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,…
Finding an idea is both the easiest and hardest part of writing. You want to find something that you’ll love enough to write on the bad days. There’s not BUT there. No AND. When you’re coming up with an idea you don’t need to worry about marketability and trends. “But,…
Meteorological Winter begins December 1st for the northern hemisphere (as opposed to astronomical winter that begins with the winter solstice). Just like the sky and weather Publishing has its own seasons. Seasons of feast and famine. Seasons to query and seasons to edit. Seasons to publish and seasons to sit…
Originally, CHANGE OF MOMENTUM was going to release in late 2018 or early 2019. That deadline flew by when I realized I was at 90,000 words and nowhere near the end of the story. I sat down with my editor and we realized the problem was the couple. Rowena Lee…
“Why are we doing this?” My crit partner looked back from the computer screen. She’s on spring holiday in Australia and we were Skyping to discuss plots, goals, and problems. “I dunno,” I said, which was eloquent for that time of night. Being best friends with someone on the other…
QUERY(n) – the letter a hopeful author sends to an agent or editor with the express wish of getting the manuscript off their desk and onto someone else’s publication schedule. The query is an essential part of the publication process even for Indie Authors, it’s also one of the…
Winter is coming. Not the good-fun winter with Jon Snow saving the day and Sansa coming home to Winterfell. No, the real winter is coming, with familial obligations, cold weather, and seasonal depression. Some people have claustrophobia and hate the feeling of the walls closing in around them. Cold weather…
One of the first lessons a novelist learns is that writing a book is not like writing an essay in school. The dynamics are different. The time factors are different. The end results are different. The drafts are different. With an essay it’s common to finish a full draft of…
Years ago when I first published a book and broke the news to my family that their child was –gasp!- a writer my father asked if I did morning pages. If you have followed my family’s shenanigans online you know this is 100% a normal response to finding out your…