I want to address three emotions that often get intermixed and, therefore, confused in writing. Surprise, tension, and suspense are all beneficial to a thrilling plot line. Each have their strengths and weaknesses, and, by understanding these, writers can find ways to weave them into their plots for maximum effect. Read more…
Have you ever heard someone talk about purple prose? When I first started branching out to learn more about writing outside of a hobby, I was flummoxed by the term. It seemed to have a negative connotation, but that’s all I knew. A little digging gave me answers, and I Read more…
As I’m getting ready to finish my manuscript and send it out into the world, I’m gathering all the information I need for querying agents. One of the most popular questions agents ask is: Who is your audience? If you are like me, you don’t have a good answer. You Read more…
Line editing is the last layer of edits an author should do before handing off their manuscript to an editor. You should do these edits when you think your story is the best it can be and are ready to improve its presentation. This round is all about making the Read more…
Last week I shared my process on rewrites, and this week I want to move on to content edits. These are still major edits, but they can be addressed on a chapter-by-chapter basis since they deal more with scene edits than the overall story. Definition Content editing, also called developmental Read more…
I’ve been wading through editing for a while now, and I’ve developed three types of edit rounds I do for my books. These don’t include any edits that come from editors but are what I do myself before showing my manuscript to an editor. The first and least technical edit Read more…
Let’s talk about defining your writing. I don’t mean genre, style, voice, or any of those other craft-imposed definitions. This post is about what you want to be known for in your writing. What will readers say about your stories? Readers will determine your place in history, and that is Read more…
People say setting, character, and plot are the three main aspects of stories, but I want to point out the ugly stepsister in the corner. Exposition. It gets a bad reputation in the writing world, and that’s because most don’t do it the right. Exposition is the explanations inserted into Read more…
The basic triad of writing a tale is setting, character, and plot. Without all of these you cannot write a complete story. The point is to transport readers to another world and make them fall in love with it. Each part of the triad has a job to fulfill so Read more…
Already we’ve covered character voice and narrator voice, and now it’s time for the last post of the series—writer’s voice. This is the voice that is woven throughout your entire collection of writings. It’s the voice that publishers and agents are mentioning when they say they want a writer with Read more…