Category: Meet the Editor

In August of 2009 I was starting my independent editing business, so I ran a free HOOK Edit Special: readers sent me the first 150 words of their novels, and I did a quick Developmental Edit on each one, followed by a Copy & Line Edit. You can still find… Read more“Free HOOK Edit: my guitar case bounced—<br>by Marie Devers”

Many years ago I used to hang out all the time in the bars of San Luis Obispo, California. A good friend and I were sitting on the curb outside our favorite dive with our feet in the gutter one night talking deep in our cups the talk of life…. Read more“The 2 Ways Writing Keeps You Off the Streets & Out of the Bars”

I don’t really have an introduction for this. I’m just going renegade on my own blog and talking about blogging instead of fiction today. It’s a playground Remember in grammar school when the bell would ring and everyone’d spill onto the playground at once and the volume of voices would… Read more“11 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Blogging”

I’m still studying Shirley Jackson, and if you don’t know why you can easily find out. I spent all day doing a scene-by-scene analysis of Chapters 5 and 6 of The Haunting of Hill House that turned into line-by-line—that’s how fast she switches gears in her most profound passages!—and at… Read more“6 Things I Learned from Dashiell Hammett”

Elizabeth Spann Craig is well-known in the online writing community for her Writers Knowledge Base—the Search Engine for Writers, where she maintains links to all the best posts on writing online, and her weekly

Now, as far as genius, you think I’m going to say, “Shut up and write,” don’t you? But unfortunately that won’t make you a genius. It won’t even make you a writer. That will only make you a scribbler, which isn’t a bad thing to be, at all. . .but… Read more“1 Secret Trick to Becoming a Genius Writer in One Day”

We’re talking this month about instantaneous ways to improve craft—because, as Carrie Fisher says, “Instant gratification takes too long.” We’ve talked about 2 Tricks to Breaking Writer’s Block in One Day. And 3 Tricks to Ratcheting Tension in One Day. Now let’s talk about how you can use your own… Read more“4 Tricks for Improving Your Fiction in One Day”

I love the idea that so much of learning to write well starts the instant you learn it. What a fabulous craft! Last week we learned 2 Tricks for Breaking Writer’s Block in One Day. Now for the rest of the month we’ll be talking about other tricks that also… Read more“3 Tricks for Increasing Tension in One Day”

Last week I talked to a friend I hadn’t seen in awhile who’s writing a memoir. She told me she was having a lot of trouble with it—she can’t make herself write about a particular incident she seriously needs to write about. She asked me if I had any advice:… Read more“2 Tricks for Breaking Writer’s Block in One Day”

Party-hats and whistles for everyone! Our own Lisa Mercado-Fernandez has just self-published her debut novel, The Shoebox, through Abbott Press. The Shoebox has been a labor of love for Lisa for years. She was one of my first editing clients and has remained one of my most dedicated. All through… Read more“<em>The Shoebox</em>—debut novel, by my editing client Lisa Mercado-Fernandez”