Gone Sailing!

Gone Sailing!
Back on the 7th or 8th of July.
Hoping to see Orcas.

Spine teasers

Working titles are fine, but there comes a time to focus on a publishable title. For novels and picturebooks, it’s worth the time to revise titles endlessly until you find the perfect one. It’s a job I prefer to do myself instead of leaving up to the marketing department.
Revising titles

Metaphor. Sol Stein suggests looking [...]

Book trailer tips, awards and scissors

Book Trailer tips, awards and scissors

Tips for book trailers.
Men more likely to share than women – online, at least.
Highlights of the history of science fiction literature for kids.
Kindle most appropriate for women?
“I think it’s fascinating the way that the author of that post connects (rightly I suspect) the
marketing of Kindle to women (though the links [...]

Revising the Outline

When do you start revising your novel? I start by revising the first draft of my novel’s plot outline, synopsis or treatment.
Revise Early and Late
As soon as I’ve written the first sketchy outlines of a novel, I’m revising. I’m looking for many things:

Does the climax resolve the setup?
Are the main characters together in [...]

4 Proofreading Tips

When you’re almost finished with your novel revision, you must do the dreaded proofreading.
4 Proofreading Tips

On-screen. Take advantage of the word-processor’s capability for spelling and grammar. Run any and all programs you have for Spell checks and Grammar checks. Of course, these are limited, especially at finding typos: The tall cheerleader [...]

Novel Revision for Lovers

Often a novel revision benefits from the addition of a love interest. It may be a first love between 12 year olds or a more passionate teen love. Or it could be parental love or love of a pet. Emotional attachment or spicy relationships make the perfect subplot.
The Classic Romantic Plot
In [...]

3 Ways to Spice Up a Boring Character

Rethinking the characters in your novels? Spice them up by focusing on three elements of characterization!
3 easy ways to spice up a boring character:

Job/Role: First, define the character’s job or role. Are they a sister, aunt, go-getter, sluggard? Does your character make equipment for astronauts or teach high school biology? Choose a [...]

5 Good Reasons NOT to revise

Since the Nebraska retreat a couple months ago, the writers keep track of each other on an email list and S wrote recently to say revisions aren’t happening. That’s OK.
Good reasons NOT to revise
Surgery. S reports a bout of illness, followed by surgery, a relapse and difficult recovery. THAT is a great [...]

Snacks, Writing, Twitter and Revision Stories

I’ve been meaning to post links to these great articles for several days — here is news about how snack and writing are connected, revision stories, Twitter delivering stories, and more.

21 Key Traits of Bestselling Fiction.
Daily installments of literature via Twitter on your cell phone.
My favorite kind of story: a revision story [...]

Spunk & Bite’s Edgy

My summer reading is
Spunk & Bite: A writer’s guide to bold, contemporary style. I’m fascinated by the chapter on what makes writing edgy.
Edgy Writing
Of course, the title is a riff on the Strunk & White classic, The Elements of Style, wherein the authors recommend you take the middle, safe route on all writing [...]