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A Writer's Words, An Editor's Eye
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Life as a freelance writer, writing advice, e-publishing and small press news and information, books and authors, the musings and random thoughts of writer and editor Lillie Ammann
Recent Posts Tagged With 'writing and publishing advice'
Freelance Editing Rates: Most Popular Search Terms
What are people looking for when they find this blog through search engines? Although I’ve been signed up to Google Analytics for ages, I don’t pay as much attention as I should to the statistics. However, with the latest upgrade, WordPre...
Ten Tips to Impress an Editor after Acceptance
The last post covered ten tips to impress an acquisitions editor. Now, you have the assignment for a magazine article or your book has been accepted for publication. The following ten tips will help you impress the editor for the project. Meet dead...
Ten Tips to Impress an Acquisitions Editor
Writers who are submitting work to magazine or book publishers want to make a good impression from the first contact. These ten tips will help you do just that. Target the market—make sure your work is a good fit with the publisher. Know the edito...
Show and Tell Exercises
In a recent post, I said writers should both show and tell in fiction. I gave an example of re-writing narrative summary (telling) into an action scene (showing). Now, it’s your turn. Select one or more of the narrative summaries below and re-...
Show and Tell
Fiction writers often hear show, don’t tell. But I advise my clients to show and tell. What does it mean to show or tell? When should you show and when should you tell? You show in an action scene, like in a movie: An action scene takes place ...
Creating Fictional Characters—Part 8: Developing Characters throughout Your Story
We’ve covered a lot about creating characters. In this last installment in the series, we’ll cover developing your characters throughout your story. If you thought you were finished with character development when you created that charact...
Creating Fictional Characters—Part 7: Giving Characters Goals and Motivation
Characters in your story must have reasons for their actions. In real life, we don’t know what people are thinking or why they do what they do, but in fiction, readers will accept the characters’ actions only if they believe the reasons for the...
Creating Fictional Characters—Part 6: Putting The Right Words In Their Mouths
I’ve learned about dialogue since the first draft of my first novel. When I’d finished about half the book, a writer friend read it. When she returned the manuscript to me, she said, “Do you realize you don’t have one word of...
Creating Fictional Characters—Part 5: Developing Background And Traits Using A Character Chart, Bio, Diary, or Interview
In previous installments in this series, we’ve talked about what the author needs to know about her characters. You should know things about your characters that you don’t necessarily reveal directly to readers—things that cause the cha...
Guest Post: 9 Ways to Promote Your Book Using Social Media by Beth Morrow
Recently, Beth Morrow at Writer-in-Progress interviewed me for her feature Story Behind the Story She agreed to reciprocate with a guest post here, and I jumped at the chance. Let’s welcome Beth and get ready to learn about promoting books th...
Creating Fictional Characters—Part 4: Fleshing Out Characters with Tags, Traits, and Relationships
You’ve got some basic ideas of what your character is like: gender, age, vocation, manner. As described in Finding and Creating Characters, you’ve given your character a problem, a need. Now you’re ready to flesh the character out. ...
Creating Fictional Characters Part 3: Revealing Characters and Point of View
In previous installments of this series, we’ve learned what characters are and discussed how to find and create them. Now, let’s talk about how to reveal characters in your story. Although it may be tempting to describe your characters an...
Interview: Wendy Burt-Thomas
My guest today is freelance writer and editor Wendy Burt-Thomas. I didn’t know Wendy until she contacted me about her blog tour for her book The Writers Digest Guide To Query Letters (reviewed in my last post). I’ve learned she is a very talented...
Review: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Query Letters
The Writer’s Digest Guide to Query Letters Wendy Burt-Thomas Writer’s Digest Books, an imprint of F+W Media Inc. Copyright 2008 ISBN: 978-1-58297-566-5 Paperback, 228 pages, $14.99 Non-fiction I have a confession to make. When Wendy Burt-...
Compiling Thanks to Commenters
Each month when I post my thanks to commenters, I get questions about how I compile the list. I have answered several times in comments but finally decided to put the answer into a post to make it more accessible. People often ask if there is a plugi...
Creating Fictional Characters—Part 2: Finding and Creating Characters
Now we know what characters are. How do you come up with the characters for your novel or short story? In Creating Characters: How to Build Story People, Dwight Swain says You start from a foundation of your fantasies and feelings. Because the char...
Creating Fictional Characters—Part 1: Characters Are Story People
Several years ago, I taught classes in fiction-writing at a continuing education program for senior citizens. I’ve decided to turn my outlines and notes on these classes into several series about writing fiction. Fiction writers usually describ...
Making a Way and Other Overused Expressions
Most of us tend to overuse certain words and phrases. Sometimes we recognize the problem. I often reply to comments with “I’m glad you found the post helpful/useful/valuable.” I know I’m repeating myself, but few blog visito...
Memoir and Family History: Part 6—Publishing and Distribution
Some memoirs and family histories will appeal to a wider audience and be appropriate for traditional publishing. If your story falls into that category, this installment won’t apply to you. Since the percentage of personal and family stories that a...
Memoir and Family History: Part 5—Writing
Memoirists and family historians are not necessarily experienced writers, and they often don’t realize how many drafts it takes to achieve a finished product. The first draft will be “pure green dreck.” Start writing, and expect that you will r...
Memoir and Family History: Part 4—Getting Started
You’ve decided whether you’re going to write a memoir or a family history, the scope of the story (some aspect of your own life or a certain group of ancestors), and the genre (nonfiction or fiction). Now you need to determine your audience. In L...
Memoir and Family History: Part 3—Family History
A family history tells the story of people in your family. Most people who write family histories start out doing genealogical research. After they gather all that information, they want to share it with other family members. I’m not going to t...
Memoir and Family History: Part 2—Memoir
As mentioned in Part 1, the term memoir can cover many types of writing. Usually a memoir is focused on one aspect of the author’s life. Perhaps you lived through an important historical event, and you want to share how that event affected your lif...
Memoir and Family History: Part 1—Leaving a Legacy
This is the first installment in a series about writing memoirs and family histories. A couple of months ago, I asked readers to take a short survey on what they would like to see on this blog. Most of the responses were split about 50-50; half of th...
Words Matter Week
A comment posted on my recent post on Freelance Writers Appreciation Week alerted me to another week for freelancers. Janice Campbell, Director of National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE), let me know that March 2-6 is Words Ma...
The Author Platform
In her recent guest post, Jennifer Mattern shared five ways to build a writer platform online. She gave an excellent overview, but many authors need more help. They know they need to start a blog and do more to build their platform, but they donR...
Guest Post: Building Your Writer Platform Online by Jennifer Mattern
Help me welcome freelance business writer and blogger Jennifer Mattern. I think you’ll find her guest post on building a writer platform helpful. At the end of the post, you will find a discount code to save $10 on her latest e-book. ========...
Blog Book Tour: Part 4—Review
Phil Davis of Authors on the Net interviewed me on a podcast about my blog book tour and the results summarized in my report. Listen to the podcast as Phil and I discuss blog book tours. Related posts:Blog Book Tour: Part 1—What It Is I r...
Blog Book Tour: Part 3—Advice for Hosts
In the last installment, we talked about what authors can do to make their blog books more successful. Now we’ll look at advice for hosts. Start by reading 30 Tips for Blog Tour Hosts by Helen Ginger. Helen hosts many authors, including me, at...
Blog Book Tour: Part 2—Advice for Authors
In my last post, I described what a blog book tour is. Instead of traveling to bookstores and sitting around waiting for someone to buy a book for the author to sign, the author travels to blogs. The visit may consist of a guest post, an interview, a...
