The question of re-posting bad reviews came up in an author group discussion and my immediate answer was why would you re-post a bad review? When promoting your work, always highlight the positive, never the negative. That said, even a bad review will have some kernel that can be used …
When it comes to writing and finishing books, you don’t make time. You don’t get time. You don’t fit it in some time. You CARVE out time. You draw your line in the sand and stand your ground. Life happens. You can’t stop life from happening, but not all life …
One of the hardest things about self-editing is deleting. A word, a sentence, a paragraph, a page, a scene, a chapter — doesn’t matter how long. You wrote it and you want to keep it. Unfortunately, you can’t, not if you want your story to be better. One of the …
One of the pieces of self-editing advice several people told me, and I’ve actually used on the odd occasion, is to edit the manuscript backwards — start at the end and work your way to the beginning. You can go paragraph by paragraph or page by page. The whole point …
This probably should have been the first of the self-editing tips, but it’s all good. Before you start self-editing your finished manuscript, give yourself a cooling off period. Put the book down and step away. Don’t look at it for a day or two or three… four if you can …
Every writer has a list of words they overuse: – Just– That– Like– Look– Feel– Was– Even– Still– Of Those are just a few but there are TONS. Some are general and apply to all of us. While some are specific to a particular writer. One way to catch the …
One of the self-editing tips I learned about a while ago (that I use on the odd occasion) is reading out loud. If you’re like me, you probably don’t like the sound of your own voice. If you’re also like me, you probably don’t want to read your writing out …
I’ve developed a HUGE pet peeve since becoming an author and it has to do with mailing lists. I have one. Most people like mailing lists, because they are targeted promotion to people who WANT to receive news about what you’re selling. My pet peeve is when people do it …
It’s called keeping up with the Joneses. Pretty much everyone knows that idiom. Using the success of another person as a benchmark for your own. You are you. You cannot be anyone else but you… well you can be someone else, but the last time I checked Hand That Rocks …
In retail, the customer is always right. In writing, the muse (or voices in your head or inspiration or whatever you want to call it) is always right. To put it another way — when you muse says write something, WRITE IT. Don’t argue with your muse. Seriously, you’re going …
