Tag Archives: editor

Get Your Manuscript Past the Gatekeeper: Pacing and Tension – Too Much or Too Little? Part 2

Posted on August 17, 2015 | 4 comments

Get past the gatekeeper

Based on personal experience as a first-reader intern for a literary agency, I’m sharing what can get your manuscript past the gatekeeper (the intern!) and into the hands of the agent.

PACING AND TENSION – TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE? Part 2

Be aware of things that can slow down your story – or make it race by too fast – and deflate the tension.

Backstory, continued

By weaving in just the necessary information in short bursts throughout your story it will:

*Keep the reader’s interest

*Keep tension high

*Keep the reader wondering

*Keep it dramatic – no matter the genre

Could your action be bogged down?

My First Reader Notes: “In action scenes we were slowed down by long, descriptive sentences such as during this chase scene: ‘Mr. Brown slipped over his excessively waxed floors.’ ‘His frantic breath pressed the pause button on the hot chase.’ ‘My toes became the texture of raisins as they squished up against one another like slimy slices of sautéed mushrooms.’” Descriptive sentences like these forced me to pause (and trip) in this supposed fast-paced action scene and have to create the visual from the words before moving on in the story. You don’t want to do this!

Can there be too much action on your story?

Is your story TOO active, TOO reactive and over-dense with words, concepts and emotions? This makes for a frantic tale, every moment fraught with intensity. It comes at you from every angle and is exhausting. The desire should be to invite the reader to turn the pages not run for cover.

TIPS: *How to change this? Incorporating the setting instead of using biological emotion would add a richer layer to the story.

*Take a break from the action – let it explode all around, then let it settle and give your character time to digest and reflect on all that has happened. They need to breathe.

TIPS FOR PACING AND TENSION:

Deciding HOW and WHEN to reveal information is often more important than the info itself. Decide on your method used to make a big reveal to increase pacing and tension. HINT: Don’t bury it in the middle of a paragraph! (YES, I’ve done this too!).
Move the story along by cutting out extra, unnecessary details in action moments.
SHOW more of what is happening around your character vs. his telling us.
Don’t have your character waffle back and forth! Chart their growth as they grow in the story.

Now go. Work on making pacing and tension flow with each scene! It may help you get past the gatekeeper.

About Donna: Donna Galanti is the author of A Human Element and A Hidden Element (Imajin Books), the first two award-winning, bestselling books in the paranormal suspense Element Trilogy, and the middle grade fantasy adventure series Joshua and The Lightning Road (Month9Books). Donna is a contributing editor to International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine and blogs at Project Mayhem. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family in an old farmhouse. Visit her at www.donnagalanti.com.

About Joshua and the Lightning Road:

Twelve-year-old Joshua Cooper learns the hard way that lightning never strikes by chance when a bolt strikes his house and whisks away his best friend—possibly forever. To get him back, Joshua must travel the Lightning Road to a dark world where stolen human kids are work slaves ruled by the frustrated heirs of the Greek Olympians who come to see Joshua as the hero prophesied to restore their lost powers. New friends come to Joshua’s aid and while battling beasts and bandits and fending off the Child Collector, Joshua’s mission quickly becomes more than a search for his friend—it becomes the battle of his life.

4 Comments

Posted in Biggest Mistakes New Writers Make

Tagged agent, Donna Galanti, editing, editor, get out of the slush pile, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, joshua and th elightning road, Manuscript, Slush pile, submission, submit, what is the slush pile, writing

Get Your Manuscript Past the Gatekeeper #9: : Pacing and Tension – Too Much or Too Little? Part 1

Posted on August 10, 2015 | 1 comment

Get past the gatekeeper

Based on personal experience as a first-reader intern for a literary agency, I’m sharing what can get your manuscript past the gatekeeper (the intern!) and into the hands of the agent.

PACING AND TENSION – TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE? Part 1

Be aware of these areas that can slow down your story – or make it race by too fast – and deflate the tension.

Watch for creating false tension This is tension built up just for the sake of tension but in doing so a character can waffle. Readers get tired of false tension as they will come to believe then that things introduced are not really a threat

These are the notes that Donna presented on an actual manuscript that came into the slush pile.

