Somewhere in the middle of a project, writing can stop being fun. I was reminded of this recently when I had a thick stack of editorial notes to work through. […]
Writing
Self-Editing Line by Line: Save the Polish for Last
I once sent a novel of about 140,000 words to a really good line editor. It came back roughly 15,000 words shorter. The story was still there, but she had […]
Your Elevator Pitch Is the Plot, Not the Theme
Someone asks what your book is about, and you freeze. You start a sentence, abandon it, start another, and three rambling minutes later you have somehow said both too much […]
Making Out-of-Character Actions Feel Earned
You hand your pages to a reader and they leave a note at a moment you thought was working perfectly: “She would never do that.” Oof. It is a frustrating […]
Literary Citizenship: How to Show Up for Other Writers
I once gave a reading for my first book where exactly five people showed up. Five. It was awkward. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But I remember those people, […]
How To Know You’re Ready for a Developmental Editor
There comes a point in revision when it can get really hard to see your own book clearly. Maybe half of the manuscript feels solid and the other half is […]
Why Character Likability Is the Wrong Question
When I was writing my first novel, I worried for months that my protagonist wasn’t likable enough. She was prickly. She made the same bad choice over and over. She […]