Category: Editing Services

Never doubt that thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.—Margaret Mead I’ve talked a lot to you guys, over the past four years on this blog, about the choices we all face as writers—especially during these turbulent publishing times. I’ve researched… Read more“The 2 Choices of a Writer in These Best of Times & Worst of Times”

Never doubt that thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.—Margaret Mead I find myself writing this letter to so many of my clients when they reach that brick wall in their writing—you know the one I mean: the one that brings… Read more“An Open Letter to Writers in 3 Acts: <br>the Anguish & the Glory”

You’ve given your novel an unforgettable CLIMAX. You’ve made every single page helplessly addictive. Now it’s time to learn 5 Ways to Make Your Novel Inescapable. Your reader will go into the first page. . . and never come out again.

Last week we talked about CLIMAX and how to make your novel unforgettable. This week we’re talking about DEVELOPMENT and 5 Ways to Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive Two hundred and fifty pages. You need your reader to be in an absolute passion to turn every single one. Full-contact addiction.

It’s October again, which means we’re ramping up once again for NaNoWriMo with our first post on what you need to know as you design your new novel: 5 Ways to Make Your Novel Unforgettable Climax, people. It’s the whole point. You know it, and I know it. (If you’ve… Read more“5 Ways to Make Your Novel Unforgettable”

Welcome to America. Conscience As the 2012 Presidential election approaches this November, I’ve found myself asking my conscience whether or not I can limit my blog presence to a pure conversation about writing, when I know the welfare of my own son hangs in the balance of this election. I… Read more“The 4 Keys to the 2012 Presidential Election<br>& One Essential Step: VOTE”

Last week we talked about reasons to love Melville Davisson Post, the great nineteenth-century mystery author of the backwoods of Virginia. In case you’re new here, that conversation was caused by a post I did that was all lurid, over-the-top covers of vintage mysteries. And that post was caused by… Read more“4 Reasons to Love Rafael Sabitini & Freddie Mercury”

Some weeks ago I did a post that was almost nothing but the covers of fabulous vintage mysteries and a list of some of my favorite vintage authors. And that post was in response to a question asked by Sabine on an earlier post about being interviewed by the fabulous… Read more“4 Reasons to Love Melville Davisson Post”

My husband found this excerpt from Mark Twain’s famous criticism of The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper on the blog of Marcel Gagne: Writer and Free Thinker at Large. This excerpt has become known as “Mark Twain’s Rules of Writing.” And I tell you people, verily, these rules are as… Read more“Mark Twain on a Work of Art vs. Literary Delirium Tremens”

Well, folks, it looks like I raised a little dust storm over on Writer Unboxed this weekend with a comic post about the difference between quality fiction and the modern frantic dash for instant 99-cent fame. Sadly, a few commenters misunderstood my encouragement that we strive for spectacular art as… Read more“Damn Spectacular Feet—guest post on Writer Unboxed”