My First Reader Notes: “The main character had conflicting thoughts that created false tension. Like ‘I can’t scale that fence, it’s too tall. Oh wait, I bet I could.’ It’s like crying wolf. ”

TIP: Create immediate tension that is not so easily resolved.

Think you need a prologue? Think again.

My First Reader Notes: “The prologue of the boy’s thoughts about his father dying is not necessary. It’s too poetic, too abstract, and too introspective with too much backstory trying to give us a foundation. His thoughts here and his people and culture can be woven into the story later. Right now it just slows the story down and kills the tension.”

Backstory

Weave it in. We, the writer can know it all but the readers don’t need to know up front about everything. Readers want teasers. They want to have questions and feel smart for guessing. Throw them into the bowels of the story right away to keep the tension tight. Readers will catch up.

Head Hopping:

This pulls you from the story – and slows the story down. A reader must re-adjust their thinking to a new point-of-view instantly. Ask yourself “Whose scene is this?” and write from that.

My First Reader Notes:

“I am at page 78 and starting to feel like this journey is dragging on. Not too much has happened since it started. The reader hasn’t really learned much more.”

TIP: See what other info can be included up to this point that we find out later. What else can we learn by now to move the story forward? Don’t wait to reveal everything later… reveal some now. Drop it in along the way.

My First Reader Notes:

“The writer needs to slow down some action scenes and even add an extra day at certain spots. I felt like I was running and couldn’t stop to see all that what was happening. I couldn’t entrench themselves in the richness of the world and story.”

TIP: Sometimes when it comes to pacing and tension we need to slow down scenes.

Now go. Work on making pacing and tension flow with each scene! It may help you get past the gatekeeper.

About Joshua and the Lightning Road:

1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged agent, Donna Galanti, editing, editor, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, joshuan and the lighning road, maniscript, Slush pile, submitting, writing

Get Your Manuscript Past the Gatekeeper #6: Hook ‘Em and Hook ‘Em Good!

Posted on July 20, 2015 | Comments Off

Based on personal experience as a first-reader intern for a literary agency, I’m sharing what can get your manuscript past the gatekeeper (the intern!) and into the hands of the agent.

There’s probably nothing more frustrating to a slush pile reader than the anticipation of a story with a great hook, but then the author doesn’t follow through.

How can we keep this from happening, Donna?

Is your story more than a good idea? It must be a great story that is executed on. Remember, a story is a promise to be kept if you want to keep the reader reading.

Donna’s notes on an actual manuscript plucked out of the slush pile: “I so wanted to like this book! It has a fun premise and if executed well could be a book that boys and girls alike enjoy. It’s a fresh concept with lots of potential for action and adventure combining futuristic technology – BUT I needed more of a reason to care about why this story is being told. I needed to be engaged and I wasn’t. The story fell apart and its promise was never delivered on.”

Wow! Wouldn’t you just want to smack yourself upside the head if this was your manuscript? Yikes! Help Donna! How can we make sure this doesn’t happen to us?

Okay, troops, ask yourself: Does everything happen with a purpose in your scene?

TIP: Outline the purpose of each scene/chapter and connect it to the story arc and character arc to strengthen the story and move it along. Everything your characters do must have purpose and consequences.

Specifically, write out for each chapter: Main character’s goals of each chapter/scene What the main character discovers in each scene and how it propels him/her forward What we can learn about other characters in each scene through dialogue and action World building goals for each scene Outer turning point: in each scene which things change that everyone can understand Inner turning point: in each scene which the scene’s point of view character also changes as a result

Outline this for each chapter and you will have a guide to stay on track with your story’s promise!

Do your characters have a special condition? Are they a burn victim, blind, or an amputee? If so this must play a role in the story. Don’t offer it to us as a promise to be part of the story and not deliver on it.

Now go. Work on making that hook follow through with each scene! It may help you get past the gatekeeper.

About Joshua and the Lightning Road:

Comments Off on Get Your Manuscript Past the Gatekeeper #6: Hook ‘Em and Hook ‘Em Good!

