Editing Pet Peeves

We all have them.  Things that make us crazy, whether we’re reading a novel for pleasure or critiquing a colleague’s work.  We’re readers first, and I believe these peeves are forged by what we’ve read – like Chinese water torture they fall, drop by drop, until you notice them and continuing until you can’t see…

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Dynamic Dialogue

I teach writing classes, and one of the things I see most often is awkward, stilted or boring dialogue. Why?  Because dialogue in writing is not like dialogue in real life. It’s real life on steroids.  It’s all the great stuff without all the, how-are-you’ s, um’s and awkwardness. It’s all the stuff you lie…

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Your First 5 Lines

I’ll admit, the idea for this blog was sparked by this one, by Donald Maass. It made me think, because I’m teaching my First Five Pages class at Lawson Writer’s Academy starting today (you can still sign up – HERE). We always focus on first lines, and though I’ll admit they are critical, experts say…

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Word Play – Unleash Your Inner Writing Child

Think back. Waaaay back, to when you first decided you wanted to write. You sat down, maybe at a computer, maybe with a pen and napkin, or even (in my case) on the back of a motorcycle, and wove a story in your head. Remember how excited you were? Everything seemed possible. You had the…

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Mistakes That Invite Skimming

This is awesome skimming. This isn’t what I’m talking about. For an author, reader skimming is a death knell. It immediately precedes putting the book down and not picking it back up. The reader may not even be able to tell you why they’re not engaged, just that they aren’t. You can write the perfect…

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Easiest Edit to Get Closer POV

POV is like Algebra. You either get it or you don’t, and if you don’t, people can explain it ten different ways, and you just feel dumber with every one. Hey, I understand. I didn’t get it either, back when rocks were new. And what’s frustrating is, I’ve never found a way to explain it…

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Write Settings & Descriptions that MATTER

I consider myself a pretty fair writer. But I can face it–I’m never going to be as good with description as Delia Owens (Where the Crawdads Sing), or Pat Conroy (Prince of Tides), or even Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath). If you are, you have my great respect. Have you ever opened a book, and the…

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A Bit on Backstory

Backstory is important. It gives essential context to what’s happening in the story. So why does it have such a bad rep? Because writers are heavy-handed with it. It’s a garnish – not a main course. The majority of badly handled backstory I see is at the beginning of the book. A friend of mine,…

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First Page Critique

I believe it’s easiest to learn from example, so I’ll be doing this from time to time – analyzing a generous and brave writer’s donated work. Thank you for trusting me with your baby! This isn’t a bad beginning. My main points are: Remember, the reader comes cold to the page. You can’t even assume…

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Trust Your Reader!

I am a very lean writer (not a lean person, mind you, that’s a different meeting). I think when you pare a sentence to its essence, making sure that every word is critical and sparkly, that’s when the power comes through. Many writers (and not just beginners) end up saying something more than once. It…

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