Writer With A View

Unfortunately, getting derailed from writing projects is a common occurrence for authors. Shut Up & Write provides a time and place to do just that—shut up and write. The sessions are dedicated blocks of time long enough to accomplish a writing goal. Find out how SU&W has helped me make writing progress.

Are Word track changes, red lines, comment bubbles, and a long letter full of notes from your editor freaking you out? Don’t lose your cool. Join editors Eva Barrows and Lila LaBine to learn ways to receive, respond, and implement professional editing feedback to strengthen and publish your manuscript—without the overwhelm. Read the blog post and watch the workshop replay here.

Every time I write something, I struggle with the urge to edit as I go. I’ve begun to bargain with myself. I’ll think, “Ok, let’s just get this section on the page, then we’ll go on a walk, then we’ll come back, read it over and mark it up.” For me, it’s the dissection, marking up, and re-arranging that makes my writing sing. As I work on my novel, it’s so, so hard not to edit as I go. But if I can at least get something down, a scene or two, maybe an entire chapter, I can allow myself to read it through to make sure I’m laying the foundation to support the next chapter. If you’ve completed the first draft of something or are getting close (so exciting!) and are wondering how you can self-edit, I’ve got a few pointers for you. Once you’ve arrived at the end, whatever that looks like for your project, save your work or put down the pen. Take that walk. Make it a long one. Maybe go on a long weekend vacation, start a new project…pretend like you don’t have a complete draft sitting around begging you to edit it. If ideas about what you could change in your project pop up, write them down, but don’t implement them immediately. Stay away from your project long enough to approach it again with fresh eyes. This emotional distance will allow you to be a more objective reader once you return to the draft. When you do read it again, your brain will identify things you didn’t see before. You’ll ask yourself, “What the heck was I trying to say here?” This is the kind of question you’ll need to answer before allowing anyone else to read your draft. Do the easy pickings yourself, then get outside feedback from a critique group or writing partner to help direct you on your next round of edits. If you missed my April Ask an Editor workshop “ Self-Editing Strategies to Revise Your Manuscript ” with my cohost Lila LaBine of LaBine Editorial , watch the replay on YouTube and learn story, scene, and line-level editing strategies. We highlight ways to revise your manuscript as much as possible before hiring a professional editor or approaching agents and publishers. Keep writing! 

Get the Feedback You Need to Hear: Beta Readers vs Critique Groups Editors Eva Barrows and Lila LaBine present a workshop session exploring how to get editorial feedback from author peers and your book’s ideal audience before you publish.

My journey to discovering career fulfillment as a freelance writer and editor.

Voice is how you construct your writing when your brain is on autopilot. The tone sets the overall feeling and how things are viewed by the reader. Get some ideas on how tone and voice can be cultivated in your writing.

An author's most difficult decision to make when going on vacation is how many books to bring along. Find out what this author did on a recent road trip. Let's just say traveling light is not her style!

Are you curious about what it takes to start and maintain a newsletter? Creating a newsletter template and then writing new ongoing, engaging content takes a level of commitment. But the reward is watching your subscriber list grow and the ability to interact with readers directly in their email inbox. You’ll need to consider the following categories when starting a new newsletter.

This post looks at ways to research a historical fiction novel to recreate an accurate setting, including location detail, period-correct technology, and believable interpersonal and social scenarios for characters. It's the author's job to bring to life their characters’ experiences for 21st-century readers. How can this be done if we weren't around a hundred years ago? The answer is through research.