Fiction editing: edit me Thursday #4

Welcome to another Edit me Thursday post where I'll be editing a page submitted by...well...anyone! To submit a one-page piece (or less) of your own writing email me at: bjbstories @ yahoo. com  (You're identity will be kept anonymous!)


Disclaimer: About my editing style...I chip a lot, I tweak a lot, and I analyze everything to the Nth degree. So as with anybody’s edits, they’re only suggestions, and they reflect my own writing style. I’ve had many occasions where someone suggests an edit that harmed the story rather than helped it. But hopefully the edits below make good sense.

My Goal:  To maintain the author's story and the authors voice while improving the story's flow, structure, vocabulary, clarity, action (non-passivity), and general readability.

When you (anyone reading this blog) finish looking over the changes I made to the entry below, let me know what you think? Did the edits help, or was it better off untouched? Or did you really like/dislike one particular edit I made? Let me know (and the author know) in a comment!

1) Draft sent to me
2) My edit
3) Suggestions and explanations
4) Clean draft with Brandon's edits


1) Draft sent to me

Chance heard a creak in the darkness behind him in the direction of the hallway and he immediately set the mainframe detonator.  His checklist of sabotage was finally complete.  The door behind him crashed open, and Chance jumped onto the table, changing in mid-leap into an ape.  With legs made for leaping, he catapulted himself up toward the window ledge above him, and just in time.  He felt the air behind him move; felt the near-touch of his would be captors.  He turned to see who it was, and his eyes adjusted in the darkness to see – a tiger.  His shock nearly undid him, but as the tiger sprang for him, he reacted quickly, slipping out of the window and leaping into the air, again changing – but this time into a bat.  He flapped his wings madly for a moment, and then glided away into the dark shadow of the building.  Once in a secluded corner, he changed once again, this time into a cheetah.  With quick strides he sprinted across the deserted parking lot and down the nearby street.  He knew he wouldn’t have much time to sprint in this form.  The cheetah was fast, but only for short sprints.  He made it through the small town, and transformed into a dog, as he loped into the grassy sand dunes.

            Knowing that pursuit could be right behind him, he continued to run until he was splashing in the shallow waves.  As his paws left the ground and he paddled into the water, he transformed back into his normal man shape, and stroked as powerfully as he could into the deeper water, diving under the waves, changing into a shark.  He swam on as a shark for a while, and then as the water became deeper, and he left all vestiges of waves behind him, he changed again, lengthening and growing into a whale.  As he surfaced to take in air, he heard an explosion behind him, almost deafening in this form.  The waves of sound traveled through the water with an intensity he hadn’t anticipated.


2) My edit

Chance heard a creak in the darkness behind him in the direction of the hallway and he immediately set the mainframe detonator.  His checklist of sabotage was finally complete ("checklist" snatches me out of the scene...it conjures an image of someone actually making a tally on an actual "sabotage list". And that comes across humorously in my mind. If saying something along these lines is really important, then perhaps "His last act of sabotage was complete" but if this sentence can be removed from the story whole, then remove it.).  The door behind him crashed open(.), and Chance jumped onto the table, changing in mid-leap into an ape.  With powerful legs made for leaping(leap was used in last sentence), he catapulted himself up toward the window ledge above him, and just in time.("just in time" is telly. Deflates the power of the next sentence)  He felt the air behind him move; felt with the near-touch of his pursuer would be captors.  Reaching the ledge, H(h)e turned to see who it was, and his eyes adjusted in the darkness to see – a tiger.  His The  shock nearly undid him(.), but as t (T)he tiger sprang for him, he reacted quickly, and he dove slipping out of the window and leaping into the air, again changing – but this time into a bat.  He flapped his wings madly for a moment, and then glided away down into a the darkened crevice shadow of at the foot of the building (the bat needed to be on the ground before the next sentence when he turns into a cheetah--that's why I made the changes to this sentence).  Once in a secluded corner, he changed once again Chance altered shape, this time into("this time into a" was used already) --a cheetah.  With quick strides he sprinted across the deserted parking lot and down the nearby street.  He knew he There wouldn’t have be much time to sprint in this form.  The cheetah was fast, but only for short sprints.  He made it through the small came to the edge of town, his thin lungs weezing.(I felt he should be weezing after the mention of a cheetah only running for short sprints...plus it creates tension) and There, he transformed into a dog, as he and loped into the grassy sand dunes.(Can you call sand dunes grassy? Having read the next paragraph, these "dunes" are a beach. perhaps simply call it such... "he loped onto the sandy beach.")

