Beta swaps and critiques are the lifesblood of networking with other authors, and there's a lot to be said for getting beta reads on your own work. But there are a lot of benefits to offering critiques for other writers as well. 1. It can improve your own writing. There's a lot of focus on …
Continue reading 4 Reasons You Should Be Betaing for Other Authors
Welcome to a new blog post series on tidbits of grammar trivia and terminology. We'll cover some interesting things you may not have learned in school, or might have forgotten since then. Today, gerunds! So what's a gerund? It's a tricky little beastie, a word that's based on a verb and looks like a verb, …
First, a disclaimer: I'm in no way affiliated with the Character Trait Thesaurus books I'll be using in this article, and I haven't been compensated for endorsing them. I just really love using them as a resource. Character development. There are worksheets galore on the internet, varying from ones that ask about a character's favorite …
Continue reading Using Key Traits to Create Complex Characters
Today we're going to talk about another frequent writing issue, usually appearing in early drafts. I think it's more common in newer writers, but it's easy for this problem to sneak up on even experienced writers. So what's the problem? Everyone is too nice. In the story, I mean. Secondary characters provide unflinching moral support …
Revision. Some writers love it, some hate it. I fall into the first camp. Give me a rough manuscript over a blank page any day. But I have a very visual brain and I tend to get overwhelmed by large tasks pretty easily, so my setup is mostly designed to break everything down into bite-sized …
A while back I posted a Twitter poll asking writers at what point in their story the inciting incident took place. I expected a range of answers, but was surprised to find more than one reply of "I don't have one." I'm going to go out on a limb and say yes, you probably do, …
We all have those crutches and quirks that weaken our writing, and I am no exception. As it's generally good advice to be aware of your own weaknesses, I'm pointing out mine.I don’t even worry about these vices during the drafting phase, but I’ve learned to have a keen eye for them in revision. 1. …
Introducing the Friday 5! Every Friday, I'll post a list of 5 writing-related things. This week, it's all about looking back on 2018. I hit this year hard when it came to writing craft studies. I devoured hundreds of hours of podcasts and checked out over a dozen books on writing. All these lessons were …
Avery Ames 