Writing Advice From A YA Author Powered By Chocolate And Green Tea
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
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 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 …
The decision to start a blog is big. The decision to post to a blog regularly for the unforeseen future is even bigger. It requires time, sacrifice and takes you away from other tasks—especially when you're a writer. While you can argue blogging is writing and any practice makes you better—writing blogs instead of your WIP …
If you ask most writers which publisher they'd like a contract with, they'll probably tell you one of the big five. They'll do the best job, right? Yes… and no. A few weeks ago, I attended the KidLitVic conference where a panel with Jane Pearson (Text Publishing), Suzanne O'Sullivan (Hachette Australia and Lothian Children's Books), …
Continue reading The One Thing That Matters When Looking For A Publisher
Perhaps the most feared thing after a synopsis for writers is the query letter. Mostly because it has so much riding on it. It's your chance to make a good impression on an agent or publisher, and you only have a few paragraphs to do it. You want your query to lead to a request …
When you're a writer, you love writing. You'd have to or else you'd choose something else because even though you love it, writing is hard. Creative. Fulfilling. Soul saving. But hard. And as a writer, you discover writing a book isn't all rewards of chocolate, days of café writing fueled by exotic coffee concoctions, or …
You've got to be a lot of things when you're a writer. Not only do you need to craft characters and worlds from nothing, bring together a cohesive story, and take hundreds of random words and arrange them into sentences that make sense, you also need to check those sentences for mistakes. But when you've …