            Knowing that The pursuit could be right behind him was not over, he could feel it. Call it a canine's sixth sense.(The phrase felt too formal and created distance between the character and the reader, the change I made keeps the reader right there with Chance, adds tension, and even exploits Chance's temporary doggy attributes.) , h (H)e continued to run until he was splashing in the shallow waves.  As his paws left the ground and he paddled into the water, he transformed back into his normal man human shape, and stroked as powerfully as he could into the for deeper water(.), d (D)iving under the a waves, he changed ing into a shark, and with one thunderous thrust of his tail he was in fifty feet of water and he had become a whale.(I felt with the constant morphing, at the end it became too much, so I felt tightening the details between him going from shark to whale was necessary to preserve the tension.)  He swam on as a shark for a while, and then as the water became deeper, and he left all until the last vestiges of the waves lay behind him, he changed again, lengthening and growing into a whale.  As he surfaced to take in air, he heard an explosion behind him, almost deafening in this mammalian form.  The waves of sound traveled through the water climaxing with an horrific intensity he hadn’t anticipated.
-Oohh, what will happen next! We are all in suspense! :)


3) Suggestions and explanations

Well, as you can see, I explained most things in the orange font within the edit.

-Basically all I did was tighten, and add a few things to draw the reader into the character(the cheetah's weezing, the dog's sixth sense).  Sometimes tightening requires a slight restructuring of a sentence. This is good. To look at each sentence and see if it can be improved, tightened, made more active is always fun, because afterwords you're rewarded with a more potent sentence, and ultimately, a more gripping story.

-One further possibility/suggestion for this piece is to cut out some of the morphing going on. That would help prevent the morphing from being repetitive. Which animal(s) to eliminate would be a tough choice in my opinion.

I found this week's selection very engaging. The author has an exciting story on their hands! And by the way everyone, I had a professional editor go through the last novel I finished and do the same thing. It was wonderful to see what she did, and I learned a ton! Much of what you see above here is a result of what she taught me. Alethea Eason is her name, and she's the author of the YA sci-fi novel, Hungry.


4) Clean draft with Brandon's edits

Chance heard a creak in the darkness behind him and immediately set the mainframe detonator.  The door behind him crashed open. Chance jumped onto the table, changing mid-leap into an ape.  With powerful legs, he catapulted himself toward the window ledge above him, and felt the air behind him move with the near-touch of his pursuer.  Reaching the ledge, he turned to see who it was, and his eyes adjusted in the darkness to see – a tiger.  The shock nearly undid him. The tiger sprang and he dove out the window, again changing – but this time into a bat.  He flapped his wings madly for a moment, and then glided down into a darkened crevice at the foot of the building.  Once again Chance altered shape--a cheetah.  With quick strides he sprinted across the deserted parking lot and down the nearby street. There wouldn’t be much time to sprint in this form.  The cheetah was fast, but only for short sprints.  He came to the edge of town, his thin lungs weezing. There, he transformed into a dog and loped into the beach.

The pursuit was not over, he could feel it. Call it a canine's sixth sense. He continued to run until he was splashing in the shallow waves. As his paws left the ground, he transformed back into his human shape, and stroked powerfully for deeper water. Diving under a wave he changed into a shark, and with one thunderous thrust of his tail he was in fifty feet of water and he had become a whale. As he surfaced to take in air, he heard an explosion behind him, almost deafening in this mammalian form.  The waves of sound traveled through the water, climaxing with horrific intensity.