Posted in Author Advice

Tagged agent, Donna Galanti, editing, editor, hook, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, Joshua and the Lightning Road, sluch pile, sumbission

Lesson Twenty-Six from a Manuscript Red Line: CAPITAL LETTERS

Posted on April 27, 2015 | 5 comments

2015 note: The post below is a reblog from 2012. I wanted to note that my current publisher Month9Books does allow all caps, but they must be formatted as smallcaps. (Check Word formatting) In general, though, I would suggest using with caution, and sparingly. Now on with the post!

Do you use Capital letters when your character yells? Do you use them for casting spells? Do you use them for inner thoughts?

Me? No, Jennifer.

I would never do such a thing!

Well, I might… and I have.

For an intro into where these tips are coming from, please see my post: A Full Manuscript Rejection, or a Gold Mine? You can also click “Rant Worthy Topics” in my right navigation bar. Choose “Gold Mine Manuscript” to see all the lessons to date.

I briefly mentioned CAPS in my first post on the Manuscript Red Line. (That was over Five months ago… Wow) Anyway… here is the explanation. The publisher said:

“The use of capital letters to show emphasis in a scene is not acceptable. Especially don’t use it with magic, since JK Rowling did it that way.” (The Gold Mine author used caps as the character cast his spells) “Come up with something new. This is the key to fantasy – be unique – try not to do what was already done.”

Don’t shoot the messenger… this is their red-line, not mine.

In my novel, the characters don’t cast spells, but I did catch a few YELLING once in a while in CAPITAL LETTERS. I got so used to looking at it that I liked it, but I have to admit, it works much better as “Get out!” rather than “GET OUT!”. I use caps a lot for emphasis in my blog, so they may have wiggled their way into my novel.

For all you spell casters out there: You can do better than JK Rowling. She had her idea. Now you need to come up with yours. What are you going to come up with that everyone else wants to copy?

5 Comments

Posted in Gold Mine Manuscript

Tagged editing, editor, Gold Mine Manuscript, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, Manuscript, red line, submission

Lesson Six from the Gold Mine Manuscript Red Line: Watch that Voice! #MondayBlogs

Posted on November 10, 2014 | 11 comments

For an intro into where these tips are coming from, please see my post: A Full Manuscript Rejection, or a Gold Mine?

When you are writing, especially if you are writing YA or middle grade, watch the voice. In the Gold Mine Manuscript, I know I mentioned the voice when I was beta reading, but my BP said her teenager read it and said it was okay, so I figured maybe I was just behind the times.

In this novel, the Main Character is supposed to be 15, but my brain just made him 17 (no matter what the novel was telling me). Do you know why? I believe it was the voice. I mentioned it, but my BP seemed comfortable with it, so we moved on.

I was also having the same struggle in my own novel, and was on an up and down roller coaster with my own young character’s voice, so I know how hard a young boy’s voice can be, so I knew I was no expert.

You know what the publisher marked up over and over again in the gold mine manuscript? THE VOICE.

2014 Edit: I had a wonderful opportunity to have my manuscript read by Harper Collins. They loved my story, but guess what they said I needed to work on? VOICE. I knew voice was key to FIRE IN THE WOODS. As soon as I nailed the voice, I got an editor to pay attention.

[continued] They mentioned that teenagers answer in quips and half-completed sentences. I have to admit, my middle graders do the same thing. No perfect grammar for them. Simplicity is the key. “Yeah” instead of “yes” is more realistic than a full sentence.

I’m wondering about my own novel on this one. My kid is from another planet, and grows up under the tutelage of a King. I don’t want him saying “yeah”, but I don’t want a publisher calling me on it, either. Maybe a few of the other characters can slip on their grammar a little. Hmmmm…

My suggestion: If you are writing for teens, get several teens to read it and ask them to be honest. Same goes for Middle Grade. This publisher actually had a teenager read the manuscript to make sure of the voice, and the teen said it didn’t sound real and they didn’t get the words she was using. Yikes.

