After you’ve made it past the opening and have your core story pieces in place, writing the middle of a book can sometimes feel like a slog. In response, you might subconsciously start rushing your characters toward the ending. Or, if you’re worried about how you’re going to fill the remaining pages, you might find […]
Common Revision Areas: Meandering Middles Read Post »
Story openings present a Goldilocks-like challenge: a story can open too late, too early, or at just the right place. A story that opens too late often thrusts readers straight into the action. While this can be appealing from a pacing perspective, readers may not have the necessary context or emotional investment to care about
Common Revision Areas: Tricky Beginnings Read Post »
So you’ve found a writing group or critique partner—now what? While some people are more practiced at giving and receiving constructive feedback than others, being upfront about everyone’s expectations and commitments will make for a smoother experience. Questions you might want to discuss with a new writing group or critique partner include: How often do you
Getting the Most out of Writing Groups & Critique Partners Read Post »
Sharing your manuscript with a critique partner or writing group is exhilarating and nerve-wracking. At last, someone else is going to read what you’ve written; to meet the characters who, until now, have only lived in your head and on the page; to read the story without knowing what happens next! Authors often meet their
What to Look for in a Writing Group or Critique Partner Read Post »
If you know any Type A people (or are one yourself), you won’t be surprised to know that I like to write these letters well in advance of sharing them. This helps me avoid deadline-induced stress, and it allows me to put the letters out of sight for a while before I review, revise, and
Writing a book has often been compared to giving birth, and in many ways manuscripts require the same constant adjustments from their authors—and prompt the same range of unique worries, joys, frustrations, and fears—as children do from their parents. Most of the authors I’ve worked with have said that they have to tweak their creative
When Your Writing Routine Becomes a Writing Rut Read Post »
I love to read about other people’s creative routines. Sometimes I hear about a new app I’d like to try (and inevitably send to the app graveyard); sometimes I learn about a new book or podcast or notebook; sometimes I wonder whether I, too, should get up at 4 am (the answer is always, definitively,
Finding Your Creative Routine Read Post »
Writing and publishing easily lend themselves to metrics: words written, queries submitted, books published, copies sold, reviews received, and on and on. And in general, I like metrics. I like knowing how many books I read, how many manuscripts I edit, how many miles I run, and many of the other daily metrics my phone
Approaching Goals with Curiosity Read Post »
Hello! Thanks for visiting Your Editor Friend. My hope is that these letters will feel like conversations between a writer and an editor who also happen to be friends in real life—touching on writing, publishing, editing, and everything in between—while also providing actionable advice that you can apply to your work. If you’re like me, you
Welcome to Your Editor Friend Read Post »