Fiction editing: edit me Thursday #3

Welcome to another Edit me Thursday post where I'll be editing a page submitted by...well...anyone! To submit a one-page piece (or less) of your own writing email me at: bjbstories @ yahoo. com  (You're identity will be kept anonymous!)

Disclaimer: About my editing style...I chip a lot, I tweak a lot, and I analyze everything to the Nth degree. So as with anybody’s edits, they’re only suggestions, and they reflect my own writing style. I’ve had many occasions where someone suggests an edit that harmed the story rather than helped it. But hopefully the edits below make good sense.

My Goal:  To maintain the author's story and the authors voice while improving the story's flow, structure, vocabulary, clarity, action (non-passivity), and general readability.

When you (anyone reading this blog) finish looking over the changes I made to the entry below, let me know what you think? Did the edits help, or was it better off untouched? Or did you really like/dislike one particular edit I made? Let me know (and the author know) in a comment!

1) Draft sent to me
2) My edit
3) Suggestions and explanations
4) Clean draft with Brandon's edits


1) Draft sent to me

Areli spun on his heels, flashlight in hand, to find two middle-aged men standing before him.  The one on the left was a tall, lean brute of European descent wearing a dirty trench coat and a long white head of hair, which flowed into an unruly beard.  His companion was much shorter and seemed to have some distant Asian roots.  He was wearing a tight t-shirt and a pair of jogging pants.  It was not the rough look of the two that concerned Areli so much as the long steel rod the tall one carried at his right hip. 

         “Ow’re ya findin’ yerself in these parts at this hour, mate.”  A gruff voice issued from the owner of the metal weapon.

         “Just on my way out, friend,” Areli replied calmly.
    “Had better choose your words more carefully,” sneered the aggressor’s companion, “Wouldn’t wanna give the wrong impression.  Not out here.”

         “Thank you.  I’ll remember that.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be on my way.”

         “Sure, sure.  Ri’ after ya hand over yer pack,” were the final words from the tall one.
         Areli sighed deeply and assumed the stable base he had so often taken on the mat.  The dirty syncrete under him, however, was not nearly so stable, nor as forgiving, as the flooring in which he had grown accustomed.  Keeping this in the back of his mind, Areli looked rapidly back and forth at the two figures in the night.

         The first move came from the smaller of the two.  Issuing forward with lightning speed, he attempted to secure the flashlight Areli held in his right hand.  Just barely avoiding the lunging arms, Areli delivered a left elbow to the side of the head of the attacker, who, in turn, dropped heavily to the ground.  This only barely gave his accomplice time to strike Areli in the left shoulder blade with his makeshift weapon.  Staggering sideways, Areli quickly regrouped and reengaged.  Blocking another wild swing of the rod with his flashlight, just as the noble warriors did so many centuries before, he caught the dark figure square in the left side of his rib-cage with a tight left fist, followed by a final blow to the jaw with his light, which placed the fiend next to his companion on the ground.  Transferring his flashlight to the left hand so he could hold his throbbing shoulder with the right, Areli quickly made off with newfound energy in the direction of the city wall.


         2) My edit

Areli spun on his heels, gripping his flashlight in hand,(.) to find t (T)wo middle-aged men stood standing before him.  The o (O)ne on the left was a tall, lean brute of European descent wearing a dirty trench coat and a long white head of hair, which flowed into an unruly beard (too much description).  His companion was much shorter and seemed to have some distant a short Asian roots.  He was wearing a tight t-shirt and a pair of jogging pants.  It was not the rough look of the two that concerned Areli so much as the long steel rod the tall one carried at his right hip. 

         “Ow’re ya findin’ yerself in these parts at this hour, mate.(,)” came the A gruff voice issued from the owner of the metal weapon.