Moral of the blog:

If anyone reads your manuscript and tells you that there are possible problems with the voice, I’d take them seriously… ask a few more people to read it. Drop it on a web site (I like Nathan Bransford’s site). Get as many opinions as you can.
In the end, you still might not end up okay. (To be honest, my five-year old drops bonus S.A.T. words all the time, so if I wrote his voice for-real, this publisher would red-line it—so who knows?)

There are a lot of things I’ve not changed about my manuscript that people have mentioned, but voice is one that I have always paid attention to. If one person mentions something, I may tweak just a little, but if a few people mention it, I tweak a lot. There is still a possibility that my MC may age a few years in the opening scene, just because of voice issues.

Don’t fall in love with your characters so much that you cannot recognize that their voice is all-wrong.

Raise Your Voice (efharvey.wordpress.com) (This is not the publisher who made the comments on this manuscript)
Help! My Manuscript is Bleeding… (melleamade.wordpress.com)

Yay!__Gold_Mine_Manuscript_is_back!

11 Comments

Posted in Gold Mine Manuscript

Tagged agent, editing, editor, Gold Mine Manuscript, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, Manuscript, Publishing, submitting, writing

Lesson Five from the Gold Mine Manuscript Red Line: Let’s keep it in the past #MondayBlogs

Posted on November 3, 2014 | 4 comments

For an intro into where these tips are coming from, please see my post: A Full Manuscript Rejection, or a Gold Mine?

Yay!__Gold_Mine_Manuscript_is_back!

I suppose this doesn’t work for those of you who are trying to write your novel in the present tense. The Gold Mine Manuscript was written in past. This post pertains to “Past Tensers”

This publisher noted that present tense words are okay in dialog only. In narration, they should be cut.

Now, in the gold mine manuscript, the present tense word was “almost” used as narration. It was “sort of” an inner thought. The POV character looked at a big mess, and was thinking about cleaning it up, and the narration said “he’d have to tackle it today.” Now, I think the problem is that it was set off as narration, not as a complete inner thought. If it was in italics, like the POV character was actually saying it in his head, it may have been okay (again, this is my opinion here). But since this writer’s style is to have most of the character’s inner thoughts as narration instead of italic thought, this publisher found the use of “present tense” words to be a problem.

So, in a nutshell… if the narration says: He’d have to take care of things today. This is no good.

However, if the same character says out loud, or as an inner thought: “I’ll have to take care of this today.” That is fine.

That’s a pretty simple one, but it might be one many overlook if they have their inner thoughts as narration. This can be overcome simply be making your inner though more concrete, and putting them in italics so it is very clear that this is an inner-thought, and not the narration.

Amendment: Guess what? I just found one of these in my own manuscript! In the MC’s POV, the narration says: – It isn’t cold, like it is here.— Now, this isn’t past tense, but the “here” sounds weird because it is in the narration. I need to change this into an italic thought, or change the wording to be slightly more detached. One or the other. It is basically the same principle.

Happy editing!

Past or Present Tense? (lizakane.wordpress.com)
Editing is Hard (ericswett.wordpress.com)
Note 127 – Using the words ‘may’ and ‘might’ (mywritingnotebook.wordpress.com) (Not completely related, but she has some great general tips)

JenniFer_EatonF

4 Comments

Posted in Gold Mine Manuscript

Tagged agent, editing, editor, how to edit, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, Manuscript, publisher, submit, sumbitting, writing

Lesson One from the Gold Mine Manuscript Mark-Up: Write Without Looking

Posted on October 6, 2014 | 8 comments

For an intro into where these tips are coming from, please see my post: A Full Manuscript Rejection, or a Gold Mine?

How many times do your characters look at something? Mine do. All the time. I never thought it was a problem. I feel really bad now, because I am the
“Show Vs. Tell Barracuda”, and I absolutely missed this…

If you say your character looks at something, you are telling the reader that they “look”. Show the reader instead.

Example: The wind blew cold, and Magellan looked up into the trees. The branches bent and shook over his head.

Now, I honestly would not think this was telly, because I showed you what he was seeing right afterward. My writing partner did the same thing in her manuscript. The publisher highlighted the “looked” and said “rather than telling us what he is doing, show us what he sees instead.”

