. Just click play...




This is a prime example of the kind of children's authors JLB Creatives Publishing is proud to publish and represent. If you are a children's author and are interested in working with a publisher who's team of professionals holds over 100 years combined experience in the industry, and specializes in children's books, be sure to visit www.JLBCreatives.com and take a look at our submission guidelines. Submissions are open!

Here's wishing you a stellar day! 

JLB Creatives

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JLB Creatives Blog Hosts
JLB Creatives Editor Dar Bagby (L) and JLB Creatives CEO Janet Beasley (R)