         “Just on my way out, friend,” Areli replied calmly.
    “Had better choose your words more carefully,” sneered the aggressor’s companion short Asian, “Wouldn’t wanna give the wrong impression.  Not out here.”

         “Thank you.  I’ll remember that.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be on my way.”

         “Sure, sure.(,)" said the tall one, "Ri’ after ya hand over yer pack,(.)” were the final words from the tall one.  
         Areli sighed deeply and assumed the stable base fighting stance he had so often taken on the mat.  The dirty syncrete under him, however, was not nearly so wasn't as stable, nor as forgiving, as the flooring in which he had grown was accustomed to.  Keeping this He kept this in the back of his mind, Areli looked rapidly back and forth at the two figures in the night.

         The first move came from the Asian smaller of the two.  Issuing He sprang forward with lightning speed, he attempted to secure snatching at the flashlight Areli held in his Areli's right hand.  Just barely avoiding the lunging arms, Areli delivered a left elbow to the side of the his head of the attacker's head(.), who, in turn, The man dropped heavily to the ground.  This only barely gave his accomplice time to strike  (paragraph break)
         An agonizing pain exploded in Areli's in the left shoulder blade with his makeshift weapon.  Staggering sideways, he Areli quickly regrouped and reengaged saw the tall brute lift the steel rod for a second strike.  Blocking another Areli blocked the wild swing of the rod with his flashlight, just as the noble warriors did so many centuries before, he then caught the dark figure square in the left side of his rib-cage with a tight left fist(.), followed by a. The man doubled over and Areli final blow to uppercutted the man's jaw with his light, which placing ed the fiend him next to his companion on the ground.  Transferring his flashlight to the left hand so he could hold his throbbing shoulder with the right,  (paragraph break)
       Areli grimaced as he touched his shoulder. He had to keep moving.  quickly made off w(W)ith newfound energy he made off in the direction of the city wall.

         3) Suggestions and Explanations

It's a good action scene, it just needed tightening and some weeding out of "distance creating language" or passive voice. Finding dynamic ways to rephrase an action sequence really brings the scene to life.

Also, in action sequences. Break up the action. It becomes passive voice all too easily when trying to string too many actions together. It's all about finding that perfect prose flow.

In an action sequence, one can't be too descriptive, because it slows the reader down and diffuses the sense of urgency necessary to create the right cadence for an action scene.

Also the character receives an injury to his arm. I think its necessary for him to remember his pain (touching it and grimacing) that way it maintains the realism, and doesn't move on as if he had never been injured at all. (and a metal pipe to the shoulder seems pretty rough!)


         4) Clean draft with Brandon's edits

         Areli spun, gripping his flashlight. Two middle-aged men stood before him.  One was a tall, lean brute of European descent wearing a dirty trench coat.  His companion was a short Asian wearing a tight t-shirt and jogging pants.  It was not the rough look of the two that concerned Areli so much as the long steel rod the tall one carried at his right hip. 

         “Ow’re ya findin’ yerself in these parts at this hour, mate,” came the gruff voice from the owner of the metal weapon.

         “Just on my way out, friend,” Areli replied calmly.
    “Had better choose your words more carefully,” sneered the short Asian, “Wouldn’t wanna give the wrong impression.  Not out here.”

         “Thank you.  I’ll remember that.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be on my way.”

         “Sure, sure," said the tall one, "Ri’ after ya hand over yer pack.”

         Areli sighed deeply and assumed the fighting stance he had so often taken on the mat.  The dirty syncrete under him wasn't as stable, nor as forgiving, as the flooring he was accustomed to.  He kept this in the back of his mind.

         The first move came from the Asian.  He sprang forward with lightning speed snatching at the flashlight in Areli's right hand.  Areli delivered a left elbow to the attacker's head. The man dropped heavily to the ground. 

