Editing – Page 3 – Liana Brooks

Archive by category "Editing" (Page 3)

Friendsgiving Critique #2

Query #2 was one I picked out because I love UF and I haven’t seen Norse mythology done well recently (maybe I missed a book?). The original query is in black, my notes are in red, and my rewrite is at the bottom. – L MARK OF THE VALKYRIE…

Friendsgiving Critique #1

The query is one of the hardest parts of writing a book. Even if you aren’t looking for an agent or a publisher you will write something similar. The query is, essentially, the back-of-book blurb with an additional paragraph containing personal details (previous publications, relevant platform, word count, ect). I…

The Ultimate NaNo Prep Post (good for the rest of the year too)

This is the master post for everything I recommend to get you prepped for NaNoWriMo or a Fast Draft. Remember, each author is unique and so is each book, so be sure to play with this and make it work for you. The way I think and the steps I…

Plotting Beat Sheet

Plotting Session 1: Structure Plotting Session 2: Beat Sheets Plotting Session 3: The Epic Plotting Video During the epic plotting video where Amy Laurens and I fixed her Very Broken Novel™ I showed you the beat sheet I made Amy fill out before we replotted her book. This isn’t a…

Plotting with Amy Laurens and Liana Brooks – Part 3 The Plot Session

FROM LIANA: Grab some popcorn, a really big glass of water, and something to take notes with. This is not a quick plotting session, mostly because this was Amy’s original NaNo novel and a lot of scenes existed just to make word count. There were beats missing, motivations missing, villains…

Do You Need An Editor?

Every book is unique, and to keep the unique voice and dream of the book alive, you need a content editor who can catch the vision. A line editor is perfect for finding typos, but before that can happen, you need a content editor. You need someone who can fix…

Plotting with Amy Laurens and Liana Brooks – Part 2 Beat Sheets

FROM LIANA: The instinct of a new writer is push back against the tried-and-true, and this is especially true with beats. I think there’s something hardwired into new authors that makes us want to try and break a genre by doing something new and radical. What we forget (or don’t…

Plotting With Amy Laurens & Liana Brooks – Part 1

FROM LIANA: Back at the end of September I dropped off the grid for a week and was posting pictures of this other person, that was because Amy flew from Australia to Alaska to visit me. We’re basically twins, except we don’t share parents, genes, nationality, or birthdays… but we…

The Best Time To Query

There are very few secrets to publishing. There really isn’t a secret handshake or a way to dodge rejection. Every author starts with an idea, writes the book, and has to jump the hurdles to find the right place to publish their book. For those who think the big presses…

Write Opening Chapters That Get Read #LianaEdits

On Twitter I’m making general editing notes under the hashtag #LianaEdits so I can point out errors I see repeated over multiple books (sometimes even in published books – yikes!) One of the most common problems I see are opening chapters that don’t get the story started. Opening chapters cannot…