Tag: writing
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Finding and Using Theme as an Author—With Examples
If your story isn’t quite pulling together—if it’s unfocused or isn’t connecting emotionally with the reader—it might be suffering from the absence of a clear theme. Theme is the heart of a narrative. It’s the thing you want a reader to take away from the experience of reading your book.
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Answering Your Questions about Nonfiction Book Proposals
Writing a book proposal can be a daunting undertaking, but it’s necessary to get your nonfiction pitch into the hands of an agent or editor. I recently presented a webinar on crafting your nonfiction book proposal and the audience asked some insightful questions. Here’s an exploration of those and others I’ve encountered.
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How to Know Your Novel is Ready for a Substantive or Developmental Editor
You’ve written a manuscript for a novel. You’re eager to plunge ahead and get an editor’s feedback…but are you ready for that step? If this is your unrevised first draft, the answer will usually be no. Almost every author needs to revise and rewrite their work extensively before the shape of their novel is fully…
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How Do You Know if Your Fiction Book Idea is Good?
How do you know you can turn your novel idea into a book that people will want to read, or that publishers will want to buy? To answer that, you need to consider your audience’s needs, the conventions of your genre, and the preoccupations of society today.
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How Do You Know if Your Nonfiction Book Idea is Good?
If you’re wondering if your nonfiction book idea is good, you are probably really asking these questions: Is my nonfiction book idea marketable? Can I make a whole book out of it? Is it worth my time to write it? This post will help you answer those questions before you commit yourself to writing.
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Writing Interesting Secondary Characters who Move Your Story Forward
Do your secondary characters fall flat? Or are they threatening to steal the story from your protagonist? Both are common problems that can be addressed by asking yourself this question: How do my secondary characters relate to my protagonist?
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Uncommon Tips for Self-Editing Your Book
In this post I’m sharing specialized skills for polishing your manuscript that most people won’t learn unless they train to be a copyeditor. Even when you are going to be working with a professional editor, self-editing is an important step so that your work is as clean as you can make it, leaving the editor…
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What A Literary Agent Wants Writers to Know
I asked a literary agent to sit down for an interview—an anonymous one, so they could speak with full frankness: How do you impress a literary agent? What are they really looking for in a query? In a manuscript? What factors make them decide to take an author on? What red flags scream “unprofessional”?
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What it’s Like to Work with a Professional Book Editor
So you’re considering having your manuscript edited, but it’s a daunting decision to make. I know I can’t fully erase the anxiety that goes with handing your book over to someone else, but I hope that I can ease it by giving you a detailed look at the process.
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Why Your Picture Book Manuscript Got Rejected
Before I was a freelance editor, I worked in house and was often the first pair of eyes reviewing manuscripts. Frequently, I knew within a few lines that a picture book manuscript wasn’t going to be suitable.
Erin Alladin 