Suggested rewrite: The wind blew cold, and Magellan pulled his jacket closer. The branches bent and shook over his head.

Here, I took out the offensive “looked” kept the characterization by giving Magellan something to do (pulling his jacket closer), which gives me a place to mention his name. (In case it’s needed) I left the “what he saw” exactly the way it was originally written. You can assume he looked up. The whole scene actually flows better, and all I did was take a moment to pull out the word “look”.

Even better for you word count barracudas out there… count ‘em… there is one less word in the corrected example. Yea for me!

Here’s another easy one: He ran down the hall and looked at the dark stone walls. The sconces were still lit and the light danced across the ceiling.

Easy fix: He ran down the dark stone hallway. The sconces were still lit and their light danced across the ceiling.

Now, I’ll be honest… This is not always this easy. I’ve growled a little over some of these. But I am going to try my best to take all of the “looks” out of my novel, unless they are in a personal thought… but I will be looking at those pretty closely as well.

Honestly, I emailed my friend yesterday on this, and she said she’s only taken out “most” of the looks. Once in a while, your characters will have to “look”. I am finding the same thing. But I am finding that a lot of them can be removed easily like the ones above. (We also discussed that we’ve read published novels that have “looks” in them. yes, we know they exist… I’m just letting you know there is a publisher out there that redlined it and asked for a revision.)

I am finding I am taking out all of the “looking” that is being done by a POV character, and leaving some of the looks that are not from the POV character.
For instance, if another character in the room (not the POV character)
looks over at the door, you are not going to tell what they see, because you are not in their POV. Therefore, it might to be okay to leave that look in there.
However, I do not let the POV character look up and see that the other character is looking at the door. Does that make sense?

This, by the way, is just my opinion. If I submit, and get slapped for these “looks” I will let you know ASAP.

If you can, get rid of any and all looking, because this publisher emphatically flagged it. Only look as a last resort.

Hope you found this helpful!

8 Comments

Posted in Gold Mine Manuscript

Tagged beta partner, beta read, beta reader, copy edit, critique, editing, editor, Gold Mine Manuscript, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, line edit, Manuscript, Publishing, write a great story, writing

You’ll never guess what I’m doing today!

Posted on September 8, 2014 | 11 comments

About a month ago, I was contacted by a television producer who had been surfing the web and stumbled across my “Gold Mine Manuscript” series of posts from 2011.

She thought these topics would be a great addition to a television series she’s working on aimed at writers.

And she wanted to know if I’d like to appear on her show. Isn’t that even cooler?????

So today I am practicing my breathing exercises, trying to keep myself calm, and then I’m heading out to the studio to do my first ever television interview.

Isn’t that neat?

We are taping today, but the show will be airing some time in October. That does not take the pressure off, though. The show will filmed like it is live. Any mistakes will be immortalized forever.

I’m both excited and a little nervous… but probably more excited than anything else.

This is a brand new experience for me, and it sounds like so much fun!

Wish me luck!

And while you’re here, have you had any “unexpected” opportunities pop up as a result of using social media?

11 Comments

Posted in Marketing Madness

Tagged analysis, cable TV, copy edit, editor, gold mine, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, line edit, Manuscript, marketing, Publishing, red line, television appearance

Just how good is the first line of your manuscript?

Posted on October 18, 2013 | 32 comments

I recently had the opportunity to chat with a submissions editor (you never know who you’ll run into at a coffee shop) and we had a discussion about first lines of a book, and how important they are.

I knew already how important it was to hook a reader quickly, but Mike told me that he actually knows by reading the FIRST LINE if he is going t request a full or not when he reads through submissions.

Wow.

That’s not much time to make a first impression, is it?

That’s why I jumped at the chance to post ONLY MY FIRST LINE for “The First Day of the New Tomorrow” over at The Ladies Cave website today.

http://theladiescave.blogspot.ca/

Hop on over. This line obviously grabbed my editor’s attention. Tell me what you think!

But while you still here…

What’s your first line?

Do you think it has the goods to grab a reader/editor in once sentence?

