Tips
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Sometimes I think my idea well has run dry. The plots I dredge up are so spare they couldn’t even flesh out a flash fiction story. Can you relate? Usually what this means is I need to switch from “creative” mode to “ingestion” mode—I need more raw material to draw from. Some writers can create
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I know it’s only February, but in my office that’s when I start thinking about Spring Cleaning. Why so early? Because I hate the process, even though it is vital to the smooth operation of my freelance editing business. If I don’t start early to think and plan for it, procrastination will win the day.
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“Write the kind of story you would like to read. People will give you all sorts of advice about writing, but if you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either.” –Meg Cabot, American author of romantic and paranormal fiction for teens and adults. Best known for The Princess Diaries.
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Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. – Anton Chekhov, a Russian physician, dramatist, and author Ah, the old “show, don’t tell” advice. Good advice never gets old, however. (Though some continue to rail against it.) As is often the case, Grammar Girl makes the distinctions
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If you’re a writer who is serious about writing, you know that in order to be successful you have to be able to pitch your book—and no, I don’t mean throw it across the room in exasperation because “it’s just not working!” (Though that will likely happen, too.) Since I was rejected—actually laughed at—in a
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Never kick a sleeping skunk. — Kelly Long’s Mom Mom’s have a lot of great advice. I’m sure we’ve all heard: Money does not grow on trees. Don’t make that face or it’ll freeze in that position. Always change your underwear; you never know when you’ll have an accident. Be careful or you’ll put your
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Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke. – F. Scott Fitzgerald, an American author of novels and short stories Laugh at your own jokes. – Neil Gaiman, an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, and graphic novels Wow. Sometimes writing advice is so contradictory.
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Some people think of publishing as an “It’s who you know” industry. And it often works that way. But I believe it’s not “who you know” as much as “who you are.” You may think: “I’m no one. I’m not published. I’m still adding to my (growing) file of rejections.” “I’m no one. My first
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I have this thing about time. My alarm is set for 5:41 a.m. (Sundays 7:53 a.m.). If recipe directions say bake for 25-30 minutes, I’ll pick 26, 27, 28, or 29—but not 25 or 30—minutes. When I warm my coffee in the microwave, I use one minute and two seconds. Never, ever, do I set
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I’m on vacation this week and re-running a couple of my favorite posts. Enjoy! Go to any writing conference or eavesdrop on any writer’s critique group (both great things for the practicing writer, by the way) and if you hang around long enough, the subject of passive writing will be discussed—and usually with the same
Writing On The Fine Line 