Thursday November 21

Full Archives

of the Editor's Blog and Beth Hill

  • “And” in Action
  • “Wasting Time” on a Practice Novel
  • (Most) Characters Can’t Read Minds
  • (Stop) Comparing Yourself to Successful Authors
  • 2015 NaNo Encouragement
  • 2016 NaNoWriMo Prep
  • A Heritage of Words
  • A Novel Ending
  • A Tale of Adverbs and the Comma
  • A Writer’s Style (Excerpt #4)—Launch Week Festivities*
  • A Writing Challenge for Genre—(April 2016)
  • Add Poetry to Your Prose—Write with Flair
  • Adventures in Self-Publishing—Yes, Try It
  • Am I Possessive?
  • Another Take on Dialogue Tags
  • Another Year—Encouragement and a Reminder of Goals
  • Answering Your Questions About Specifics
  • Anticipation and Uncertainty—Lessons From TV Sports
  • Anyone Can Write a Book
  • Apologies for Formatting Issues
  • Assess Your Writing Skills—Turn Weaknesses to Strengths
  • Bad Dialogue—Bad, Bad Dialogue
  • Be Bold and Assertive
  • Betrayal—the Ultimate Conflict
  • Beyond the Basics—Push the Story and Push Yourself
  • Bitches and Bastards, Maybe. But No Perfect Characters Wanted
  • Blog Milestone
  • Build Toward The Story’s End
  • Capitalizing on the Holidays—A Reader’s Question
  • Casting Your Scenes
  • Celebrating Year One at The Editor’s Blog
  • Celebrations in Story—Marking the Special Days
  • Challenge for the New Year—2015
  • Change It This Way or That Way?
  • Character Rants and Breakdowns—Let ’em Rip
  • Character Reaction—Make Your Characters Respond
  • Character Voices Shouldn’t Sound Like Yours
  • Characters Asking Questions
  • Characters Don’t Live in a Vacuum
  • Characters Need Goals
  • Charge Your Writing Batteries
  • Check Your Facts
  • Checklist for Editors
  • Claustrophobia—Don’t Imprison Readers in a Character’s Head
  • Clear and Simple Writing Advice
  • Clear the Dread from the Dreaded Synopsis
  • Clichés–Are They Really That Bad?
  • Clothe Characters Well—Choose Words that Fit
  • Coincidence Destroys the Suspension of Disbelief
  • Come to Your Senses
  • Coming Soon—Membership
  • Coming Soon—The Magic of Fiction
  • Coming Soon. . . Giveaway of a Free 30-page Edit
  • Comma Splice—A Common Writing Mistake
  • Commas with Subordinate Clauses—A Reader’s Question
  • Common Writing Mistakes
  • Compare My Manuscript to a Famous Book—A Writer’s Question
  • Compound Words—Using This Cheat Sheet is Not Cheating
  • Conflict—Beyond Arguments and Fist Fights
  • Consistency Can Trump Problems
  • Convincing Readers Your Fiction is Real
  • Couples Policy
  • Creating Emotion in the Reader
  • Creating Fictional Characters
  • Creative Genius vs. Editing Witch
  • Critique My First Paragraph—Launch Week Festivities*
  • Cut the Flab—Make Every Word Count
  • Dangling Modifiers—A Common Writing Mistake
  • Dare to Challenge Your Characters
  • Dealing with Discouragement
  • Dealing With Interruptions
  • Deep POV and Narrative Distance—Part 1
  • Deep POV and Narrative Distance—Part 2
  • Deep POV—What’s So Deep About It
  • Defining Genre Part 1 (Writing Essentials)
  • Defining Genre Part 2 (Writing Essentials)
  • Deflate Confusion and Cast Off Frustration
  • Deliver the Payoff
  • Deny, Deny, Deny
  • Detail Enhances Your Fiction
  • Details and Description—Getting the Facts Right
  • Dialogue—My Characters Talk Too Much
  • Dialogue—The Speech of Fiction
  • Dig Deep and Push Harder
  • Do Religion and Faith Belong in Fiction?
