Ten Revising Tips for Writers

Here are the top ten revising rules I live by as a writer: Avoid adverbs whenever possible. Adverbs can signal weak verbs. Do a “find and search” for commonly overused words such as: just, even, that, really, going to, or whatever your pet-problem-words happen to be. Unless you are writing for young children, limit speaker tagsContinue reading “Ten Revising Tips for Writers”

Understanding Story Arcs

There’s nothing like crawling around the kitchen floor–marker in hand–to understand a book’s true structure. In my case, I map out arcs for every character. What’s an “arc”? Good question, because it’s a bit confusing. Sometimes you’ll hear “ARC” and it means “Advance Review Copy” for a book that has not yet been published. Other times,Continue reading “Understanding Story Arcs”