Sunday, March 4, 2012

Celebrating a Week 52 of Six Sentence Sundays with Something Completely Different

A year ago I joined the writers at Six Sentence Sunday and started sharing six sentences from some of my novels on Sunday. Today, I'm sharing a snippet from a nonfiction ebook for writers (which just happens to be on sale at Smashwords for $1.50 during Read An Ebook Week of March 4-10. Here are six sentences from Mistake No. 10 of The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Courtroom Law:

One mistake that drives lawyers and paralegals crazy is the story where a lawyer who practices in one area of law is asked by a friend to take on a criminal defense case, because the friend wants to be defended by “someone who believes in me.”

This is nonsense because law is almost as specialized as medicine. Having a trusted lawyer friend defend you in criminal court is like having your friendly neighborhood pediatrician do your brain surgery. Trusting someone doesn’t make him or her competent in every area of the law.

Believing in the client is no substitute for knowing what you’re doing. Criminal law practices in particular are not all in the reference books, so a lawyer who has no experience would have to spend a lot of time on the phone talking to lawyers who did know that branch of the law.

This week I counted links to 170 writers sharing snippets, so for a good time feel free to join the party at Six Sunday,

7 comments:

  1. Great point. Sounds like a good reference book on writing to own. Thanks for the tip.

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  2. I just pubbed a reference book for writers, too! We need all the help we can get! Fabulous six!

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  3. This is absolutely right, Lynne! My attorney lawyer stood in the door of my office as I read this out loud to him! Good luck on the book. Sounds like it has great advice. Excellent Six!

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  4. Congrats on one year! Sounds like a great book with very pertinent information. :)

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  5. Congrats on the full year for SSS, Lynne. Intriguing six and sounds like you're writing from experience. :)

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  6. Excellent tip - we may write fiction but some things are still in the real world

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  7. Thanks for stopping by and commenting--I'm taking a break from my Sunday non-writing job to go check out your Sixes!

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