Guest Blogger Elaine Silver writes about why writers should reconsider using “of course.” With growing concern I am noticing sentences in my clients’ books that begin with the words “Of course.” These sentences sound like this: “Of course, I was devastated that I had to move.” Or, “Of course, I knew I shouldn’t look but I did.” Or “Of course, he was overjoyed to see her again.” As a developmental editor, it is my job to serve as the eyes and heart of the author’s future readers and to make sure that those readers get the most bang for their reading buck. So, loudly and emphatically (and with a lot of hand gesturing) I let these authors know that each time they use the words “of course” they are essentially cheating the reader out of a full exploration of the experience of the book’s character (this goes for fiction as…
Category: Guest Bloggers
Why Keep Writing When No One Is Listening
Guest Blogger Brooke Warner writes: One of the most powerful things an author has ever said to me was a comment by Mark Nepo, reflecting on his personal journey over the past three years, which, due to the support of Oprah, has been pretty meteoric in nature. He told me, “I’m just so glad that I kept writing back when no one was listening.” This reverberated in me, perhaps most profoundly because of the number of clients I work with every year who reach a crisis point, led by the voices of their inner critics that say things like, “Why are you bothering?” “No one is going to want to read this.” “Who cares?!” In my work as a writing coach, I’m pretty hard-pressed to think of a single client who hasn’t struggled with messages like this at some point in their process—some more than others of course. Mark’s simple…
Before you publish, take one more vital step: Invite a very important person to the party.
Guest Blogger Linda Jay writes about copyediting. In 2012, Joel Friedlander asked Linda Jay to offer readers of his popular blog, The Book Designer, advice at that time, on “one of the most important decisions a self-publisher makes: hiring a copyeditor.” Here’s her reply, still pertinent today: Agreed. You’ve spent months (or possibly years) writing the manuscript that will one day be your book. You’ve distilled all those handwritten notes from pages or scraps of paper, those often-incoherent e-mails to yourself, and those ideas racing around in your brain, and typed every one of them into the computer, in some loosely organized format that vaguely resembles a book. Then one day… hooray… it occurs to you that… you’re done! Now you can’t wait to get your little gem “OUT THERE” for all the world to marvel at. You are indeed a writer (which nobody can deny, which nobody can deny)! Oh,…
Take Your Writing to the Next Level
Guest Blogger B. Lynn Goodwin talks about Taking Your Writing to the Next Level – A Look at Editing and Polishing So you’ve been inspired, found the time, and drafted a story or memoir that you really want to share with the world. Maybe you’ve even shared it with a critique group, or had a good friend read it to you so you could hear your own glitches. What do you need to do to take it to the next level and make it ready for publication? Look at the content. Does everything contribute to the story you’re telling, or do you have extraneous material? Do your characters struggle, try, and give it their all? If not, is there a clear reason not to? Does that change before the end of the story? Now that you’ve drafted it, what is your story about? It might have several themes or messages….
Self-editing and Wordsmithing
Guest Blogger Linda Jay writes about self-editing and wordsmithing: I’ve noticed a topic popping up more and more in books, workshops and seminars, even those offered by Writer’s Digest. Targeted mostly toward indie authors (perhaps you’re in that category), these books, workshops and seminars encourage writers to self-edit their own work before they self-publish. Now, self-editing is fine. Going through your manuscript’s rough drafts several times over a period of weeks searching for errors and omissions, perhaps even reading the text aloud to catch awkward phrasing or redundancies or overcomplicated construction, is certainly not going to hurt—and possibly might even improve—your writing. But let’s face it, there’s only so much self-editing an author can do. Frankly, you as the author are too close to the subject matter to be objective, even if you take a break from the material and come back to it later. In my opinion—and I’m not…
The Silence of the L’s
Guest Blogger Jane Merryman writes about the silence of the L’s: In the Danish language nearly 32 percent of the letters are silent. In French the number approaches 28 percent—I would have thought much more than that. About 16 percent of the letters in English words are silent. Think about it: would, could, should. And half. That l shows up in the strangest places. And then there’s wall—why do we need two l‘s there? I attended junior high and high school at a Catholic school for girls in Menlo Park, California. The nuns were Americans, but the religious order was French and operated schools around the world. All students, from kindergarten through twelfth grade, attended a French class every single day. By the time I graduated from high school I had advanced even into the dense forest of subjunctives. (That was when I learned English also has subjunctives,…
The Power of Storytelling—Now Proven
Guest Blogger Frances Lefkowitz writes: The life of a freelance writer is full of the uncertain (“where will my next assignment come from?”) and the mundane (“did I spell that source’s name right?”), coupled with high deadline pressure and middling compensation. But every once in a while, I get to track down fascinating regular people and ask them to tell me stories. That’s what I did for a recent article for Good Housekeeping on the power of storytelling. The assignment was to write about the new evidence that storytelling has benefits for the health and wellness of individuals, families, and communities, and I had to read my fair share of academic research journals and talk to my fair share of M.D.s and Ph.Ds. But I also got to sit back, relax, and listen to tall tales. The best, most enduring stories, it turns out, are those that contain both hardship…
Is it Safe to Post Your Work on Critique Sites? Helen Sedwick
Guest post by Helen Sedwick Every writer knows the challenge of finding readers willing to critique our works-in-progress. We beg, barter, and guilt loved ones into reviewing just one more draft. But there’s an easier and faster way to get a fresh pair of eyes to look at your work; online critique sites such as Scribophile, Writer’s Café, and Critique Circle. Some of these sites operate on a credit system; you earn credits by giving critiques and spend credits by posting your work for feedback. Others use an honor system. Some, such as Inked Voices, set up cloud-based, on-going groups. In my experience, these online communities are incredibly helpful and supportive. But many writers worry about posting their work online. Will they lose their copyright? Will someone steal their work? Good questions and an opportunity to explain what to look for when giving anyone rights to use or display your…
Guest Blogger Jane Merryman titillates with ‘What’s in a Title?’
What’s in a Title by Guest Blogger Jane Merryman Naked Lunch A Crack in the Edge of the World The Borrowers Book titles. Delicious. They provide entertainment in themselves, never mind what’s between the covers. The words on the front offer promise, titillation, or confusion. Of course, some titles are strictly workaday: Wildflowers of North America; The History of England from the Accession of James II; Math Formulas and Tables. But other titles are delightfully misleading, some are curiously ironic, others are satirical or even nonsense. A Moveable Feast Fezzes in the River Manhattan Transfer The title may or may not be an exact pointer to what’s inside, but it’s definitely a label that fixes itself in mind and memory. Take Pride and Prejudice—it has a lilt to it. But do you really want to plod through several hundred pages of unillustrated text enumerating the consequences of a couple of…
Guest Blogger Clara Rosemarda – writing with depth and clarity
Guest Blogger Clara Rosemarda reveals how to write with depth and clarity. Clara writes: Many years ago I took voice lessons from a master teacher. He worked with people who believed they were tone deaf. I was one of those people. My voice seemed flat as the ground I walked on, and I was too embarrassed to sing unless I was in a group large enough to swallow the sound of my voice. My teacher, robust and powerful, sat opposite me on the floor of his music studio. With full-bodied fingers born to make music he plucked the strings of his tambura going up and down the scale. Then he sounded a note and had me repeat it. At first I couldn’t reproduce the exact sound, but after a few tries and great concentration, I was able to. He told me I had a good voice which was a surprise…