Writing can (and should!) be a creative, uplifting, enjoyable process. However, once the initial writing is complete, the next step is editing your draft. And figuring out how to edit your own writing is usually where the writing process becomes less “fun” and more—let’s be honest—agonizing. How so? Overly critical authors will be convinced their […]
September 13, 2013 by 16 Comments Writing Life7 Tips for Shaping Your Writing Career
Seven tips that have helped shape my writing career—and may help you with yours too! 1. Engaging passion To be an author you must have something to say, a story you believe in, passionately. Nothing less than passionate belief in your subject will carry you through periods of self-doubt and dejection. Once you have decided […]
July 14, 2013 by 28 Comments Editing Your NovelCrowdsourced Editing: The Future of Self-Publishing?
Sites like Kickstarter, IndieGogo, and other “crowd-funding” platforms have been all the rage lately. Without ever leaving your home, you can tap into your networks of friends, family, and followers, and raise startup capital for things like your fantasy board game idea, a local food truck, and even an initial print run of your fan-fiction […]
June 28, 2013 by 23 Comments ProseHow to Make Adverbs Work for You
This post is by Janice Hardy (@Janice_Hardy). We hear it all the time: never use adverbs in your writing. Sound advice, but if we follow it to the extreme, we could miss out on their very useful properties. As bad a rep as adverbs have, they’re actually pretty handy during a first draft. They allow us to […]
June 19, 2013 by 14 Comments Editing Your NovelSmart-Edit Software Video Tutorial
Today, I want to introduce you to a fantastic little program—Smart-Edit. I have never been impressed with the idea of using a program to edit your book for you. Editing involves too much creativity to be left up to the mechanical algorithms of a computer program. But Smart-Edit is different. It doesn’t edit your work, but what […]
June 9, 2013 by 132 Comments Editing Your NovelHow I Self-Edit My Novels: 15 Steps From First Draft to Publication
As an author constantly striving to enhance your craft, one crucial aspect is the ability to self-edit your novels. The process of refining your own work not only sharpens your writing skills but also ensures every word on the page contributes to a compelling and polished narrative. E. B. White declared, The best writing is […]
April 26, 2013 by 16 Comments Writing LifeRecognizing Lazy Writing Habits
You’ve already laid the foundation for your story and given birth to intriguing characters. Some are people you knew needed to be in the novel from the beginning and some are strangers who unexpectedly appeared in Chapter Four and never seemed to leave. No matter how they were created, you need to make sure they […]
November 18, 2012 by 22 Comments Editing Your NovelWhy Non-Writers Are Important Beta Readers
What qualifies someone as a beta reader? The term itself tells us this person is someone who reads an early draft of a story. But beta readers are so much more than just that. Something that was reinforced to me over and over again during my years-long journey with my portal fantasy novel Dreamlander was […]
October 12, 2012 by 24 Comments Editing Your NovelRevising Your Book: Do’s and Don’ts
This guest post is by Dara M. Beevas. The day my copyeditor sent my edited manuscript to me, I actually thought the revisions process would be pretty painless. As I sat down to pore over my editor’s suggestions for the first time, it was exciting. I eagerly devoured every suggestion. I enjoyed her objective feedback. I delighted in reviewing […]
June 27, 2012 by 38 Comments Editing Your NovelA Quick Ode Against “That” (Or, Eliminating Filler Words)
Too often, we bloat our writing with needless filler words. Some of these fillers take the form of a phrase of three or four words in the place of a single word that would get the job done—such as “took a step” instead of just “stepped.” But some are even sneakier, and one of the […]
