How to Know When to “Kill Your Darlings”

by Lewis / December 18, 2018 / Editing

In a successful novel, everything serves a purpose.

It’s no wonder then that one of the most common pieces of editing advice is to “kill your darlings.” Problem is, what exactly does your editor, critique partner, friend, or dog mean by this after reading your first draft? While “killing your darlings” is an infamous phrase in modern culture, it’s not always clear how it applies to your writing or what you should do about it.

How do you find your own personal writing “darlings” and how should you go about killing them? To make matters more complex, you might not want to kill them at all.

The Complete Guide to Self-Editing Your Novel

by Lewis / December 7, 2018 / Editing

Your first draft is one part of a much longer process.

When it comes to writing a novel, actually writing it is just the first step. Once that task is done, you begin the long, multi-layered experience that is self-editing. It’s many parts intimidating and a few parts exciting, but ultimately, the best way to describe it is daunting.

Fortunately, it’s not as complex as it might seem. Best of all, all the work you put in self-editing will be well worth the payoff of an amazing, polished novel.

The 2018 First Chapters Writing Contest

by Lewis / November 30, 2018 / News

We’ve officially reached the end of NaNoWriMo!

In fact, I’m sure many of you have newly minted first drafts sitting on your desk. They may be 50,000 words or only 5,000, but they’re brimming with potential. Unfortunately, many people lose steam after NaNoWriMo comes to an end.

You’ve just spent a full month running a writing marathon—you need a break, right? Well, most often that break turns into your draft sitting forgotten in a drawer for months if not years. As hard as it may seem, the best thing you can do for your writing future is to keep moving forward with your novel.

How to Restrain Your Inner Editor (Or Even Defeat It)

by Lewis / November 27, 2018 / Editing, Inspiration

There’s a secret killer out there, looking for ways to ruin your novel.

You may already be familiar with this shady character. You’re writing along, making great progress, thoroughly in love with your story. Yet, suddenly, you stop and reread a previous scene. Your work grinds to a halt. It wouldn’t hurt to rewrite that last paragraph. Perhaps you can fix some wording here, a poorly structured sentence there…

The problem is, an hour later you’ve spent all of your time editing your previous work instead of writing anything new. What’s worse, you’ve grown bitter and doubtful—if there are this many flaws in your writing, it must all be awful, right?

What Does It Mean to Hire a Book Coach?

by Jenna Faccenda / November 23, 2018 / Editing, Guest Posts

Today, I’d like to welcome a guest to blog!

While a book coach myself, in the past I haven’t talked much about what exactly a book coach is or does on this blog. So when Jenna approached me with a post on that very subject, I figured now was a great time to dive into the issue in a little more depth!

Below she talks about everything from what hiring a book coach is like, to why you even would to begin with. I hope you all enjoy this guest appearance by Jenna, and I encourage you to drop in and say hello to both her and her co-writer Rachel over at Writely Me!