1. Don’t be a lone wolf. Get with other writers, show them their stuff, help them evaluate theirs. Ask them to brainstorm with you; writers all love brainstorming. A writers’ conference can be a place to make these connections, or a writers’ organization. While it’s great to find people writing in your genre, it’s not […]
Why would I need to hire myself an editor?
Writers, you probably know that there are plenty of free-lance editors out there, ready to help you hone your novel. But do you need one? And do you need to pay one? Your needs depend on your goals. What if you want to take the slow route–taking five, ten years? I did it this way, […]
Use Critique Groups to Help You Polish Your Manuscript
You’ve probably heard the expression that it’s all about the writing. It’s true. You could have the most fantastic premise, fabulous plot twists, and a great line-up of characters, but if your writing is full of grammatical mistakes, POV slips, and telling instead of showing, the rejection letters are still going to pile up. I’ve […]
What to do with Backstory
You worked hard polishing your manuscript, but you want it to be the best it can be, so you joined a critique group. After what seems like the longest week ever, the critiques finally come back. But instead of the praise and minor mistakes you expected to see pointed out, your pages are flooded with […]
The Editor vs. the Writer
Editing and writing are two sides of the same coin. Both manipulate the written word to craft a story, yet they are very different. Writing creates words and stories. Editing takes words already crafted into stories and fine-tunes them. As a matter of fact, the two activities are so different they even use different sides of the […]
Six questions for your beta readers
Perhaps you are an author who uses beta readers to help you hone your work. A beta reader is, of course, someone who tests the beta version before it becomes the alpha version (terminology borrowed from software testing). Your beta readers may be other writers, who have some idea of what kind of feedback you […]
Why a Critique Group?
Writing is a solitary occupation. An author sits alone at a desk, with a computer and the words which flow from the brain, through the hands, and onto the screen. Hours upon hours upon hours with no human contact. It’s easy to wonder if the writing is any good, if anyone else will ever read it, or if […]
Better than a critique group…
Critique groups as currently practiced by many writers include sharing books, one chapter at a time, for comment and critique. I’ve done this before, and while it helped hone my line-editing skills, it did nothing to help me plot the book, a question which remained a puzzle for me for a long time. In addition, […]
Biblical Advice for How to Accept a Critique
King David gives some excellent advice in the following verse about accepting constructive criticism: Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. Don’t let me refuse it. Ps. 141:5a (NLT) If you’ve ever learned from a tough critique, the advice in this verse probably sounds familiar. […]