Quick status update, yesterday I finished my final revision, so I’ll be sending out my novel to agents and a few editors I met at the SCBWI Houston conference this week. (Quick nervous shiver) I’ll keep you posted on my progress as it goes along, the good and the bad. At my critique group a few…
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One of those rules to know before you break it is only use “said” or “asked” when identifying a speaker of dialog; avoid using words like stammered, complained, etc. For one thing, the dialog should show a stammer or a complaint, so using those is stating the obvious. But mainly, words like that slow down the…
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TED.com has a video of a great talk from author Elizabeth Gilbert about nurturing creativity. She talks about where creativity comes from and how in today’s society, when an author or creative person achieves a certain amount of success, there’s enormous pressure to do even better next time. Gilbert can attest after the huge (she calls…
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We’re in revising mode, and literary agent Nathan Bransford posted a Revision Checklist on his blog today. It’s a good list, with lots of things to consider when you’re looking at your work critically. I’ll add one that was in the comments: Have you used all five senses? This is somemthing I mention in critique…
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Literary agent Rachelle Gardner has an interesting post up today about query letters. It seems that a group of writers got together, worked on their query letters together then hired someone to submit them. The problem is the person who was hired didn’t properly research the agents or their guidelines, resulting in rejections for the…
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First, I hope you enjoyed the interview with Danette Haworth on Friday. If you didn’t catch it, click here. Look for more author interviews on upcoming Fridays. Last week, I posted about revising your manuscript and mentioned Holly Lisle’s One-Pass Manuscript Revision method, and one of the interesting things about her method is that, she…
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Today we’re please to welcome Danette Haworth to Day By Day Writer. Danette’s debut novel, Violet Raines Almost Got Struck By Lightning, was released last fall. It tells the tale of spunky 11-year-old Violet Raines. Click here for the book trailer. Welcome to Day By Day Writer, Danette, and congratulations on Violet Raines Almost Got…
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There’s a saying: Writing is rewriting. This is so true. Rarely is a first draft the final draft. I say rarely because, well, you never know, someone might have been that brilliant at one time in history. But if you think you might be the exception to the rule, here’s some quotes from some pretty…
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I’ve talked about this before, but I just read a post by literary agent Rachelle Gardner and thought that this is something worth repeating. Rachelle answered a reader’s question about tips on time management by saying that prioritizing her work is the best way she knows of getting through the day. She also talks about…
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Yesterday I wrote about the so-called “rules” of writing that are broken by many best-selling books on retail shelves now. Here’s two more: Don’t date your story with product placement: Writing that your character has a crush on Zac Efron can give the story a touch of authentication, but the reason this is considered a no…
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