Category Archives: advice

September 2024

Sections Writing Advice Editing Advice Service Availability Writing Advice Last month, we talked about how to build your story’s ending from your character’s wound and assuaging their fears or the Lie they’ve been telling themselves all this time. There’s a concept called “mirroring” that will make your story resonate with readers. The psychology of theContinueContinue reading “September 2024”

August 2024

Sections Writing Advice Editing Advice Service Availability Writing Advice Last month, we talked about rewards and turning points in your story plot. This character development will drive your story toward the end as the character takes this new understanding and alters their plans. They have finally seen the toxic things, the bad influences, and theContinueContinue reading “August 2024”

July 2024

Sections Writing Advice Editing Advice Service Availability Writing Advice Last month we talked about SCENE GOALS, and the yes, no, yes, but, and no, furthermore ways to end a scene. The fact of the matter is a yes, but or no, furthermore is only meant to be a tangent, a diversion, from their goal. ItContinueContinue reading “July 2024”

Why should you hire a professional proofreader?

Check out this popular meme: Did you catch the error? Between the image and the text font, you might have missed the fact that the word overlaying the lemon is actually “melons”, a transposition of the “l” and the “m”. Happens to all of us. But your brain can trick you into missing errors likeContinueContinue reading “Why should you hire a professional proofreader?”

Finding Readers (and buyers!)

In writing last week about creating your book blurb, I mentioned that having this information will come in handy when writing query letters. But perhaps you already decided to self-publish and figured you could skip that. Don’t. Finding readers (and buyers!) – whether they are acquisition editors at a traditional publisher or readers who enjoyContinueContinue reading “Finding Readers (and buyers!)”

Writing a Book Blurb

In November, you probably wrote madly and got a lot of words down for the story of your dreams. You now have to take a step back and figure out what it is you’ve got. If you don’t know what you have, you’re not likely to get very far trying to fix it. In myContinueContinue reading “Writing a Book Blurb”

Individualizing characters

This is the last one where I’ll suggest you bookmark and come back if you’re NaNo-ing. Good luck as you finish! This is my last post on broadly editing the story you’ve written. This is not the end of such self-editing, but I feel like it’s important to thoroughly check your story’s structural pieces -ContinueContinue reading “Individualizing characters”

Plot Holes

If you’re Nano-ing, bookmark this and come back in December. Good luck as the final days of November roll on. I’ve talked about revising by identifying the focus of your writing and filling out details using the different tools of storytelling. I’ve also talked about looking at the growth (or rather the lack of it)ContinueContinue reading “Plot Holes”

Growth

Again, consider bookmarking this post until after NaNoWriMo if you’re taking this month to write your book. In this second post for broad evaluation and fixing of your story, let’s talk about growth and change. What happens to us affects us. What we experience changes our perspective, our behavior, and our relationships. We understand thisContinueContinue reading “Growth”