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 :-)