While a Rose by any other name would smell as sweet, the same rarely holds true for a poorly named character. A name is not just an identifier. A meaningful name can give insight into not only the character’s role and personality, but also the culture of their world and their origins.
Editing a book is a difficult job, especially if you’re doing it yourself. No matter how closely you pay attention, and how sharply you focus, as the hundreds of pages go by, things slip through. Below are three tips for better editing that have been working well for me.
When I work on a project, my preference is to stay locked onto it until it’s done. It’s when I’m already working on a project however, that I tend to have my best moments of inspiration. Unfortunately, they are rarely related to the what I’m working on. With a minimum of two more books left… Continue reading
Of all the things that make a person unique, their personal memories are among the most important. Memories change the way a person sees and experiences the world. Memories can influence a person’s beliefs, and also the choices they make. Adding those personal memories to your stories then, can flavor them in a way that… Continue reading
The details in your book help to pull the reader into your world and make it more authentic and believable. Inundate the reader with too many details though, and they can quickly stop caring. With space and reader attention span at a premium, the quality and impact of the details you choose becomes vitally important.
Space has always been the bane of my writing. With novels, it’s a struggle to fill a chapter with enough pages. Everywhere else, it’s a challenge to keep things concise. While I’m still trying to nail down the former, the latter has been helped by using Twitter’s 140 character limit to help guide me to… Continue reading
Last week, I talked about the futility of pursuing perfect writing. In that case, the difficult part was knowing when to stop. This week, I’d like to talk about the benefits of editing your book and what your work can tell you about itself. Like any advice however, even the best can prove useless if… Continue reading
Pursuing perfect writing is something I am especially guilty of. Though I may be a repeat offender, I can’t remember ever actually obtaining that perfection. That might be however, because perfect writing isn’t actually a thing.
If I’m at my computer, music of some type is usually playing. Given that most of my work after the first draft is done at the same computer, the effect music can have on it is a large concern. Is music’s effect on writing positive or negative? The answer in my experience, depends on a… Continue reading
The right tools for writing vary from writer to writer. What works best is determined more by preference than any hard and fast rule or price tag. More than anything, they should make you want to write, and should be invisible as you do so. Any focus directed at your tools is focus not directed… Continue reading
In-depth World Building is essential to a good story. The deeper and more cohesive the world you build, the more believable the story becomes. What is interesting however, is the unintended effects world building can have on the writing of the story itself.
About halfway through my first book, I learned that simply writing as I went wasn’t going to cut it. A book is a complex, living entity, and a writing system is necessary to keep it from becoming overwhelming. The system I used to rewrite and finish “A Boy Named Zephyr” has been the basis for… Continue reading