Sparkly New Idea: It’s shiny, it’s distracting, it might be the best thing you’ve ever thought of! Baby Panda Idea: A little awkward, very fragile, it might die if someone says a harsh word. “I’m not writing this, just thinking about it.”: You’re doing a little research, flirting with…
1 – SCENE CHECK – Make sure every chapter or new scene is adequately described. This includes rich description for the first introduction (300-500 words for novels) and a reminder description for subsequent visits. 2 – CHARACTER CHECK – When each character was introduced for the first time from another…
Reviews are the magical tool by which the Amazon algorithm recognizes your books and the secret formula for attracting new readers… at least that’s the contemporary theory from the marketing masters. The honest truth is that reviews are not meant to be part of the publishing business at all. They…
Editing Letters… they are often the most beautiful and intimidating part of working with an editor. An editing letter exposes the soul of your book. It looks at all the weak points, highlights the flaws, and flails your ego with all the things that went terribly wrong. A good editing…
Congratulations on having a finished draft of your manuscript. The next step is editing the manuscript to the best of your abilities before you hand it off to a crit partner or editor. This is the essential checklist to get you started. Search for an unpack the following words: Thinks, Knows,…
No matter where you are in your editing career you need to know how to edit yourself. For the month of March the Writer Craft Wednesday posts will all be centered on how to edit your own work. Keep in mind that these are guidelines that have worked for me,…
I’m writing this post with the hope that I can save some sweet, soon-to-be published author a headache because I didn’t know about this before I published. When I was first published I thought it was my job to write a story and – if a second book came along…
Voice is how your character (and you as the author) speak throughout a book. It’s part word choice and part personality with a dash of attention. Character Vocabulary + Character Personality + Character’s Interests +Authorial Voice = VOICE Vocabulary – each character has a different vocabulary. How much…
Originally this was written for Savvy Authors in 2013, and then Leslie brought it back November 16th because she was struggling with NaNo. Reading through it, I saw a few places where I could expand on ideas better, so here is the revised edition of Breaking Through Writer’s Block! …
Let’s practice a little visualization… You sit down in front of your computer today with 6,000 words written and the plan to write Chapter 3. You have your notes and your outlines. This is the perfect time of your writing day, and everything is how you need it to be…