         An agonizing pain exploded in Areli's left shoulder.  Staggering sideways, he saw the tall brute lift the steel rod for a second strike.  Areli blocked the wild swing with his flashlight then caught the dark figure square in the rib-cage with a tight left fist. The man doubled-over and Areli uppercutted the man's jaw with his light, placing him next to his companion on the ground.

       Areli grimaced as he touched his shoulder. He had to keep moving. With newfound energy he made off in the direction of the city wall.

Fiction editing: edit me Thursday # 2

Welcome to another Edit me Thursday post where I'll be editing a page submitted by...well...anyone! To submit a one-page piece of your own writing email me at: bjbstories @ yahoo. com  (You're identity will be kept anonymous!)

Disclaimer: About my editing style...I chip a lot, I tweak a lot, and I analyze everything to the Nth degree. So as with anybody’s edits they’re only suggestions, and they reflect my own writing style. I’ve had many occasions where someone suggests an edit that harmed the story rather than helped it. But hopefully the edits below make good sense.

My Goal:  To maintain the author's story and the authors voice while improving the story's flow, structure, vocabulary, clarity, action (non-passivity), and general readability.

When you (anyone reading this blog) finish looking over the changes I made to the entry below, let me know what you think? Did the edits help, or was it better off untouched? Or did you really like/dislike one particular edit I made? Let me know (and the author know) in a comment!

1) Draft sent to me
2) First edit
3) Suggestions and explanations
4) Clean draft with Brandon's edits

1) Draft sent to me

“She’s in pain—how is this possible?” Adaiyas said.

“I cannot explain it, First Elf—“

“Cannot explain it? You’re the midwife; it’s your job to explain it!”

“Has your wife experienced pain like this before?”

“What are you suggesting, Corina?”

“If I did not know better, I’d suggest labour pains—“

“Elves do not suffer labour pains, Midwife.”

Corina, the midwife, wrung her hands together hopelessly as she stared at the slim elf woman on the birthing mat. No longer clutching to the circular delivery chamber’s birthing pole, her hands now clutched her swollen belly as she screamed, a tormented wail pierced the late afternoon air.

First Elf Adaiyas leapt from his stool and took his wife’s hand in his, distressed by the sight of tears flowing down her bronze cheeks to mingle with sweat dampened blond hair. “Do something, Corina. Please.”

Experienced hands explored Filarna’s swollen belly. “Something is wrong, First Elf. The baby is not head-down but sideways. Your wife is fully dilated and attempting delivery, but as the baby cannot enter the birth canal, the contractions are causing her great pain.”

2) My edits

In this section, I tried to maintain the authors vocabulary choice. I moved phrases/words around, tightened, combined, and generally tried to create a nice blend of action and dialogue.

First half:

2nd half

3) Suggestions and explanations

In this section, I explain some of the major things I did to edit a piece:

The dialogue between Adaiyos and Corina needed tightening. I felt the way somethings were revealed was slow. IE: "Elves do not have labor pains". I also like to get peoples names out on the table quickly, and I don't like it done in dialogue.

-You'll notice that I cut some of the dialogue out of the original sequence. This, in my opinion, definitely helped the flow of the scene.

-the term "First Elf" felt too formal for this setting. And the scene itself felt like it was from the First Elf's POV.
This title can be established at a less intense scene perhaps.

-Also, through the edits I was able to drop the word count from 185 to 138.



4) Clean draft with Brandon's edits:

“She’s in pain!” cried Adaiyas. “How is this possible—Elves do not have labour pains?”

“I cannot explain it,” said Corina without looking at him.

Adaiyas tore his eyes from his wife and glared at the midwife. “It’s your job to explain it!”

Corina wrung her hands together hopelessly as she stared at the slim elf woman on the birthing mat. The woman clutched her swollen belly as she screamed.

Adaiyas leapt from his stool and took his wife’s hand in his. Tears traced down her bronze cheeks as she grimaced. “Do something, Corina. Please.”

