The topic for today is an interesting one and even possibly controversial. Editing is great, but it can KILL any kind of writing, whether it is fiction or non-fiction. I am currently participating in #nanowrimo. One consistent post I see looks like this. “Looked at the pages I wrote last week and now editing. What …
Tag: editing
Sep 12 2011
Deadly Sin of Writing #7–Treating the Reader Like a Moron
I know I talked about this only a couple of months ago, and yes, you guessed it. This is my 7th Deadly Sin of Writing. As an editor, I found that I kept correcting the same blunders over and over and yeah…over. The mistakes were so universal among new writers that I finally put together …
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Aug 19 2011
Guinea Pig Diaries: Little Darlings Anonymous
Have you ever heard of the Kubler-Ross 5 Stages of Death and Dying? Well, as an editor for many years, I’ve seen a similar phenomenon happen with first-time novelists, especially when I was called upon to stage an intervention. Not pretty. I call this process of extracting a writer from her first bad novel, The 5 stages …
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Aug 15 2011
Deadly Sin of Writing #4–Beware the Bog of Back Story
Last week, I introduced you guys to my first three Deadly Sins of Writing. Many of you, in the comments, requested I keep going and reveal the rest of my Deadly Sins. All I have to say is, y’all asked for it :D. Creating great characters has to be one of the toughest tasks for …
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Aug 01 2011
Beating the "Sugar" Addiction–Tightening the Writing
Sugar addiction is dangerous. When I started writing fiction years ago, I didn’t know anything. There wasn’t an adverb, adjective, metaphor or simile I didn’t adore. The problem, however, is when we emphazise everything, we in effect emphasize nothing. My writing was bloated, and I had to learn to trim the fat. I had joined …
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International Association of Professional Writers & Editors
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