Time, Caverns, héros and Hounds

Many things contribute to writing a good book.  An interesting plot, true to life characters with understandable motives, and an error free manuscript all help. Sometimes a little tweak of a good book can move it from good to great. A truly good editor knows how to find those tweaks. Self-published authors often work without the benefit of a good editor but even trade published authors fail to obtain a good editor occasionally.  Writers need to recognize some of the easier pitfalls and avoid them.

I recently read two juvenile books, The Time Cavern by Todd A. Fonseca and Heroes & Hounds by Bill Miller. Both contained good plots and I loved all the characters. The books contained no errors that halted me in my reading.  One was easy to read, the words flying off the page, the story surrounding me, fairly dragging me into the story. The other was hard to read, and I never fully integrated into the story, making it easy to set the book aside. 

The difference, you ask? Syntax! Tense usage! An overabundance of being verbs!  Awareness of both tense usage and how to convert being verbs into action verbs helps the new writer move his manuscript from okay to good; from good to great.  Converting being verbs actually increases the book/ reader bonding by limiting the distance the reader feels. It gives the writer a larger pool of words to use in the story, making the story more varied and interesting. Using fewer being verbs creates a more dynamic read with exceptionally descriptive passages.