5 Writing Posts to Make You a Better Author – where am I going with this? I found these great articles teaching writing skills. Then I thought, “Maybe other people can benefit from these. Other authors, poets, non-fiction writers and students can all learn.
So tell me if you like this kind of blog post here.
5 Writing Posts – Your First Lesson
Just kidding! I thought I’d start with a laugh. Here’s the real article next.
Yes, that’s right. This initial post covers everything you should NOT do as a writer. It’s a simple list, but it covers most of the bad things writers can do and do do.
Your Next Lesson
Now you get a video tutorial on how to structure a book.
The following quickly summarizes :
1. Hero’s Journey
2. Save the Cat – 15 beat story structure
3. The Plot Embryo
4. 27 chapters (3 act structure) Each act into 3 blocks and each block has three chapters.
Do I follow these structures? Not consciously. I seek to start quickly with a tense situation, and build through each chapter. I’ll have ‘relief’ chapters where I surprise the reader with new, interesting characters and conflicts, before returning to the big conflict. The problems build through the book until they’re finally resolved in a big climax. Then I throw in a twist at the end.
I did this for each of my books:
5 Writing Posts – Your Third Lesson
Now, let’s tackle that dreaded activity–editing after you’ve written your book.
My quick summary, in time order:
- Developmental editing – story structure and organization
- Line editing – making each sentence the best it can be.
- Copy editing – getting rid of stupid speling misteaks and grammar errorz and punctuation!!!
- Proofreading – how does the final copy look on the page? Font size, spacing, paragraphs, page breaks.
I just use items 2-4. I’ve never really had anyone criticize my structure so far. My editor for edit types 1-3 is Dori Harrell at Breakout Editing. She’s worked on Zombie Turkeys, My Undead Mother-in-law, and Paranormal Privateers.
For my latest novel, Secret Supers, just published last March, I tapped Leslie McKie’s expertise.
Aside from professional editing, she’s taught middle school and disabled children. She was perfect to edit my book about seventh-grade disabled superheroes.
For my layout or proofreading edit, I use Rik Hall at Wild Seas Editing. He’s formatted all my books for print and ebook versions.’
Your Fourth Writing Post
More on plotting! I dislike any structure forcing me to write a particular plot, but I follow everything it says.
Your Last Writing Tip
Naturally, I couldn’t resist publishing another joke first. Your real, last tip comes next.
What can you learn from this lady?
- You’re never too old to start writing.
- Once you start writing, keep writing
- Publish what you write. You may finally catch on.
