If you want to be a published author, you have two main options. You can either self-publish or you can work with a traditional publishing house. Most publishing houses don’t consider unsolicited manuscripts for publication. Instead, they’ll let literary agents [...]
In a nutshell … nope! Developmental editing is very different to copy-editing and proofreading. Developmental editors help authors shape their stories (addressing things like concept, plot and structure, pacing and character development; and stylistic and technical execution, such a deciding on [...]
I’d planned to publish my reading log for 2017 at the end of last year or beginning of this year … You know, when it actually made sense to do so. But time got away from me, so I’m taking [...]
Asking for feedback while writing is a tricky thing. Because it takes so long to write a novel, it makes sense that you’d crave some positive feedback to inspire you to keep going. After all, when you’re starting to doubt [...]
At the beginning of the year, I published my Year in Review and Goals for 2018. Last year I checked in every quarter, but this year I’m just doing a mid-year check-in due to the fact I’m publishing fewer blog [...]
What is it about the semicolon that is so alluring to writers? Is it because it feels like a sophisticated punctuation mark – more advanced than a full stop or a comma – and therefore the mark of a sophisticated [...]
Description is the seasoning that flavours a story. It’s the smattering of details that prevents your novel feeling bland. In the same way that just the right amount of carefully selected herbs and spices can bring a dish to life, [...]
I run my own editing business. So unlike when I used to work in a publishing house (and could slack off and still get paid the same wage every month), the more I work, the more I earn. And let’s [...]
Deciding what kind of writer you want to be is important, but it’s not something most fiction writers think too deeply about. I’m not talking about deciding whether you want to write novels over short stories, or if you want [...]
Metaphors are powerful weapons in your writing arsenal. (See what I did there? That was a metaphor.) A thoughtfully written metaphor used in just the right place will help you create vivid, original prose – the kind that makes readers sigh in [...]
