If brevity is the soul of wit, then economy is the energy of prose. Let’s hear it for skinny sentences! Don’t get me wrong: I love complex, twisty, beautiful sentences. As Aleksandar Hemon pointed out in an interview with The Writer magazine: I like to push language toward poetry, to activate the dormant possibilities inherent in it. […]
March 14, 2010 by 44 Comments Editing Your NovelThe 6 Best Ways to Rewrite Your Book
Everybody who loves to rewrite your book, raise your hand! No takers? Yeah, that’s pretty much what I thought. In my experience of ten novels and hundreds of short stories, rewriting ranks way at the bottom of the writing process–somewhere down there with paper cuts and insomnia. By the time you finish your beautiful story, all you […]
February 14, 2010 by 24 Comments Editing Your NovelKnow Your Own Story: Write a Novel Manifesto
You need a novel manifesto. Why? Because you’re never going to be completely objective about your stories. Trust me. You’re just too emotionally involved, too attached to your characters, too excited about your plot twists, too tickled by your snarky dialogue. And the only thing wrong with any of that is that it can make you lose sight […]
January 24, 2010 by 47 Comments Editing Your NovelIs Your Inner Editor a Voice of Discouragement? Learn How to Harness It
The infernal internal editor is the shoulder devil common to all writers. You sit down to write a simple paragraph of description, a few lines of dialogue, a scene transition—and before your finger has even hit the first period key, your inner editor is screaming in your ear. It’s not good enough! Nobody talks that way! You […]
November 8, 2009 by 51 Comments Editing Your Novel6 Reasons Not to Listen to Your Critique Partners
Your critique partners, critters, alpha readers, beta readers, proofreaders, editors, loyal slaves and subjects—whatever you want to call them, they’re a vital part of any author’s arsenal. No matter how talented and studied we may be, we’re always going to need an objective pair of eyes to look at our work and point out the […]
May 5, 2009 by 27 Comments Editing Your NovelWhy YOUR Opinion of Your Writing Is the One That Matters Most
Sometimes it pays to think of yourself before others. Many of us grew up with the Golden Rule etched into our psyches. And most of us would probably like to think we follow that rule as often as possible. But when it comes to your writing, the Golden Rule isn’t of much use. In fact, […]
January 26, 2009 by 56 Comments Editing Your NovelKilling Your Darlings: Learn to Self-Edit Like Joss Whedon
Let’s just admit it. We all get the urge to throttle someone from time to time. Annoying coworkers, overbearing family members, and just plain nasty members of civilization—they all bear the brunt of our frustrations and our mumbled threats. When it comes to our fiction, however, we tend to be a little more lenient about […]
June 8, 2008 by 11 Comments Editing Your NovelPutting Your Writer’s Ego in Your Back Pocket
I’m lucky. Everything I write turns out flawlessly. I have perfect instincts that ensure everything I write is right on the mark. I know the instant I write something crummy, and I’m able to toss it out the window before anyone else ever gets a glimpse of it. By the time my words reach my […]
May 18, 2008 by 68 Comments Editing Your NovelShould You Keep Your Writing a Secret?
I spent most of 2006 preparing to write a story about an apparently amnesiac young woman who is rescued by three very disparate friends during the Battle of Britain in 1940. Almost from the very beginning, this tale of mistaken identity, murder, and disappearing royalty had me bursting with excitement. I couldn’t wait to begin writing. […]
April 20, 2008 by 30 Comments Editing Your NovelHow I Edit Fiction
No two writers write in the same way. But even fewer writers edit in the same way. We all wield our red (or blue) pens (or pencils), hacking flabby words and injecting strong verbs and nouns in their places. We all share the end goal of a crisp, clean, beautiful final draft. And we all pull […]
