It’s often said that writing is a lonely endeavor. That may be true during the actual process, but it takes a community to complete the work. No longer can an author pen a good story and expect others to run with it. He needs to bring the writing up to a publishable standard, and ensure the plot is consistent, clear, and concise. He then need [...]
Posts tagged publishing
Improving Your Connections
It’s often said that writing is a lonely endeavor. That may be true during the actual process, but it takes a community to complete the work. No longer can an author pen a good story and expect others to run with it. He needs to bring the writing up to a publishable standard, and ensure the plot is consistent, clear, and concise. He then need [...]
Polishing your gems – 5 editing strat...
Use a questionnaire
When finishing my manuscript, I asked eight people to read it. I didn’t send it to writers, but to those who would only look at the work from a reader’s perspective. Instead of asking for critiques or general feedback, I gave them a brief questionnaire:
1. Did the beginning of the story capture your attention?
2. Di [...]
Polishing your gems – 5 editing strat...
2. Finding Mistakes
Our ideas may indeed be inspired, but our writing is not. I have never seen a manuscript that doesn’t need critiquing and editing. This seems to be more of a struggle in the Christian writing community than the secular.
When a Christian feels that divine guidance has led him or her to write a manuscript, it’s easy to fall [...]
Polishing your gems – 5 editing strat...
Once you finish writing your manuscript, the work of self-editing begins. Through this process you catch the obvious mistakes so critiquing time isn’t wasted on the little things. A critique partner or an editor should only see your work after it’s polished as far as you can take it. With very few exceptions, the author cannot change h [...]
What if a publisher demands to ‘sexy ...
An editor of a major publishing house liked my writer friend’s story and said he would contract it if she would make the story more ‘sexy’. I communicate with many writers, and often I’ll see someone post that he is sexying up his novel to meet the publisher’s standard. It’s a common demand to add sex scenes to a book. I know authors wh [...]
