The art of writing is often a process of discovery and self-taught lessons. I’ve always enjoyed telling my own stories as any writer’s first audience is theirself. I’ve also proven to be my harshest critic. Learning to edit is an ongoing process and one that is rarely discussed. And while creating will always be my first love, I’ve come to find some happiness in fixing troublesome sections or artfully tying together disparate subplots.
Here I would like to share some tips, thoughts and techniques I’ve developed in editing my work. For, even those lucky writers blessed with editors, every writer needs to edit their words at some level. Hopefully I can spare some aspiring authors some time in learning these tricks on their own. And, if not, maybe I can spread a little more appreciation for an often tedious element of the writing process.
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Tell Me Sweet Little Lies
Let’s step away from my preachy “Don’t do this!” style blog and put up some more writing tips. Why? Because I’m running out of topics until Kait sends me some more stuff to edit. Which naturally leads to blog entries. There’s nothing more inspiring than field work, right? Anyway, if you’re as allergic to attribution…
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Dialogue Is Action
I honestly thought I wrote this blog entry before. I think I’ve referenced it before. Have I referenced it before? Maybe I have. I’m also old and you know how memory fades with age. Though, for that idiom to be true, it presumes I had a memory to begin with. Regardless, here we are! Today…
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Hook Em
There is nothing quite like a good opening sentence. It’s the prim doorman at a high end hotel ready to greet you to the establishment in his shiny buttoned suit. It’s the pleasant smell of freshly baked bread as you step into the clean artisanal bakery. It’s the opening chord to the bombastic action movie,…
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Pacing Basics
If you’ve ever taken a creative writing class, you’ll have been introduced to the narrative arc chart. It basically looks like a shark’s fin or crooked mountain. It’s a pretty standard visualization for the general structure of the story. You have the base of the fin/mountain as your beginning. This is where you front load…
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People Are Stories
You know, I haven’t really gotten into a lot of the philosophy behind writing. I mean, there’s a reason for that. I’m giving (free) tips on how to write, what I’ve found successful, and ideas on how you can improve your own writing by reflecting back on my years of experience. This isn’t really some…
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Only You Like Mary Sue
We’ve spent some time discussing character motivation in order to round out your protagonist and make your book more engaging. Prior, I mentioned how important it is to know and express your main character’s drive and their stakes in the narrative. I’m doing this little summary because I just recently read a piece that did…