Levels of “No,” or Why I Reject Manuscripts (nepheletempest.wordpress.com)
S.O.S. Sending Out Submissions (writersrumpus.com)
Manuscript Wish Lists Hashtag Returns (mediabistro.com)
What does an agent want you to fix before you send that manuscript? (shelleykwall.wordpress.com)

32 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips

Tagged author, editing, editor, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, Manuscript, proofreading, publish, Reading

Give that Publisher What They Want, Dernit! Finale

Posted on February 2, 2013 | 4 comments

I am uber stoker to be able to dig into the wild and crazy brain of someone who is out there doing this crazy publishing stuff professionally. When you read this, you’re gonna want to slap yourself silly, because this is hearing it right from someone who does this for a living. For the next few weeks, we will be delving into the slush pile with professional editor and author Danielle Ackley-McPhail

Here we go…

The Writer’s Toolbox: Give ’Em What They Want! Why Formatting Is Important By Danielle Ackley-McPhail

—————————————————————–

Here is a listing of all the Posts from Danielle on this topic. Good Stuff if you missed any of them!

Post one Don’t get all creative now!

Post two Duh – Contact Info

Post three Basics 2 – Identifiers

Post four Formatting #1

Post five Formatting #2 Advanced

Post six Ellipses, Emdash, Quotes

Post seven Keep It Simple

Summing Up

You might think this article was about the technical aspects of formatting, but you would only be partially correct. What this article is truly about is respect. If you want to succeed at this dedicated hobby you’ve chosen to pursue (believe me, you don’t want to think of it as a career…it only leads to masses of frustration) then you need to get your head in the correct mindset. You are not alone in your desire. There are countless individuals who want to be authors. There are a considerably less individuals who are in a position to make that possible. Editors have to look through hundreds, even thousands of manuscripts every year. I don’t think I have to tell you that they can’t accept them all. You know what that means? It is your job to make their job as easy for them as possible. You can do that in two ways:

Ignore what I’ve shared with you here and start deciding which room you are going to wallpaper with rejections first, or
Do everything you can to make your manuscript clean and formatted to the publisher’s preference so that technical issues don’t distract the editor from the creative aspects of your work.

Now I’m not saying if you follow all the submission guidelines your work is guaranteed to be accepted, but I am saying you stand a heck of a better chance of at least getting noticed.

Special Thanks to Danielle Ackley McPhail for this wonderful insider info!

Thanks Danielle!

Award-winning author Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for over seventeen years. Currently, she is a project editor and promotions manager for Dark Quest Books.

Her published works include four urban fantasy novels, Yesterday’s Dreams, Tomorrow’s Memories, Today’s Promise, and The Halfling’s Court: A Bad-Ass Faerie Tale. She is also the author of a single-author collection of science fiction stories called A Legacy of Stars, the non-fiction writers guide, The Literary Handyman and is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, Dragon’s Lure, and In An Iron Cage. Her work is included in numerous other anthologies and collections, including Rum and Runestones, Dark Furies, Breach the Hull, So It Begins, By Other Means, No Man’s Land, Space Pirates, Space Horrors, Barbarians at the Jumpgate, and Mermaid 13.

She is a member of the New Jersey Authors Network and Broad Universe, a writer’s organization focusing on promoting the works of women authors in the speculative genres.

Danielle lives somewhere in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail, mother-in-law Teresa, and three extremely spoiled cats. She can be found on LiveJournal (damcphail, badassfaeries, darkquestbooks, lit_handyman), Facebook (Danielle Ackley-McPhail), and Twitter (DAckley-McPhail). To learn more about her work, visit http://www.sidhenadaire.com, http://www.literaryhandyman.com, or www.badassfaeries.com.

