Category: Advice Column

Hi Victoria, do you have any advice on how to avoid being a “difficult client” when hiring freelance writers? I recently launched an informational website, I work with freelancers very often and I’d like to make sure I’m not scaring candidates away. I’d appreciate your point of view, thanks –… Read more“Being a great client to freelance writers”

Hi Victoria, I am the proud owner of your books, and I cannot tell you how fantastic they are. I do have a query regarding third-person limited. Is it possible to express a character’s personal emotion that is not the main character? I hope you reply, and thank you again… Read more“Choosing limited, unlimited or omniscient narrator”

Hello Victoria, My name is Alex, and I’ve been reading your blog “five ways to make your novel inescapable.” First of all, I’d like to thank you for the blog post. It is a very nice piece. My question is concerning a hook climax. Can you please explain what a… Read more“Climax: the whole point”

You have a highly informative website! Now, about: The best technique for proofreading is to read each sentence backward. Did you really mean what that sounds like? Taking one sentence at a time, I should reverse all the words of the sentence front to back and read the words of… Read more“Proofreading: reading each sentence backward”

I’ve found myself in a particularly unique situation. I have no formal education in editing, and I am quite young. However, a month or so ago one of my aunts showed me the first few chapters of a story she was working on. She’s an author and has a few… Read more“Becoming an independent freelance editor, for young writers (part 4)”

Dear Victoria, I came across your lovely website while googling the difference between copy-editing and line-editing. I was a news sub-editor for a year and worked for six years as a quality assurance proofreader of technical documents. I’ve also worked in Asia, bringing ESL texts up to English native speaker… Read more“Becoming a freelance independent editor (part 3)”

I regularly receive requests from high school and college students asking how to become a freelance independent editor. So here is our interview for this week: 1. What education do you recommend? I have done some research and found that an editor often has a B.A. in English or Literature… Read more“Becoming a freelance independent editor, for young writers (part 2)”

These questions from Diana Rubino are about my new ebook, Art & Craft of Writing: Secret Advice for Writers. If you haven’t got a copy, you can now pick one up free. “10 Ways to Become a Better Writer in 10 Days”: “We can feel free to throw in gratuitous… Read more“Authorial control, transitions, exposition, & how to tell a good joke”

Dear Victoria: Thank you for answering my first question about Art & Craft of Writing Stories. 2) My other question is about P. 270, (I have your book open in front of me). About midway down, “What do you suppose happened here?” Then we’ll ask “And how could these needs… Read more“Revision: the forward motion of conflicting needs”

Dear Victoria: I have questions about two things in Art & Craft of Writing Stories. I’m going to meet with my longtime crit partner Bonnie on Saturday to toss around some ideas for my next book and wanted to talk about your book. We do that a lot; I bring… Read more“Internal needs vs. external needs”