By Floyd Largent “Now my own suspicion is, the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” – J.B.S. Haldane, British biologist. One of the greatest advantages of science fiction is that it’s the literature of ideas—that it’s not limited in ways that other types of fiction can be, especially …
Keep Yourself Accountable by Establishing a Personal Metric By Editor John David Kudrick You may already be a published author, or perhaps you’re an aspiring novelist at the moment. Either way, you likely wear any of a number of other hats in your life: husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, father, mother, employee, employer, president of (fill …
Avoid Passive Sentences for More Engaging Stories By Editor John David Kudrick If you’re a serious novelist, then you’ve likely heard the maxim, “Write active sentences and avoid the passive.” It’s a popular recommendation from editors for one simple reason: It’s true. Let’s take a look at a few examples of passive sentences: The dolphins …
Author and editor Stacey Donovan‘s fearlessness and introspection in her YA novel Dive beautifully demonstrates the power of telling the untold story inside of you. In this Q&A with Stacey, she shares invaluable advice she’s gained throughout her decades-long career—how not to agonize over the small stuff, how to write objectively, and what she’s looking for …
by Ali Williams What nobody tells you as an artist is that every project starts at the beginning. Not just the blank page, the empty stage, but that you have to re-establish your credentials and your quality every time. You can coast on reputation a little, but it doesn’t last long if you don’t deliver. …
by DJ Braxton Agents love character-driven novels. That’s because readers love them. Nothing anchors a book more than a well-developed character who we feel attached to, who we can identify or sympathize with, and who can be our guide in the world of the book that the author is created. Without this, readers tend to …
by DJ Braxton As you’re creating your characters (see also, my blog post Fiction 101: Characters Song and Dance), one of the most integral questions you can ask of them is what they want. Find out what’s standing in their way of getting it, and just what they’re willing to risk to get there. When …
by Kelly Lynne, Editor What do stories have in common with a pair of pants? Structure! To be recognizable as a story, a narrative must obey a few conventions, but like pants, infinite variety can be layered upon that. The concept of story structure is anathema to some writers, a restriction to be balked at, but …
by Carly Cantor, Editor Read Part 1 and Part 2 of this article. “Work the details in organically.” These are five words I often write in my critiques to authors. What many amateur writers tend to do is describe surroundings and physical traits of characters in a rather heavy-handed way, as though they are providing …
by Carly Cantor Read Part 1 of this article. The other really important task that narrative details accomplish is to help with characterization. Well-chosen descriptive details give clues to the personality of the characters and help you follow the golden rule of writing: Show, don’t tell. Thus, it might be fitting to describe the plunging …
Floyd Largent Book-Editing.com | Editing-Writing.com | BookEditingAssociates.com Floyd edits science fiction and fantasy, mainstream fiction, short stories, mysteries, anthropology, history, memoirs. His manuscript submission services include writing and editing book proposals and query letters. ************************** As you’ve no doubt learned by now, writing believable, consistent characters is surprisingly difficult. Like you, I’ve probably read enough …
by Amy Bennet Book Editing Associates Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror Writers’ block is a common experience where you feel like you can’t write. I see it as a symptom rather than a problem. Here’s some advice for getting past it. Remember that the world is not set up to support your writing. You have professional …
By David A. Cathcart As I noted in my previous post—which laid out five arguments for why you should outline your novel, short story or non-fiction project—I’m a big fan of outlining for the same reason I enjoy planning anything in life. I like to have a clear sense of where I’m going before I …
By Floyd Largent As an experienced fiction editor, I think I can safely say that most writers struggle with creating believable, well-rounded characters. As a writer, I know I do. Even in a short story, you want the main characters to be realistic and believable—no matter how escapist your literature is, or how avant-garde or fantastical. …
By Marlo Garner You just can’t quite put your finger on it. You’ve written and rewritten and revised and tweaked and proofed. You have fabulous, well-rounded characters, the language sings, and the hilarious gags only underline the importance and depth of your theme. You had some POV issues, but you’ve fixed those now. It …
by Ana Howard Many agents and editors, when reading manuscripts today, are looking for a strong opening ‘hook.’ But often authors struggle with how to use this device and ask the question, ‘What makes a strong writing hook?’ A hook sentence, often called a narrative hook or literary hook, is a sentence in the first …
by Ana Howard Many of you who are in search of representation have probably read that agents are looking for writing that shows “a strong original voice.” The question is: What do they mean? What exactly is a strong original voice? A writing voice employs the author’s style, tone and point of view. I suppose the easiest …