  • Don’t Call Me Ishmael—Name that Character
  • Don’t Explain, Don’t Explain, Don’t Explain
  • Don’t Fake It—Learn the Craft
  • Don’t Fear the Semicolon—It’s a Useful Writing Tool
  • Don’t Let Your Writing Be Ordinary
  • Don’t Shortchange Those Second and Third and Tenth Books
  • Don’t Write the Bland and the Boring
  • Drive, Passion, and Creativity
  • Dual Duties of Chapter Endings
  • Duties of an Editor & How Editors Help Writers
  • Edit in an Instant? Ain’t Gonna Happen
  • Edit While Formatting—One More Chance to Get It Right
  • Editing Odds and Ends
  • Editor’s Lament
  • Editors Are On Your Side
  • Either, Neither, and Subject-Verb Agreement
  • Engage Readers Through Character Reaction
  • Engage Readers—Feed Them Tasty Fiction
  • Entertain the Reader
  • Equip Your Characters
  • Even More Punctuation in Dialogue—A Reader’s Question
  • Everybody Does It—Common Writing Mistakes
  • Everybody Doesn’t Like Something . . .
  • Exclude Us From Novels
  • Experiencing Story From the Inside—Feel Your Stories
  • Feed the Reader Within the Writer
  • Fiction Talk on Creating an Emotional Impact
  • Fiction Writers Can’t Be One-Trick Ponies
  • Final Day for Introductory Price ($35/1st Year) Membership
  • Find Inspiration When You Are Uninspired
  • Finding Commas in All the Wrong Places
  • Finish What You Start
  • First Drafts (Excerpt #1)—Launch Week Festivities*
  • First Impressions and Introductions
  • First Paragraph Critique—Launch Week Festivities*
  • First Steps in Formatting for Print
  • Fish Out of Water, Character Out of Time
  • Five Million and Counting
  • Focus—What’s This Story About?
  • Forget the Writing Rules
  • Format Your Novel for Submission
  • Fragments and the Incomplete Sentence
  • Get ‘er Done
  • Get and Keep the Words Flowing
  • Get Pushy—Push Character Conflict and Reader Emotion
  • Get Ruthless—Cutting Back in Order to Add
  • Get Skilled
  • Get to Know Your Characters
  • Getting Back to Work and into the Rhythm of Writing
  • Getting Specific—Addressing Readers’ Examples (Part 1)
  • Getting Specific—Addressing Readers’ Examples (Part 2)
  • Go 2017 NaNoers!
  • Go For Correct, But Don’t Go Crazy
  • Goodbye 2016, Hello New Year
  • Goodreads Giveaway of The Magic of Fiction
  • Grammatically Correct or Culturally Acceptable Wording
  • Great Expectations vs. Realistic Ones
  • Habits, Motions, and Common Actions of Fictional Characters
  • Head-Hopping Gives Readers Whiplash
  • Heads Up—Holiday Sale at Bowker
  • Hedge Words
  • Hold Off on Polishing
  • Honesty in Fiction
  • How Goes the Flow in Your Story?
  • How Long Should My Story Be
  • How Much Back Story Should I Include
  • How to Hook Your Readers
  • How to Respond to Rejections & Negative Feedback
  • How to Write a Novel
  • Hyphenation for Print Books
  • Imagine Beyond What is Safe
  • Include Surprises in Your Stories
  • Inner Dialogue—Writing Character Thoughts
  • Introduce Me with a Comma
  • Introduction to Description
  • Invite Readers into Your Story
  • Is Perfection Possible?
  • Is Writing “The End” a Bad Idea?—A Reader’s Question
  • Is Your Storytelling Unbalanced?
  • It Ain’t Over Till the Full Story Sings
  • It’s Not Cheating to Use Writing Tips and Tools
  • Jack of all Trades? That’d Be an Editor—A Reader’s Question . . .
  • Just Who is the Subject Here?
  • Keep Readers Close to Action and Emotion
  • Keeping Adjectives in Line
  • Keys to Writing Better Fiction
  • Kill Soulless Writing
  • Know Your Character’s Language
  • Launch Week Bonus
  • Launch Week Prize Pack—Launch Week Festivities
  • Lay and Lie—When to Use Which?
  • Lesson from Mad Men Finale—It’s the Real Thing
  • Lessons from the Movies—The Force Awakens
  • Lessons From TV Shows and Movies
  • Let it Flow
  • Let’s Fall in Love
  • Light a Fire Under Your Characters
  • Like vs. As
  • Literary vs. Genre Fiction
  • Lyrics and Poetry in Fiction—Copyright, Drawbacks, and Other Problems
  • Maintain Point of View
  • Make Readers Care
  • Making Comparisons—Simile and Metaphor in Fiction
  • Making Plot Less Episodic—A Reader’s Question
  • Making Something Happen in Story
  • Male Writers & Female Writers—There’s a Difference in the Writing
  • Managing Days and Time—Lessons From TV
  • Marking Text—Choosing Between Italics and Quotation Marks
  • Marking Time with the Viewpoint Character
  • Mastering Scene Transitions
  • Membership is Now Available!
