by Glynn Young @gyoung9751 I had several pieces of a novel-in-progress that I’d set aside from the manuscript. Two fell outside the overall timeline; I’d cut several others because, while they were interesting, detracted from the main flow of the story. One was most of an entire scene; one involved a character than I’d cut; and one simply had way …
Beating the Rain
By Chandra Lynn Smith I’m sitting at my desk this morning pretty much feeling like the weather. Pennsylvania is known for its fickleness about changing seasons. We can go from winter to spring to summer to mud all in the same day. And yes, around here we truly do feel like we have a fifth season called mud. This morning …
My Favorite Editing Tool
By Cindy Ervin Huff @Cindyhuff11Huff If you are looking for an editing tool that will improve your writing and can be used in any genre of writing, I have the program for you. I love ProWritingAid because I get so caught up in my story I don’t notice typos and grammar errors and let’s not mention poor sentence structure and …
You Think Your Editor Was Harsh
by Jenny Powell MD Let me tell you the story of the Great American Editing Project. On June 7, 1776, a fellow by the name of Richard Henry Lee filed a resolution (appropriately named “the Lee Resolution”) with the Second Continental Congress. He proposed a three-step process by which the united colonies of the Americas could declare independence from Great …
The Worst Part of Writing
By Rachel Hauck Yesterday, when I turned in a line edit for The Best Summer of Our Lives, my upcoming 2023 release, I wrote my editor a short note. “These girls and I need a break from each another.” Through fast draft and first edits, I thought this book might be one of the best I’d ever written. But by …
Resurrecting your Manuscript: Rewrite, Repurpose … but Regardless, Give Grace
By Lana Christian Most, if not all, authors have at least one manuscript buried in a drawer. Maybe it was the first book you wrote. Secretly, you kept rooting for that underdog, hoping it would see the light of day. Maybe it can. The biblical story of Samson brims with lessons about giftedness, redemption, second chances, and the fact that …
Three Tips for Polishing Your Rough Draft
By: Katie Powner As an adjective, the word rough means “having an uneven or irregular surface; not smooth or level.” Boards can be rough. The seas can be rough. But how can stories be rough if they don’t have a surface? Well, they do. The surface of a story is the plot. Everything that happens, that you can see in …
The Beauty of Falling Leaves
By Kariss Lynch When seasons change, I celebrate. In general, I struggle with change, but something about nature changing and ushering in something new is exciting and familiar, even as things shift. As an adult, fall has become my favorite season. I love the color of the leaves changing, the crisp mornings and evenings, cozy drinks, firepits, and the permission …
Always Too Many Words
by Ann H. Gabhart Have you ever been asked to condense a novel you have written down into one sentence? Perhaps fifteen to twenty words? You are talking about a story that perhaps took you one hundred thousand plus words to tell and now somebody wants you to give them a one sentence description?? Impossible, you say. I am there …
Editing Pet Peeves
By Deb Haggerty As an author and an editor, I read—a lot! And I find I get impatient with certain contrivances authors tend to overdo. I realize part of what we do as writers is our voice, but I also realize part is trying to impress or to ensure our readers get what we’re trying to impart. And while our …
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