If there’s one thing to be said about passive stories, it’s that they’re boooooring. The reader is either asleep or has moved on to something else. The narrative reads like a summary of what happened—the version you’d tell someone on the phone—not one where the reader is immersed and feels like they’re experiencing the events themselves. It’s a common problem for writers and one that takes practice to address. Here is a story written in passive style: We made cupcakes … Read More »

Getting professional feedback on a work close to your heart can be soul-crushing. You have two choices: give up or dive back in and do the work. Lucky for readers everywhere, Mark Newhouse pulled up his sleeves after getting his rubrics back from RPLA judges and revised his story. He turned his non-winning book into a winner, a big winner. The Devil’s Bookkeepers Book 1: The Noose won First Place for Published Historical Fiction and also Published Book of the … Read More »

The Halloween candy is long gone from stores and the shelves are already sporting goods in reds, greens, and blues. Many people complain about how early this type of merchandise appears. Why is it out already? Because people buy it. Holiday sales make up a whopping 20% of annual sales for retailers. You can cash in on the biggest spending season of the year with a few simple strategies to get shoppers to notice and buy your books. Start Promoting … Read More »

Pacing is key in stories. If your pacing is off, an editor, agent, or reader will get bored with your book. One key element in getting your pacing just right is narrative balance. Narrative balance is the ratio of dialogue to narration in a text. Page after page of narration bogs down the pacing and becomes boring for the reader. Conversely, extended scenes of just dialogue reads too quickly, and the reader gets lost. The appropriate balance between dialogue and … Read More »

Writers often confront similar problems with their stories during the revision process. It can be frustrating to think your manuscript is too messy to fix or has more problems than other writers’ work. Fear not! Many authors confront the same challenges as they revise. Remember, any issue is fixable—some just take more time than others to set straight. So to help save you some time on your journey, here are five common revision problems and ideas for how to fix … Read More »

All I have to do is get the story out, the editor will fix the rest, right? Too many times I’ve run across writers who think they don’t need to worry about what they consider “the small stuff” because someone else will take care of it. It’s like the editor is a magical fairy sprinkling pixie dust on your story and poof! It’s the perfect book. If you are one of those people, you might want to sit down before … Read More »