Editing - Story Tips - Publishing

Query Letters Are Easier Than You Think! When you’ve spent a lot of time on your book and then you’re ready to submit to an agent, writing a query letter can seem as if it’s more difficult than the book itself. Most authors fret more about their literary agent query letter than their manuscript –...

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...

How do I write a synopsis for my book? At its most fundamental level, a synopsis answers the question: What is this book about? A synopsis should cover (in abbreviated form) all the major points of your book in sequential order from beginningto end. In a work of fiction, you’ll want to cover all the...

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...

Engage Your Characters in Their Setting When you’re characters interact through dialogue, make them interact as well with their surroundings. There should be a continual interplay of character and setting. Examine your dialogue sections to ensure they don’t just take place in a vacuum. What are your characters holding in their hands? If they’re not...

Clichés – Enemy? Or Friend? Every time I turn on the television or pick up a new book at the bookstore, I see yet another cliché or variation on a cliché, and I roll my eyes. “Again?” I say. “Geez! Is everybody these days so lacking in imagination, so devoid of creative talent, that they...

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...

The Three S’s – Scene, Setting, and Senses Stories don’t occur in a bubble. They have to be set in a real and believable place. And what makes a scene or setting, is detail. And what makes the details, is work. Hard work. A lot of time and effort, in other words. Settings aren’t just...