Website and/or blog www.sidhenadaire.com, http://lit_handyman.livejournal.com, http://damcphail.livejournal.com

Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/DMcPhail

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/danielle.ackleymcphail

Amazon author page http://www.amazon.com/Danielle-Ackley-McPhail/e/B002GZVZPQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1331314265&sr=8-1

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/989939.Danielle_Ackley_McPhail

http://www.badassfaeries.com/

http://www.sidhenadaire.com/

Why Was My Mnauscript Rejected? (literaryagentsandpublishers.wordpress.com)
Guest Post: How to Avoid the Rejection Blues by Heather Topham Wood + Giveaway (thesolitarybookworm.com)
Rejection: Greatest Hits (pikeknight.wordpress.com)
How I got my agent and what it means (victoria-writes.com)
Don’t Shrink from Synopses! (writersinthestorm.wordpress.com)
Editor Interview with Mari Farthing (luciesmoker.wordpress.com)
Partnership Publishing: the author’s and publisher’s stand-point (literaryagentsandpublishers.wordpress.com)

Formatting a manuscript-one way to do it (kimharrison.wordpress.com)
Editor Interview with Mari Farthing (luciesmoker.wordpress.com)
The Constant Search in Publishing (terrywhalin.blogspot.com)
Don’t Shrink from Synopses! (writersinthestorm.wordpress.com)
Why Was My Mnauscript Rejected? (literaryagentsandpublishers.wordpress.com)
Guest Post: How to Avoid the Rejection Blues by Heather Topham Wood + Giveaway (thesolitarybookworm.com)

Manuscript Formatting – The Basics (hugs-and-chocolate.com)
Friday Editor’s Tip: Lose the formatting! (beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com)
Last Minute Formatting Tips Using Scrivener And Kindle Previewer (michaeljholley.com)
Lessons Learned in Writing My First Novel (sebastiancoleauthor.com)

Last Minute Formatting Tips Using Scrivener And Kindle Previewer (michaeljholley.com)
Friday Editor’s Tip: Lose the formatting! (beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com)
How To Make The Most Of Scrivener For Your Manuscript (michaeljholley.com)
The Most Common Grammar Gaffes Writers Make (and How To Avoid Them) (lifehacker.com)
Lessons Learned in Writing My First Novel (sebastiancoleauthor.com)
Houston, We Have a Manuscript: Get Thee to a Printery! (therantingpapizilla.wordpress.com)

Professional Editing? (the-view-outside.com)

4 Comments

Posted in Author Advice, Uncategorized

Tagged author, editing, editor, formatting, getting published, how to format manuscript, Publishing, requirements, Slush pile, submission guidelines, submit manuscript, writing

Tag Archives: editor

Get Your Manuscript Past the Gatekeeper: Pacing and Tension – Too Much or Too Little? Part 2

Backstory, continued

Could your action be bogged down?

Can there be too much action on your story?

TIPS FOR PACING AND TENSION:

Get Your Manuscript Past the Gatekeeper #9: : Pacing and Tension – Too Much or Too Little? Part 1

Think you need a prologue? Think again.

Backstory

Head Hopping:

Get Your Manuscript Past the Gatekeeper #6: Hook ‘Em and Hook ‘Em Good!

Is your story more than a good idea? It must be a great story that is executed on. Remember, a story is a promise to be kept if you want to keep the reader reading.

Okay, troops, ask yourself: Does everything happen with a purpose in your scene?

Outline this for each chapter and you will have a guide to stay on track with your story’s promise!

Lesson Twenty-Six from a Manuscript Red Line: CAPITAL LETTERS

Do you use Capital letters when your character yells? Do you use them for casting spells? Do you use them for inner thoughts?

Lesson Six from the Gold Mine Manuscript Red Line: Watch that Voice! #MondayBlogs

Lesson Five from the Gold Mine Manuscript Red Line: Let’s keep it in the past #MondayBlogs

Lesson One from the Gold Mine Manuscript Mark-Up: Write Without Looking

You’ll never guess what I’m doing today!

Isn’t that neat?

Wish me luck!

Just how good is the first line of your manuscript?

Wow.

But while you still here…

What’s your first line?

Do you think it has the goods to grab a reader/editor in once sentence?

Give that Publisher What They Want, Dernit! Finale

The Writer’s Toolbox: Give ’Em What They Want! Why Formatting Is Important By Danielle Ackley-McPhail

Summing Up

Thanks Danielle!

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