Wordherders: What Works, What Doesn’t Work

For our August 2020 discussion, the Wordherders brought examples from their reading – and their writing – to share with others as examples of what works for them in writing and what doesn’t. Rosann Ferris: Killers of the Flower Moon, The Osage Murders, and the Birth of the FBI by David Gran Jess Goodrich has been reading political essays. What didn’t work for her is when authors of essays meant to persuade the… Read More

Top 5 Developmental Issues by Naomi Hughes

This thread was posted by Naomi Hughes (@NaomiHughesYA) on twitter.  You should follow her! This thread is also available from the Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) on twitter. I haven’t done a writing-advice thread in a while because I was so busy working on my WIP, but now that I’m done, how about a chat on the top 5 developmental issues I see as an editor? One of the most common issues I see in manuscripts I edit is… Read More

8 Tips to Writing Unreliable Narrators, by Deb Caletti

From: http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/8-tips-to-writing-unreliable-narrators The unreliable narrator … Ah, don’t you love that unsettling, page-turning, blockbuster-making literary device? An unreliable narrator makes for the bad boy of novels—ensuring a delicious but uneasy read, an on-the-edge wondering of what might happen next. Usually, we feel we’re in good hands with whatever main characters we’re spending time with between the covers. We can count on them, we think, to tell us the truth. But then comes a… Read More

Inner monologue examples: Writing characters’ secret lives

From: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/inner-monologue-examples-in-novels Internal or inner monologue is a useful literary device. Dialogue reveals character relationships, their converging or competing goals. Inner monologue gives readers an x-ray view of characters’ more private feelings and dilemmas. Read examples of inner monologue that illustrate how to use it well, along with tips: First, what is ‘inner monologue’? A ‘monologue’ literally means ‘speaking alone’, if we go back to the word’s roots. In a play, especially in Shakespeare,… Read More

I Talked to 150 Writers and Here’s the Best Advice They Had, by Joe Fassler

From: lithub.com/i-talked-to-150-writers-and-heres-the-best-advice-they-had I once heard John Irving give a lecture on his process at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, an in-depth account of the way his novels come to be. He kicked it off by writing a single sentence on the chalkboard—the last line of Last Night in Twisted River. All his books begin with the ending, Irving explained, a capstone he works and reworks until it’s ready. From there, he’ll generate a detailed… Read More

NaNoWriMo Pep Talk, by Daniel Jose Older

From: https://nanowrimo.org/pep-talks/daniel-jose-older My favorite advice of all time for writing (and life) comes from a poem by Antonio Machado: “Caminante no hay camino / se hace camino al andar.” It means, “Walker, there is no path / the path is made by walking.” This is a perfectly concise way of saying: Kill your heroes, machete chop the barriers you’ve created in your mind, be brave and ridiculous and absolutely you in your journey… Read More

NaNoWriMo Pep Talk by Roxane Gay

From: https://nanowrimo.org/pep-talks/roxane-gay Before I wrote my first novel, An Untamed State, I wondered if writing a novel was something I could do. The sheer scope of the task overwhelmed me. I started reading various books and visiting writing forums online trying to find advice about writing a novel. I learned about storyboarding methods and special software and how some writers create extensively detailed profiles for each character. I downloaded Scrivener and tried to… Read More

Editing Your Book: What Else?

In addition to the steps outlined by K. M. Weiland in “Your NaNo Novel Is a Hot Mess! How to Edit Your Book”, here are more things you can do to help make your book or story publication ready! Review each chapter and section for consistent and appropriate POV Fact check: place names historical events people’s names telephone numbers Geographic features key to the story fictional character names (Hester Prynne vs Hester… Read More

Your NaNo Novel Is a Hot Mess! How to Edit Your Book, by K. M. Weiland

From: http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/nano-novel-hot-mess-edit-book Yay, you wrote a book! Now what are you supposed to do with it? Writing a manuscript often feels like a sprint to a finish line–but then you reach that finish line, only to realize it’s really just the beginning! In many ways, completing a first draft is the easy part of the writing (what? no! yeah, sorry). The real business of writing begins with you have to sit down… Read More

**EXPLICIT** 25 Things to Know About Writing the First Chapter of Your Novel, by Chuck Wendig

From:  http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/05/29/25-things-to-know-about-writing-the-first-chapter EVERY BOOK A HOOK (AND THE FIRST CHAPTER’S THE BAIT) A reader walks into a bookstore. Spies an interesting book. What does she do? Picks it up. Flips to the first chapter before anything else. At least, that’s what I do. (Then I smell the book and rub it on my bare stomach in a circular motion and make mmmmmm noises.) Or, if I can find the first chapter online… Read More