Articles
Why Characterization Charts Don’t Work
No doubt you’ve seen them — the charts that allow you to get to know your novel’s characters by filling in the blanks. These charts prompt you with basic questions about each character: Siblings? Age? Education? Many writers spend hours diligently completing these charts and still don’t really know their characters.
4 Most Common WIP Problems
As a developmental editor, I see many of the same issues in novel and memoir manuscripts. The good news is that none of these issues are deal breakers for your WIP. Here are the four most common problems I find in manuscripts…and a few tips to fix them.
Four Ways Point of View Can Transform Your Story
Point of View (POV) is the framework for how your story is told. Let’s take a deeper look at how POV, perspective, and narration impact your novel or short story.
How to Pitch an Agent at a Writers Conference
Having been to many writers conferences, I know they are hectic and overwhelming. This is especially true if you’ll be pitching your manuscript to a literary agent. Here are my top seven tips to maximize your opportunity, and stay sane.
Five Tips to Help You Read Like a Writer
Close reading is an essential skill for all writers, allowing you to uncover how your favorite stories tick and putting those techniques to work in your own story.
Tenth Annual Great Books to Give…and Get
Books make great gifts! If you’ve got a long list of people to buy for this holiday season and no idea what to get them, here are a few suggestions for books I enjoyed this year.
31 Days of Writing Inspiration
I decided to put together a little package of inspirations that will help me stay connected and keep my commitment in tact, and I hope you will be interested in joining me.
Five Things Good Dialogue Should Do
We writers often think dialogue should be the easiest aspect of storytelling. After all, we talk all the time IRL. Therefore, conversations between our characters should be a no-brainer. Right? Wrong! As an editor, I find dialogue to be one of the biggest hurdles writers face and they don’t even realize it.
31-Day Editing Challenge
One of the questions writers always ask when editing their work is: where do I begin? The 31-Day Editing Challenge will help you answer that question and more!
10 Writing Tips From Over 100 Author Interviews
I reached out to The Secret Library creator, host, and producer Caroline Donahue to find out what she’s learned about what it takes to write and publish a book.
I’m Reading
