I’m sure we’ve all participated in or heard stories about horrible experiences with critique groups. I’ve had a few myself. Unfortunately, I may also have contributed to some of them. To any writers I did this to, I apologize. I’ve been writing seriously for over ten years. During this time, …
We’ve all experienced financial stress at least once. Some of us experience it every single day, like an unwanted guest at the dinner table or a cockroach (or three) skittering when we turn a light on. Many of us live paycheck to paycheck and find there’s more month than money …
The Final Frontier—The Professional Edit Over the past few weeks, we’ve done a lot of work revising and rewriting our manuscript. We’re ready to submit to our dream agent, or the agent who requested a full manuscript at the conference we attended last month. Our finger hovers over the send …
We covered a lot of territory over the last few weeks. The previous blogs in this series are at these links: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 Now, we’re coming toward the end of preparing our manuscript for submission or self-publishing. Revise—Again It’s time to write the third draft. Or maybe yours is …
So far we’ve discussed several areas in the art of self-editing our work. In the first post [Click Here], we covered letting our completed first draft cool off before revising and then reading a printed version of our manuscript. In the second post, [Click Here] we discussed the value of …
Last week, we began exploring the process of self-editing, of getting our writing in the best shape we can before sending it out to a professional editor. Notice, I didn’t say before submitting it to an agent, a publishing house, or self-publishing it. There’s an old saying from the judicial …
Part of my call as a writer is to help others through coaching, mentoring, teaching, and editing. One thing I’ve learned in my writing and in helping other writers is the vital importance of learning to self-edit. Someone said, and I can’t remember whom, “The heart of writing is re-writing.” …
I’m taking the next couple of weeks off to celebrate Christmas and to renew, reconnect, rediscover and repurpose. I’ll be back after the 1st of the year. I pray you all have a blessed and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
It’s that time of year when I think many of us ponder the question, “What’s it all about?” “What’s the meaning of all this decorating and buying?” “Why do we do it?” This year, the meaning of Christmas is stirring in me at deeper levels. I’m seeing the season in …
Have you ever wondered about what kind of legacy you’re leaving? I mean more than an estate or an inheritance we bequeath to our children or our church. I’m thinking more along the lines of how will people remember us. Maybe a better phrasing is how do we want to …
