Ten Second Tip

Read aloud what you've written.

Does it sound right? It's not quite the same passage that you read in your head is it?*

It's pretty nifty having an auto-correct feature built into your brain, but not so good when you are editing your own work.


*This is especially so when you've been chopping and changing using cut and paste.

Fridayitis

It's a bit of a Rachelle Gardner and Nathan Bransford guest blog linkfest today.

First up we have Guest Blogger: Michelle Moran on How to Promote Your Book (Part 1), and How to Promote Your Book (Part 2), followed by Guest Blogger: M.J. Rose on Book Marketing

Gordon Carroll takes the hot seat on Rachelle's blog and provides us with Writing a Synopsis, Pt. 1 and Writing a Synopsis, Pt. 2.

That's it for today.

Have a great weekend!

Scene and Sequel

I'm thoroughly enjoying Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain. It's packed full of writing advice and tt's made me realise I don't have many sequels to follow my scenes.

The article I've linked to there on Advanced Fiction Writing is one I've read plenty of times too. It shows that the art of teaching is repetition, and that you can never receive too much of the same good advice.

At some point I will need to re-evaluate my copy to see if I should insert some sequels or expand the few sequels that I have.

And I finally got down to do some writing last night, but it had been so long I had to re-familiarise myself with what I'd written in that chapter so far.

Of course, that meant I didn't write any new material, just re-edited the old.

The Amazon Runs Slow Around Here...

I ordered Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain on Friday - chuffed.

Decided not to get the other two books yet because they're still a couple of weeks away from release and I want Techniques of the Selling Writer yesterday.

Then I decided that dispatching on 20th was too long and decided to change from free delivery to express delivery - mistake.

Now I've paid £8.99 for the privilege of having the book 21st - gutted.

Well, it'll still be here earlier, but Tuesday is ages away!

And more importantly, £8.99 is a book.

Mini Post

So it's decided then.

I'm going to buy those books... Soon...

Um, well I haven't had much time to actually write as the real world has been pretty hectic lately. So I'll see if I can get the creative juices flowing now and just leave you with two things:

Adam asks an eternal writing/publishing question Why Do I Want To Be Published? and actually provides a darn good and insightful reason too.

Randy Ingermanson has finished off his series on MRUs.

Both of these are well worth a read. Enjoy!

Writing Books

So it's decided then. I've narrowed down the reference/writing books I want to get.

The Elements of Style 50th Anniversary edition, which comes out in the UK on 28 Nov 2008 (thanks to Adam over on Author's Echo for pointing me in the direction of this one.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms, although I'd like to see if I can get a hardcover copy.

And finally the one that I really can't wait to get my mits on: Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain.

It's Working! It's Working!

I have my first follower!

Normal service is resumed tomorrow :-)

Followers Trial

It's new! It's shiny and it's another excuse for me not to struggle with my amazing dog fighting scene (this is the slowest scene I have ever written or not as the case may be).

Drum roll please....

Followers now on the sidebar - yay!

OK, so I'm risking huge embarrassment by having zero followers - hence it's a trial only.

I'm too frightened to even look.

Stuff Editors Do Not Like

Some gold from The Blood-Red Pencil on Things That Drive an Editor Crazy.

And, no I'm not going to hunt through my manuscript to see if I've made any of these mistakes - I'm waaaay beyond that now. I'm just going to pray that I'll remember this kind of stuff when the time comes to revise.

Oh hang on there's one...

Shout Out to The Blood-Red Pencil

I was out all day yesterday so I didn't have time to post, but I was thinking this morning about what I could post about to gear me up for posting next week. It occurred to me that I had had a lot of time to follow my usual blogs, but one that I did go to was the The Blood-Red Pencil.

So this is an unashamed advert for The Blood-Red Pencil. here's a quick run down of some of the more recent posts.

Tired or Fresh? The use of Clichés in writing - and they're not all bad!

The Spice of Variety covers style editing, and Don't Talk Like That covers dialogue.

The post about Reference Books came perfectly for me. I have been considering getting books about writing for quite a while. I bought one about 15 years ago that i though was quite good at the time, but since I have really got stuck into writing and learned so much recently I now know it is well a bit rubbish. It was only a cheap impulse purchase from WHSmith so no worries. Anyway, I haven't spent much on reference books because the Web is crammed with info on writing. I had considered Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain, and it is still on my list, but now I need to add The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms.

Why are these books on my list? The Techniques of the Selling Writer covers MRUs extensively and I've found MRUs very helpful when structuring my writing, and The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms is rather more than a thesaurus, (I usually use dictionary.com and thesaurus.com) it explains subtle differences in word meaning and connotation.

Also on my list is a style manual, but I'm not sure which one yet.

Fridayitis is Back

I know, I know I've been scarce. What better way is there to be?

I feel kinda guilty actually neglecting my blog like this. I've been busy to say the least! There's so much to do when you find yourself out of work. All those forms to fill out just so your family can live, but hey, we can all take heart from J K Rowling, and even though she is a phenomenon even among best selling authors she (according to some commentators) earned £3 million A WEEK last year. Wow! Let the good times roll!

The current MRU series from Randy Ingermanson is now in full swing.

Congratulations to Editorial Anonymous as on Oct 1st they were Blogger's Blog of Note.

Just a short one today - have a good weekend.