Editing - Story Tips - Publishing
What is the Best Point of View to Use in Fiction?
Benefits and Drawbacks of Each POV in Your MS As a beginning writer who chose to write my first book in first-person narrative, I discovered the drawbacks of such an approach the hard way. Halfway through the book, I started all over in third-person – something I wouldn’t recommend. Briefly, Point of View – when...
Read MoreSentence Fragments – Stylistic Choice?
Should I Use Sentence Fragments? Sentence fragments. Who cares? You? Me? Anyone? Depends. Writing nonfiction? Probably wouldn’t. Work, that is. Writing fiction? Could be. Depends. On what? Style. With some authors? Might work. Others? Not so much. A hundred years ago? Wouldn’t have been acceptable. Writing fragments, that is. Too formal back then. Long run-on...
Read MoreTen Super Awesome Ideas to Reach Your Writing Goals
Having Trouble Getting Motivated to Write? You’re not alone. Many writers struggle with keeping up the motivation. What you often need to keep up that motivation is keep a steady momentum with daily goals. As a writer, and (recovering) procrastinator, I’ve tried lots of ways to keep going with writing – but still often let...
Read MoreSimple Steps to Editing Success
Editing Your Final Draft Whether you’re self-publishing your book, sending to an editor, or to a publishing company — ideally you want to send your ultimate best work — even if you’re having someone else edit it for you prior to publishing. I have done a lot of editing. Editors are people too — just...
Read MoreActive Versus Passive Voice
Engage Your Reader with Active Voice in Your Writing While it has it’s uses – mostly in business writing – passive voice is considered weak and unappealing. Technically speaking, voice is determined by the property of a transitive verb which shows whether the subject of a sentence acts or is acted upon. Lets look at...
Read MoreAdverbs – Part Two
What Words Serve as Both Adjectives & Adverbs? Yes, some words can serve as both adjectives and adverbs. He swung hard with a right hook. Here, hard serves as an adverb which modifies the verb swung. When he fell, his head hit the hard concrete. Here, hard is an adjective modifying the noun concrete. Occasionally,...
Read MoreAdverbs – Part Three
The Dreaded LYs When discussing adverbs in regards to writing fiction, the kind we’re usually talking about are the ly words – like clearly, dearly, and madly. Many high-brow critics complain that the use of adverbs like this is a lazy man’s (or woman’s) tool. I remember the first time I turned in some of...
Read MoreFine Tuning Your Manuscript – Part One
You’ve Written “The End” – But Is Your Book Ready? Okay, so you’ve finally reached the magic words, The End. But is it really? Are you done? Have you really finished your book? Chances are, you haven’t. If you’ve only written the words The End, once or twice – if you’ve spent very little time...
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