Write well. Write often. Edit wisely.
Tips for using beta readers to help strengthen your manuscripts before publication or submission to agents and editors.
Continue reading Use Beta Readers to Strengthen Your Stories »
Readers don’t have to write books to know a lot about them—and writers would do well to respect the reader’s knowledge and expectations.
Continue reading Readers are Smart—Respect What They Bring to Books »
Excessive and unnecessary explanations can weaken the dramatic and emotional impact of sentences. Learn why explanations are often unnecessary and annoying.
Continue reading Don’t Explain, Don’t Explain, Don’t Explain »
Lack of conflict between characters and lack of emotion-inducing scenes for readers will make stories flat, boring, and tedious. Discover why conflict and emotion are so important to fiction.
Continue reading Get Pushy—Push Character Conflict and Reader Emotion »
Tips for making readers care about your characters and the story events at every stage of your long fiction.
Include anticipation in your stories to keep readers turning pages and involved with possible outcomes for your characters.
A reminder to layer on the emotional hits so the reader will feel them. Use knockout lines or zingers when that works for a scene, but don’t be hesitant about pushing, about hitting the emotional button again and again.
Give your readers a takeaway, something to remember you and your stories by once the book has been read.
To keep readers reading, stir their curiosity. Make them have to turn the page. Give them unanswered questions and make them have to know the answers.
Why write? Why sit at a desk and connect words into scenes and stories? One reason is to entertain readers. But writers don’t only entertain readers. Great writers and good stories can change a reader’s life.
The reader will focus on what stands out. Turn the reader's attention where you want it to go.
Thank you for reading The Editor's Blog, an Internet resource for fiction writers,
freelance editors, and everyone who loves words
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Copyright © 2010-2018 E. A. Hill Visit Beth at A Novel Edit
Write well. Write often. Edit wisely.
