Prewriting: Essential Writing Groundwork
The first step in writing is not writing. It begins in your head with the spark of an idea. What happens between the spark and writing the book is prewriting.
Breaking Down the Writing Process
Let’s take a broad overview of the writing process and the pieces of the puzzle that go into pre-writing, writing, and post-writing in this post from Jan Fields.
Be a Professional Writer: Your Character Counts Too
3 tips for being a professional writer that editors want to work with in this post from Jan Fields. Take these suggestions to heart and go far in your career!
Plan for When You Finish the Book
You finished writing your book. Yay! Now what? Jan Fields helps you make a plan for when you finish the book. You might be surprised at what comes next.
Revision: Surviving the Cutting Process
Revising to get within word count can be painful. Jan Fields shares revision techniques to make the process less painful and your writing stronger than ever.
Sticking the Landing & Perfect Ending- Institute for Writers
The perfect ending is more than the point where you stop writing. It’s where everything you’ve written before pays off. Today, let’s revise and stick the landing.
4 Tools for Tidying Messy Middles – Institute for Writers
When writing for children, one of the toughest parts of any piece to write is the middle. Today we look at four revision tools to help you tackle the messy middle.
Bang! Big Picture Revision of Your First Pages | IFW
A big picture revision is to make sure your writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, engages the reader at the beginning, keeps the reader through the middle, and offers a satisfying ending.
The Value of Feedback for Writers
Feedback for writers is one of the most important tools needed to get from first draft to polished, submission-ready manuscript.
214: Become Your Own Editor
214: Become Your Own Editor
August 21, 2020
200: 200th Episode Celebration
200: 200th Episode Celebration
May 15, 2020
Poetry-Based Revision for Picture Books | IFW
196: Poetry-Based Revision for Picture Books
April 17, 2020
Verb-Perfect: 7 Tips to Fuel Your Writing
Verbs play a key role in building effective sentences, so pay close attention to them as you revise and polish. These 7 writing tips will make your story shine!
188: Misunderstood Verbs
188: Misunderstood Verbs
February 21, 2020
How Do I Tell Where I Fail?
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > According to Dr. David Dunning, a psychology professor at Cornell, we are not good judges of our own competency. In other words, we aren’t very skilled at telling if we’re good at…
The “Feel” of Your Writing
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > “Everything is in the tone.”—Sherwood Anderson For a well-polished manuscript, make sure you use tone and mood effectively. Tone in fiction refers to an author’s attitude toward the characters and events in…
Picking the Right Word
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Polishing a manuscript involves both big picture corrections, such as plot issues or motivation issues for your characters, and incredibly small, picky bits where you’re really bringing out the shine in each…
Time for a Sound Check?
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > “Hearing” your manuscript with a reader’s ear As you polish your manuscript, you will likely review it numerous times, looking for ways to improve the content, style, and presentation. Some experts suggest…
Perfectionism Alert
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > How Polished Does It Need to Be? In the many views about the importance of polishing a manuscript, there are two opposite ends of the spectrum. First are the writers whose work…
Polishing the Point of View
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Drawing readers closer to your character Fiction offers readers the chance to “live” in another world while making emotional connections with characters. Award-winning author Nancy Kress says, “It lets us experience the…