Ready to take your writing to the next level? e-mail me
Don’t edit while you’re creating drafts, I tell students. But what if you just can’t stop editing? Writing Tip for Today: Let’s discuss self-editing and drafting and separating them. Draft in a White-hot Heat Seasoned writers understand that if you keep self-editing while your draft develops, doing so may stall your progress. Many of my […]
When you begin a story or novel, you have some ideas on how it unfolds. But as you revise, you discover threads that didn’t exist when you started. Writing Tip for Today: How can we amend a plotline or story arc if it has changed since it began? Plotter/Pantster We’ve all heard about plotters and […]
Writers often produce their work in a “white-hot heat.” We’re inspired and we get it down as quickly as we can. But beware: New writing isn’t always ready for prime time. Writing Tip for Today: Here are some reasons why a resting period is good for most writing: Killing Darlings You’ve probably heard the advice […]
Any writer who has completed at least one draft of a novel should celebrate. You have done something that few who aspire to publish have done. But what are the next steps? Writing Tip for Today: Let’s talk about next steps in rewriting: Organize Your Manuscript If you’ve received feedback from an editor or […]
Three Ways to Edit Scenes It’s almost NaNoWriMo time, that glorious month when we can dash off 50k words and not criticize ourselves for any of them. Yet the morning after will come, and when it does, we’ll need our editing toolboxes to be in fine form. Writing Tip for Today: Let’s look at some […]
Last post we talked about ways to get your drafts down, especially when you’re staring at a blank screen. Freeing isn’t it, when you realize you don’t have to be perfect when you create? Now let’s move on to the other half of the task: fixing up your draft, or rewriting. Writing Tip for […]
Take your writing to the next level! Transform your writing! Write a bestseller! We all want to be better writers. In nearly twenty years of helping writers, I’ve offered workshops that promised that next level to my students. After yesterday’s total solar eclipse, some writing coach will no doubt promote a course or workshop […]
Whether you’ve been working on your novel for years or you dashed it off during NaNoWriMo, revision has to be the next step after the cooling off period. But where do you start? Today, let’s look at how to begin novel revision. It won’t feel as scary if you have a plan. Writing Tip for […]
You’ve written your really bad,*%$# first draft without regard to its quality–just like Anne Lamott advises. You set it aside for at least a day, and now you’re staring at your screen at the hot mess you created. What next? Writing Tip for Today: Here are three easy ways to become a better self-editor: Pass the […]
We’re at the end of another great writing class. It’s always a little sad for me–we were just starting to know one another–when Week #10 suddenly appears. Although many of the novel writing students are still drafting their novels, we still discuss what comes after they write “The End.” Writing Tip for Today: What are […]