Writing Advice From A YA Author Powered By Chocolate And Green Tea
We all have a writing habit that no matter how much we grow as a writer, sticks with us. For many writers (myself included), stage directing is one of those habits, and it takes the form of describing every physical move a character makes, beyond what's necessary. Because this habit happens naturally, it's usually hard …
Writing a book takes time. Even if you're a fast drafter and can put something together in a matter of weeks instead of months or years, working through the multiple drafts it takes to reach the final draft is still tough. You're so exhausted at the end, that the thought of starting again at a blank …
When you've been working on your manuscript for several years, you've read it more than a few times. In fact, you've probably read it so much you can quote whole paragraphs from it. It's a side effect of reading your words repeatedly, and the editing, rewriting, proofing—and let's just throw another edit in there because …
Continue reading Reading Your Book: Thoughts That Run Through Your Head
When writing a book, plenty of effort goes into building our characters or working out our plots that sometimes the setting of your book world gets a little lost. This can happen if you're afraid of bogging the reader down in too much detail, worried you'll slow the pace by stopping to explain things, or …
When you find a good beta reader, it's like striking gold. Suddenly you have riches of feedback to help shape your story into the MS you set out to write when you typed the first sentence. It's natural to want to return the favor and help another writer. Beta reading for others will also help you …
Continue reading The Do’s And Don’ts Of Being A Good Beta Reader
You know that meme where writers name their files "Final Draft", "Final Draft 2", "Final Draft 3", "Really Final Draft", "Really, Really Final Draft", "Seriously Final Draft" etc. I get that. I'm currently working on the sixth draft of an MS I literally named "Final Draft" three drafts ago. Past-Me probably thought it would be. Present-Me …
When you’re a writer who works full time and/or has tiny humans to care for, sitting down to write can be impossible. You can go days without ever getting near your computer, let alone time to scribble a note on your phone or a scrap of paper. When you hit a rut like this, it …
Continue reading Incidental Writing: How To Write When Life Keeps You From Your Keyboard
When you decide to be a writer, you've got to start somewhere. That somewhere usually includes a place where you have no idea what you're doing, hate everything you write, don't feel as if you're a writer—let alone a good one, and someone who feels like it's a constant struggle to even get words down on the page. …
Continue reading 4 Signs You’re No Longer A Beginning Writer
So, it happened. You gave your manuscript to someone to read, expecting accolades, messages of praise, or at the very least, confirmation the story and characters are good—and the feedback wasn't what you were expecting. In fact, it signaled that your MS is bad. Really. Bad. While this kind of feedback is enough to crush …
