Tag Archives: Editing

Put Your Story on A Stage

By Eleanor Shelton As a writer, the best gift I ever received was to hear my scene being brought to life by professional actors. I was invited to participate in a playwriting class at a regional theater. I had never written a play, nor did I think I was about to. But the course neededContinue reading “Put Your Story on A Stage”

How Many Drafts Does It Take to Get to The Center of A Manuscript?

My novel launches in July of this year. It has been a long process full of rewrites, edits, revisions, additions, subtractions, frustrations, and inspirations. Looking back on this beast’s earliest iterations, I wonder how many versions did it go through to get to here.

Word Count Woes

By Eleanor Shelton As we all know, stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Nothing new there. But just how many words it takes to get there is highly regulated, especially for debut novelists. All novels should be at least 60,000 words. Otherwise, they’re novellas. Less than 20,000, and they’re short stories. And depending onContinue reading “Word Count Woes”

When Your Past Becomes History

By Brian Kaufman I’m pretty old. Time is relative. Suppose you bought a car in 1995. You can register it as a classic. Yet a 25-year-old person would hardly be considered an antique. The modern age of baseball started in 1900. The modern age of philosophy began with René Descartes in the seventeenth century. So,Continue reading “When Your Past Becomes History”

A CHAPTER ONE CHECKLIST

By David E. Sharp Originally posted February 27, 2020 The annual NCW conference looms on the horizon. Many of us are sprucing up those manuscripts to impress professionals of the literary world, not least of which are agents you hope to woo. You’ve got 50,000 words to show off, but you’ll only have a pageContinue reading “A CHAPTER ONE CHECKLIST”

The Art of Persistence: Or How to Love The Re-write

By Ronda Simmons Originally Posted June 2019 I have a virtual sticky note on the monitor in my office. It’s a quote from Stephen King: Talent is a wonderful thing, but it won’t carry a quitter. More than anything lately, it’s what keeps me writing. I recently sent off my latest screenplay for a professionalContinue reading “The Art of Persistence: Or How to Love The Re-write”