Corina explored Filarna’s swollen belly with her hands. “It is the baby’s position..The child is not head-down but sideways. Your wife is fully dilated, but the baby cannot enter the birth canal, the contractions have it pinned. That is what’s causing the pain.”

Why the beginning of your novel is so important

...In the beginning (your full name here) created the concept of his/her novel, but still the novel was formless and void, and darkness lay over the pages of the novel--a darkness with limitless potential to become anything (your full name here) desired it to become. For (your full name here) had not yet penned a word down, and thereby was not bound or restrained to half-concocted characters or plots not fully exploited...the novel still had all the potential of achieving perfection within the author's mind...and (your full name here) patiently plotted his/her characters, seeking thirstily for the culmination of drama and the zenith of emotion his/her characters could reach. And (your full name here) plotted his plot with patient attention, testing many roads leading to potential outcomes, but waiting, waiting, waiting for that one road--the road of roads, that would lead him/her to maximum power for his characters whom he lovingly has shaped in perfect unity alongside his plot of plots. And in the end, when the novel is done, (your full name here) said, "It is VERY good."

The beginning of your novel determines how you will reach the end. Even though you may go back and completely change your beginning to fit your ending, you nevertheless got to that ending from your initial beginning. Your characters began from that beginning. Your plot, your world, your themes, sprang from those first few chapters...those first 7,000-10,000 words.

For me, it is crucial that I painstakingly create the start of my novel, fleshing out my characters, my plot, my world, my themes and changing them over and over again until I find the right mix that will serve as my foundation for the rest of the novel. The end might still be undecided and the second half may still be fuzzy, but at least--through patient plotting--I've given myself an excellent beginning to spring from.

From the get go we want a clear focused attack that will send our characters into terrible struggles and heart-wrenching situations. We want our characters to have flaws that heighten the drama around them and draw the reader into their inner turmoil. And we want to carefully create secondary characters to amplify the struggles and flaws--within and without--our main characters.

Having a strong foundation to begin upon allows an author to quickly and efficiently get into his/her characters. It allows the plot to sizzle from the start. You've heard the writing advice, "start your novel as late as possible and in medias res," well in my opinion, to do this with the most force and power, you don't want to start off with a half-cocked plot, and a general idea for a character. It can even be tempting to have the plot down, but not the character, or the character down, but not the plot. Both of these situations are a recipe for disaster in my opinion, and a REAL pain to edit out later!!

No, if you want to grab the reader by the scruff of his neck and keep him reading, you've got to show a little patience at the start, figure out a dynamic character and a thrilling plot, and then you'll be glad you did as you hurtle that reader headlong into the tsunami you've prepared for them.

How important is a platform for writers seeking publication?

Building a platform is one of the farthest things from your mind when you first start writing. Maybe your even still asking...what is a platform?

Well, let me start with an example. Andrew Peterson, the author of North! Or Be Eaten had a platform before he ever submitted his manuscript to a publisher or agent (Yes, agents look at platform too).

Peterson's platform...he's an accomplished musician with 12 albums released thus far. (He's also had a top ten radio hit).

So when Peterson submitted his manuscript, he had a leg to stand on. Now when I say "a leg" I do mean only one. He had to have another thing to stand on...and that's a great story! But having that combination of platform and story is a one-two punch. (To check out detailed reviews of North or Be Eaten, scroll down to the bottom of this post and check out some of the great blogs talking in depth about Peterson's book. And from what I'm hearing, its a wonderful book!)

Not all platforms are alike (most of us don't have a spotlight on us as musicians or other celebrites do) and we're certainly not popular enough to get whatever we write published. There are other ways for ordinary people to build up their writer's resume to become more appealing to publishers and agents.

1) Creating a blog is a great way to start telling people about your writing. (However, I must warn you that blogs wind up being much more than just a platform, you end up making lots of friends as well as great connections in different areas of the publishing industry). Eventually, if you have a book published, your blog can become a sort of news outlet for your readers, as well as a means of interaction with them. We humans were made to interact and have relationships; that's what makes blogs so endearing.

