I’ve been thinking about language lately. Maybe because we’ve just celebrated Pentecost, maybe because I’m at the point in the revision of my book where I’m word-smithing. Every. Single. Word. Maybe because with all the social justice marches taking place, I realize more than ever how much language matters. When I taught high school literature classes there was always the inevitable lesson on conflict, and I would write on the chalkboard (yes, I’m that old) the following: Man vs. Man Man vs. Nature Man vs. Supernatural Man vs. Society Man vs. Self Man vs. Technology It was a standard basis Read More
Category: Editing
How the Opening Scene Can Make or Break a Book
Have you ever read a book that grabbed you from the first sentence and never let go until “The End?” Have you ever been so captured by the opening scene that you reread it? Those are books with good hooks. I’ve often read that an editor will decide whether or not to acquire book based on the first page. Some say the first five pages; some say the first five paragraphs. The point is, the opening scene can make or break a book’s snagging that longed-for contract. The same buy-in is true for readers, although I believe most readers give Read More
My Secret Strategies for Handling Edits
Okay, this post is going to be really short because I’m on deadline and my revisions are due back to my editor Julie Sturgeon by Saturday. Many readers ask me how I handle editing and revising my manuscripts. I have decided to reveal a few of my deepest secrets. Some of my editing strategies for The Last Crossing: 1. Set the timer on my iPhone for 30 minutes so I get up and move around. It’s good for my health and clears my mind. Plus, potty break. (amended: Pay attention when the timer goes off.) 2. Set my iPhone Read More
Showing Characters Who’s Boss (Hint: They Are)
Characters do not appear to me fully formed like Athena springing from the head of Zeus. Even characters that I’ve written into previous books can give me a bit of a go before they settle down. Take Jenny Sutton. We meet Jenny in Love’s Spirit, book two of The Brentwood Saga. She is feisty and courageous. When she learns that the hero, Jonathon Brentwood, has been captured by the British, she leaps on a horse to go save him alongside her love, Andrew Wentworth. She doesn’t blink twice, she just acts. When I started writing Jenny in the opening scene Read More
Five Take-Aways After My Writerly Weekend (Pardon My Tantrum)
Picture 12 women in a room and no one is talking. Silence. And it wasn’t a prayer service or a silent retreat. Hard to imagine? Not if these women are writers participating in a weekend write-in. Okay, in our minds, some of us were talking with our characters. Some of us even might have been praying…or cursing. What a delight to meet with my MidMichigan Romance Writers of America Chapter sisters for a fall write-in at the beautiful Riverside Inn. Not only did I get a boatload of editing accomplished, I learned five valuable lessons. Writers are respectful of Read More