The Little Things Do Matter in Finishing Your Book By Editor John David Kudrick A close friend of mine recently told me he wanted to get serious about writing again, with the ultimate goal of finishing his nonfiction book. So I sent him some basic tips that come from an author I know personally, because …
Ana Howard Novels that most of us read while in school probably opened very differently than successful novels of today. In the past, an author was allowed the luxury of giving the reader details right away about the main character’s past, sometimes even going back to their birth and childhood. Other past novels opened with …
by Alice Day What story am I telling? Who are the players? And finally, the novelist must ask perhaps the most important question of all: How best to tell the story? I’m talking about point of view (POV). What is the best angle “to shoot” your story so that the world, the landscape you’re creating, …
By David A. Cathcart Structure is one area that beginning writers struggle with the most. We all know our stories should have suspense, surprise, drama, intrigue, and all sorts of other spicy elements. But how do we create a structure that delivers all of these elements? Over the years of working with writers …
By Marlo Garner Years of editing have taught me a great deal about writing, and I’m very grateful for it. But an editor’s path can be a tricky one when it comes to writing her own book. As so many of you who are inclined toward self-editing will know, it’s so easy to get …
By David A. Cathcart Book Editor Recently, I’ve been working with an author who has written a fantastic sci-fi novel but who has no writer’s platform to speak of. The only other things she’s had published are technical manuals, and she has no profile to speak of on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or any other social …
by Marlo Garner Children’s Book Editor and Illustrator Well, I’m doing it. I’m throwing my two cents worth into the ring labeled “POV.” It’s something I’ve considered blogging about for a long time, as it’s one of the biggest, gangliest, toothiest, hairiest, wartiest, most frequent, and most significant technical issues I come across when I …
By David A. Cathcart Determining the proper length for your novel is a key consideration when honing it for publication. On the one hand, you don’t want it to be too short, because that lowers the book’s perceived value. Although many readers are now opting for e-books, those still clinging to hard copies want to …
by Deanna Brady Book Editor Book Editing Associates Editing-Writing.com What follows is a list of questions authors of fiction and narrative nonfiction can ask themselves while rewriting, to help them clarify their ideas and shape their expression for greater impact. The list can also be useful before the fact and as a guide while writing …
DJ Braxton Compassion Compassion is at the top of the list. Without it, I can’t imagine a writer getting very far. As writers, we are often too hard on ourselves, either because we haven’t kept to a writing goal, or we got rejected from an agent, or we beat ourselves up, or judge …
Review of Scenic Utah by Mike Bahl with author interview by Marie Valentine, Editor Mike Bahl and I became friends when I published two of his stories in a chapbook collaboration for a publishing festival in Milwaukee. I expressed admiration for Mike’s writing and offered to be his early reader and editor. He’s become …
By David A. Cathcart Book Editor: Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Editing Associates Editing-Writing.com Fantasy fiction always revolves around magic or some other kind of supernatural force. Thinking back to how I defined science fiction, you could say that magic or the supernatural is the “disruptive technology” of the fantasy genre. This power can …
Caroline Hiley While all writing is about communication and expression, and all writers are invested in their work, nonfiction’s purpose is to convey information, and fiction’s purpose is to tell a story. This makes novel-writing a literary art, and most authors have an intense, deep involvement in their work that’s hard for some editors to …
By David A. Cathcart Book Editor Book Editing Associates Editing-Writing.com Character development is the driving force of any good story, and yet, this is one of the most misunderstood elements of fiction writing. We’ve all heard of “flat” or “two-dimensional” characters. But how do we avoid this fatal flaw? The first step is to …
By David A. Cathcart Something I see all too commonly in the fiction manuscripts I edit is an “info dump,” a chunk of exposition that bogs down the narrative by unloading a detailed character backstory or an elaborate—and lengthy—explanation of the story’s high concept and/or the history of the fictional universe. This sort of information …
by Marie Valentine, Book Editor and Proofreader What is a Short Story? A small serving of literature is easily recognized in the short story, which deals with an episode of brief related scenes and a single character. A short story has no minimum word count. There are short stories told in paragraph “flash fiction” forms, some …
by Marie Valentine, Book Editor and Proofreader Fiction is a narrative told in prose form about events not true to life. Many books include disclaimers that the work is made up solely by the author’s imagination, and any similarities the tale bears to real events are coincidences. Forms of fiction range in style, length, and …
By David A. Cathcart Book Editor: Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Editing Associates Editing-Writing.com Your story will stand or fall on the strength of its premise. It doesn’t matter how well it’s written on a line-by-line level. If your premise is weak, the rest of the story will crumble. But what is a premise, and …