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
In the buildup to Pitch Wars submissions, a lot of queries are flying around the writing world right now. And I'll admit, I'm a bit of a query junkie. I write them for works-in-progress as practice. I've read the entire QueryShark archive and listened to every Print Run query episode. I spent hours in the …
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
This is part one of a two-part blog series on critique swaps. Keep an eye out next week for part two: Receiving Tough Feedback! So, after you've finished a draft, you've looked around in writer's groups, social media, or forums, and found a potential critique swap partner. Hooray! First off, swap sample pages to see …
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, …
Your first draft is done! It’s time to do some self-editing and then send out queries or self-publish, right? Nope. Five types of people can help you with your manuscript before it gets into the hands of the reading public. Some of these are optional, but others are mandatory if you want to put out …
Avery Ames 