Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing

Self-editing for plot holes might be the most difficult task an author undertakes. Why? Because in an author’s mind, the story is all laid out. The characters are in place. Their relationships are cemented, and the plot is solid in the author’s mind. In other words, author’s get so firmly entrenched...

Cliches

Communication One goal—perhaps the central objective—of writing is communication. Whether we’re writing fiction or nonfiction, we’re trying to communicate ideas and story. Our words matter, word choices matter. One of an editor’s jobs is to interpret what the writer is saying. That’s another level of...

Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing

Layering is what I call the process of blending the plot so that they do not seem dropped into the manuscript for convenience. There are a number of different portions of a story that can and should be layered: Props, character arcs, twists and turns, back story (which, when done correctly, brings...

Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing

Dialogue comes naturally to some authors, but others struggle with trying to share realistic, pertinent, and dynamic conversations in their fiction. Today, let’s take a look at some practices to avoid and some that will assist in providing vibrant dialogue. If the conversation doesn’t add to the story,...

Make-A-Story™ - Monday's Writing Prompt

Writing to spec – you’ve heard the term.  It means writing what the publisher wants.  Can you do it?  In our new feature - Make-A-Story™, we ask you to create a story with these elements.  The story can be set in any time frame, any length, must adhere to our guidelines and have...

Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing

The questions were asked? Does deep point of view (POV) only involve the reader’s sense of sight? How does the writer successfully show sound, taste, smell and touch/feel? Deep POV is a total immersion of the reader into the character. Therefore, all five senses play an important role in an author’s...

Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing

Would you like to make an editor’s heart sing? One way to do it is to pay attention to the little things: commas, periods, question marks, em-dashes, ellipses, semicolons, colons, and another punctuation mark called the paragraph. I know what you’re thinking. I’m going to spend an entire post explaining...