For fun, here are some honest answers to the questions querying (or pre-querying) writers REALLY frequently ask. Q. Is my book any good? A. Yes. But it could be better. Q. OK, is my book good enough? A. WRONG QUESTION! It’s never good enough. Back to the revision pits! Q. How do I make this book better? I’ve lookedContinue reading “Honest Answers to Querying Writer FAQs”
Tag Archives: Revising
Dramatic Tension Part 1: Layers of Tension
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about dramatic tension. I think manipulating dramatic tension is just as important as plot, character, and voice, but it doesn’t seem to get talked about as often. Yet dramatic tension is often the biggest factor that keeps me reading—it’s what makes a book un-put-down-able. It’s how writersContinue reading “Dramatic Tension Part 1: Layers of Tension”
Keep Revising: The Best Advice No Writer Wants to Hear
Every time I start a new round of revisions or edits, I save off a new version of my book. That way, if I decide I liked something better the old way, or want to salvage some language from a scene I cut two versions ago, it’s easy to go back and find what IContinue reading “Keep Revising: The Best Advice No Writer Wants to Hear”
Revising in Phases
I used to try to do all my revisions in one pass. I’d gather all my feedback from CPs and beta readers, plus my own notes, and pull everything into in one document in the order the issues appeared in the book. Then I’d go through from start to finish and try to fix everythingContinue reading “Revising in Phases”
NaNoWriMo 2014
I’ve never done NaNoWriMo, but every year I cheer on friends doing it. I find it incredibly motivational to watch them post their word counts and progress. I’ve always got some writing goal I’m working towards, and in November I like to try to set something suitably epic so I can get into the NaNoWriMoContinue reading “NaNoWriMo 2014”
Subtle Revisions
I’m working on revisions now, and one thing I’m running into a lot is scenes where something has subtly changed in this revision. Maybe a character knows something earlier than they did in the previous draft, or their relationship with another character has changed, or the previous scene they just came from had a differentContinue reading “Subtle Revisions”
Melissa Caruso 