2) Short story publications. These are key! To have your short stories published accomplishes three things. First, they provide a credit to put on your resume. Second, they show the world what type of writer you are, and readers might be drawn to follow you along when they fall in love with your writing. Third, they help polish your own writing. We writers are constantly learning and growing, and with each story, we build upon our knowledge and stretch ourselves.

3) Networking. I personally never imagined how easy it is to network....the hardest part is trying. Let me give you some examples in my own life. Why not join a local writers group? You are bound to come away with not only great friendships and stronger writing, but also contacts who can help direct your writing path. For instance, I was fortunate to join a group in my city led by Bruce McAllister (twice nominated for the Hugo Award) and a man whose had dozens of short stories published in top magazines, and had a Hugo nominated novel come out by DAW in the late 80's. He gave me tons of great wisdom and insider info.

Another networking example. Mike Lynch and I wrote an archeological adventure novel and decided to shoot for the moon and contact a well known figure in the field who was both a published author and an adventurer who starred in several biblical archeological documentaries. It was while I was watching one of those documentaries when I thought, "hey, this guy might like my book". Well, I emailed the institute which he founded to see if I could get his email. To my shock, they gave me his phone number!!! I hardly knew what to do, and I had my co-author Mike call him (because I was too nervous to do it). To make a long story short, he wanted us to send him the novel, so we did, and after he read it, he gave us a glowing phone call in which he told us how much he loved it and promised to give us a quote for the book. He also offered to give it to his agent--talk about a recommendation! If Mike and I didn't already have an agent, we'd have jumped all over that offer.

Now the three examples above of platform building are just the essentials. Writers can use their personal skills, talents and personalities to create other platforms for their writing. But, remember, platforms provide only one leg (unless you're a celeb), the other leg is a great story with good story-telling, and in the end, it's the story-telling leg that is the most important.

I hope this little overview helps. I also want to direct you to Moonrat's editorial blog post that touches on this very topic. It's VERY enlightening about the publishing industry!

Successful queries and word counts

1) Who wants to see how to successfully hook an agent? I wanted to pass along an excellent resource that provides examples of queries that grabbed agents. There are lots of different genres.

Check out the "Guide to Literary Agents" blog and take a look.

2) Here is an interesting overview of word counts for different genres. What's the norm, and what ranges are there in each genre.

Check it out here

Wise readers: what every author must have

Orson Scott Card, the great sci-fi author, was the man who introduced me to the importance of "wise readers". These individuals whom an author entrusts his manuscript to in order that they might catch something he did not.

Every author must have wise readers.

When selecting wise readers, it's good to have diversity. Spanning age, gender, and reading interests is helpful. A story that can appeal to a broader audience is going to have a much better chance at being published, and if it is published, will then have a better chance of selling well.

The wise readers you choose must be the types of people who can tell you flat out when something is not working. They must be ruthless in there (should be "their") desire to make your book the best it can be, and thus they read it with a scrutinous eye, combing for fallacies, plot holes, bad dialogue, false emotions, triteness and the like.

The warrior's (should be "warriors") in this comic are similar to the type of wise readers you are looking for. Fighters who will battle to make your story shine.

Now a quick shout out to my wise readers:

Amanda Barr! (Elite destroyer of misspellings)
Jacob Gomez! (Bearer of the youthful eye)
Doug Barr! (Wielder of the axe of error-corrections)
Jonathan Synnott! (Sage of literature, and bringer of truth)
Gary Redinger! (Stalwart of the books)


Going with the fantasy motif: May your wise readers speaketh (should be "speak") truth, and may you hideth not from it...

A writers story of Perseverence!

Joshua Palmatier's hard work and diligence paid off in the end, but his road of hardships is both humbling, and inspiring.

For every writer who needs encouragement to keep on going, just read Joshua Palmatiers journey from total discouragement, to landing a three book trilogy deal with DAW Publishing.

Click here to check out his story