  • Misused Words—Common Writing Mistakes
  • More Punctuation in Dialogue—A Reader’s Questions
  • More Reference Books for Writers & Editors
  • Multi-Tasking Characters or Impossible Actions?
  • Must Editors Be Good Writers—A Reader’s Question
  • NaNo Prep Part 2
  • NaNoWriMo 2010 Has Begun
  • Narrative Modes in Fiction—Telling Your Story (Writing Essentials)
  • Narrative Tense—Right Now or Way Back Then
  • Need a Boost? Try NaNoWriMo This Year
  • Need a NaNo Write-In?
  • New Experiences? Use Them in Your Writing
  • No Comma Necessary—Coordinating Conjunctions Don’t Always Need Commas
  • No Explanation Necessary
  • No Golden Words or Sacred Cows
  • No More Excuses—Write That Novel
  • Nothing Words—People
  • Nothing Words—Somehow
  • Nothing Words—Thing
  • Nouns—The Parts of Speech (1)—Writing Essentials
  • Novel Writing Isn’t Paint by Numbers
  • Novelist as Director…And as So Much More
  • Now Available—The Magic of Fiction
  • Numbers in Fiction
  • On Grammar and Punctuation
  • One Adjective Paired with Multiple Nouns—A Reader’s Question
  • One-Manuscript Diva or Working Novelist?
  • Overflow Comments for Post on Manuscript Format
  • Parse Writing Advice
  • Participial Phrases? C’mon, You Made that Up
  • Piling On—Frustrate Your Characters
  • Plain Doesn’t Mean Boring
  • Please Learn the Rules
  • Plot Basics—The Events of Story
  • Plot, Goal, Inciting Incident—A Reader’s Question
  • Plot, Setting, and Character—Fiction’s Top 3
  • Point of View—Part Three
  • Point of View—Part Two
  • Point of View, the Full Story—Introduction
  • Practice Leads to Strong Performance
  • Prepare for the Critics, the Nasty Ones
  • Proofreading Pays Off
  • Pros and Cons of Prologue
  • Punctuation in Dialogue
  • Punctuation in Fiction—Are There Prohibitions?
  • Purposes for Connecting Words into Story
  • Push Yourself to New Heights or Explore the Depths
  • Questions About Deep POV
  • Quick Manuscript Clean-up
  • Quotes Within Quotes
  • Reader Perception is Important
  • Reader Saturation—Dealing with Changing Reader Tastes
  • Reader Takeaway
  • Readers are Smart—Respect What They Bring to Books
  • Readers Notice and They Care
  • Real Writers Write Every Day
  • Recap of Past Articles—2011 Year-End Review
  • Recap—2012 Year-End Review
  • Recommended Book for Editing Fiction
  • Reference Books for Writers
  • Release Announcement for The Magic of Fiction
  • Remember Your Readers (Excerpt #5)—Launch Week Festivities*
  • Resolution—Tying up the Ends
  • Restraining Accents
  • Restrictive or Not—When Do Clauses Need Commas?
  • Reviews for The Magic of Fiction
  • Revisiting Dangling Modifiers
  • Revive A Scene With Verbs
  • Rewriting and Editing—So Many Possibilities
  • Right Place, Right Time Syndrome
  • Rules of Grammar & Punctuation—The Weird, Odd, or Unfamiliar
  • Rules vs. Practice—Prescriptive and Descriptive Grammar
  • Sagging, Soggy Middles
  • Sampling, Borrowing, Homage, and Plagiarism (Writing Essentials)
  • Saving the Day, Solving the Problem
  • Search Inside Books at Amazon
  • Second Bananas and Sidekicks
  • Self-Editing Tips
  • Set Story into Motion—Use Meaningful Verbs
  • Setting Details—Mastering Technology
  • Setting Sets Your Stories Apart (Excerpt #2)—Launch Week Festivities*
  • Setting Up a Series—A Reader’s Question
  • Setting—The Place and Time of Story
  • Sex in Fiction—Do They or Don’t They?
  • Should Editors Write?
