Description should be like tasty nuggets of information readers cherry pick out of the pages before them. Not a nutritional paragraph of data they must swallow. This post is all about revising your words to get the more ‘show’ and less ‘tell’ in your character descriptions. For Secondary Characters: Too much description gets boring. The classicContinueContinue reading “‘Showing’ Character Description”
Tag Archives: novel
10 Steps for Working with an Illustrator
Maybe your story is like mine. You’ve submitted a children’s book to several publishers without pictures and have had no response. Lets be real can a picture book really make an impact without pictures? Maybe… Maybe not… So after reading through the Children’s Writers Market I’ve decided to try again, except with the pictures included.ContinueContinue reading “10 Steps for Working with an Illustrator”
Magic Realism Is Not
A relatively new term has been popping up all over the publishing realm, Magic Realism. But what exactly is magic realism? And is the classic definition what agents and publishers really want? If you do a quick GoodReads search for magic realism books you will get a haphazard collection of works. Whether or not these are classifiedContinueContinue reading “Magic Realism Is Not”
Beta Reader Breakdown Part 3, Evaluation time
So you have all your shiny packets back, well except for those first few pages with the coffee marks. But Yay! You have them back. And you’ve glanced through them and you are getting excited about all the positive feedback you are sure to receive! My mind is humming, “I can’t wait for them toContinueContinue reading “Beta Reader Breakdown Part 3, Evaluation time”
Beta Reader Breakdown Part 2, Equip your team
Find Part 1 of Beta Reader Breakdown, Pick Your Team Here Now onto the tough part. What do you ask the beta readers to do? Or do you say nothing? I think some rough framework is needed so I am creating a packet I will print off for each reader, it includes: A complete printContinueContinue reading “Beta Reader Breakdown Part 2, Equip your team”
NaNoWriMo: A Postscript (Or Reflections on a Month of Creative Abandon)
Guest Post by Andrew Newton, Find his blog at newtonandnewtoninc.wordpress.com This past November, I embarked for the fourth time on a literary adventure of grand proportions. National Novel Writing Month (aka. NaNoWriMo, or just NaNo) is an annual challenge for writers of all ages to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Each timeContinueContinue reading “NaNoWriMo: A Postscript (Or Reflections on a Month of Creative Abandon)”
Pick Your Team, Beta Reader Breakdown
As I enter my final stages of revision for my YA novel my heart is fluttering with excitement and dread. It’s coming to the point where someone else will be reading my words… characters as close as family will be critiqued. Secretly, I think it’s flawless. Reality hits cold. What do I do? How doContinueContinue reading “Pick Your Team, Beta Reader Breakdown”
Holy Homesteading 