Writing advice and tips.
In last week’s “To Plot a Story,” guest Deborah Lyn Stanley stated, “A one-sentence premise is essential to a strong story.” Many writers may not understand what a premise is or how to arrive at that one-sentence, so let’s take a look at it today. In almost all of the books I have on the…
Today’s guest post is from writer, artist, and editor Deborah Lyn Stanley. She is a retired project manager who now devotes her time to writing, art and care-giving mentally impaired seniors. She has published a collection of 24 artists’ interviews titled the Artists Interview Series. The series published as monthly articles for an online news…
In recent months I’ve been stymied by my work in progress (WIP). Would I call it writer’s block? No. I was struggling to write because I simply didn’t know where the story was going. You see, I decided to take a short story I wrote for a college class a few years back and develop…
Two mistakes writers make when it comes to backstory are: Putting it in chapter one Using too much at a time What is backstory? Tim Tomlinson, in The Portable MFA in Creative Writing, tells us backstory is:
Show don’t tell. Does this piece of advice kink you up in knots? Writers hear it all the time from various angles—other writers, editors, and conference workshop instructors. When I first starting writing, I struggled with it, too. Too many of the blog posts I read only talked about it and never showed any examples….
Sometimes it takes all the willpower I can muster to put my butt in the chair and write. By day I’m a freelance editor/writer and by night an editor for CrossRiver Media. I’m single and my children are grown, but I still have all the household chores to do. Work, eat, sleep. Work, eat, sleep….
As a writer, I use Scrivener to create my documents—even my blog posts. As an editor, my primary tool is MS Word and Track Changes. While I’ve never asked other editors what they use, I’d venture they use track changes, too. That makes it critical for writers to understand what track changes are and how to…
For those of you who missed last month’s Facebook live Ask the Editor video, I’m sharing it here today. Never mind that I couldn’t seem to say my name that day–the hazards of live video. 🙂 The question is “Should I use real restaurants, stores, and places in my story?”