  • Should I Use Absolute Phrases? Absolutely
  • Should I Worry About Word Count—A Reader’s Question
  • Show and Tell—Not Just a Game We Play
  • Show the Love—Genre Requirements (Romance)
  • Showing and Telling Particulars
  • Single Quotation Marks—A Reader’s Question
  • Site Restored
  • Slapped Silly by Exclamation Points
  • Smiling or Laughing Dialogue—A Reader’s Question
  • Spelling Interjections and Exclamations
  • Stand-Out Stories
  • Step Outside Your Story World
  • Stir Reader Curiosity
  • Story Goal, Story Question, and the Protagonist’s Inner Need (Story Structure Part 1)
  • Story Inspiration From the News
  • Story Openings in a Digital World—The First Page is a Sales Tool
  • Story Threads—Tie the Elements Together
  • Story-specific Words—Fitting Word to Story
  • Strengthen Middle Chapters (Excerpt #3)—Launch Week Festivities*
  • Style Sheets—The Setup and the Benefits
  • Sub-plots, Main Plots, and Digressions
  • Subtext—Revelation of the Hidden
  • Take Me Somewhere New—Tell Me A Story
  • Take Off the Brakes—Write Boldly
  • Talk About Gerunds
  • Thank You—Launch Week Roundup
  • That Final Manuscript Cleanup
  • That’s Not a Real Word
  • The Blog is Back
  • The Calendar Year Changes Again
  • The Curse of First-Person Narration
  • The Editor’s Blog on Facebook
  • The Editor’s Blog—Purpose
  • The Elements of Fiction—The Basics & Beyond
  • The Eyes Don’t Always Have It
  • The First Book is Seldom the Best
  • The First Draft—What it is and What it isn’t
  • The Magic of Fiction (print edition) Now Available
  • The Magic of Fiction–Holiday Sale
  • The Mean, the Bad, and the Nasty—Writing Villains
  • The Outline Dilemma—Plotting vs. Pantsing
  • The Perspective From Inside a Character
  • The Power of Repetition
  • The Princess Bride—Storytelling Done Right
  • The Psychology of Character
  • The Rudest Awakening
  • The Sterile Story—Don’t Write Another One
  • The Story Question is Vital
  • The Ubiquitous, Wandering It
  • Those %!@# Expletives
  • Tips for Writers—The Down and Dirty
  • Tone, Mood, & Style—The Feel of Fiction
  • Treating Dependents and Subordinates Properly
  • Twist Words to Surprise Readers
  • Use a Rewrite to Add What Your Story Lacks
  • Use and Misuse of Dialogue Tags
  • Use Beta Readers to Strengthen Your Stories
  • Use Words, Not Punctuation, To Tell Your Story
  • Using Font Styles When Formatting for Print
  • Using Names in Fiction—4 Tips
  • Using Time Wisely
  • Variety in Character Voices
  • Viewpoint Character and the Need to Choose Wisely
  • Weed Out Author Intrusion
  • Welcome Students and Educators
  • What About Adverbs—A Reader’s Question
  • What is Theme
  • What Should an Editor Do for a Writer?
  • What To Write First When Writing Fiction
  • When a Comma Isn’t Enough
  • When Characters are Affected by Events
  • When the Emperor is Naked, Tell Him
  • When the Familiar is Too Familiar
  • When To Bring Backstory Out of the Shadows
  • Where Should a Second Chapter Start?
  • Who Needs an Editor
  • Why Doesn’t My Story Read Like a Published Novel–A Reader’s Question
  • Why I Would Decline an Edit
  • Why Write a Novel—Your Reason is the Right One
  • Why Writing “The End” Doesn’t Mean You’ve Finished
  • Why Writing Fiction is Hard
  • Win a 30-page Edit—Article #100 at The Editor’s Blog
  • Win a First-Thirty Edit—Launch Week Festivities*
  • Word Choice, Word Order, and Word Placement Can Matter
  • Word Choices—Contractions and Dialect
  • Write for Your Readers
  • Write Hot, Edit Cold? It’s Still Great Advice
  • Write Like a Native
  • Write Scenes Rather Than Reports
  • Write to Universal Acclaim? Not Likely
  • Write What You Know? Maybe Not
  • Write with Fire
  • Writer’s Block—Real or Imaginary?
  • Writers Are World Creators
  • Writers Need Friends and Critics
  • Writing Advice—Behind the Advice (Part Three)
  • Writing Advice—Listen or Ignore?
  • Writing Advice—Weighing the Advice (Part Two)
  • Writing Advice—What About -ing Words (Part Four)
  • Writing Basics—The Paragraph
  • Writing Challenge (NaNo Write-in)
  • Writing for the Emotions
  • Writing Novels vs. Telling Tales
  • Writing Prompts—ICYMI
  • Writing Questions Answered—Launch Week Festivities*
  • Writing the Query Letter
  • You Can Write Today
  • You Can’t Hook a Reader with a Yawn
  • You Got My Attention, But Where’s the Action?
  • You Gotta Start Somewhere
  • Your Character’s Code
  • Your Own Something Special
  • Zeroing in on Words

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