New writing resources page
Ever wondered what writing resources I recommend to my own clients? You’ve been asking me for a list of favorite writing advice and resources, so I finally broke down and […]
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Should you use volunteers to proofread your book?
What if you skipped paying for a professional editor and crowdsourced your editing instead? Or what about your neighbor who’s a retired English teacher? She says she’d only charge $200
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Best Books on Writing Fiction: Recommended books for novelists
The craft books I most enjoy reading are tough tomes with new techniques of breaking down and analyzing recalcitrant manuscripts. But the best books on writing fiction, the ones I
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Formatting your manuscript for editors and agents
Formatting your manuscript to industry standards is a must-do if you’re submitting your novel to an agent. If you’re a self-publisher, you’ll score major points with your editor and formatter
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What does revision really involve?
Writing is such a minuscule part of the writing a novel. People who’ve never written anything longer than a school paper have a hard time imagining that pouring all those
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File names that show your manuscript revision status
When your whole story lies ahead of you, it’s easy to naively assume you’ll name your manuscript file TheGirlWiththeFuzzyManuscript_Orig, then go to FuzzyGirl_Revised, and maybe finish with TGWTFM_BetaFeedback. What you
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Are you overusing character names in your novel?
Some of the most common edits I make at the sentence and paragraph levels have to do with overusing character names in a story. These edits arise from a single
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12 reasons to learn how to write a brilliant synopsis
You can quit holding your nose now—this whole synopsis thing is going to take longer than a single breath of air. Writing your synopsis is a must-have writing skill for
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Is your book ready for editing?
Nothing makes an editor sadder than slogging through a manuscript that isn’t ready for editing yet. Let’s not embark upon a journey your manuscript isn’t ready to take. Really. As
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How to revise the early drafts of your novel
Nobody wants to scale the stony gray wall of revision. Nobody. Not even those crazy Spartan racers. (You go, Spartans.) A novel revision stares you down with the same inscrutable
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