Whether you’re a fiction or nonfiction writer, developing a writing process will make you a more prolific writer and improve your craft. With a process in place, the act of writing becomes like any other routine task, such as getting out of bed or showering. It’s no longer a question whether you’re going to sit down and write—and that’s a powerful thing. Here’s how you can do that.
Many writers and editors are puzzled about the use of commas between modifiers and need guidance on when and where commas should be placed. The answers to these questions depend on whether the modifiers equally and independently modify the noun that follows the modifiers. To better understand when to use a comma, check out the examples in this post.
If you want readers to find and buy your book, you have to do some marketing—perhaps a lot of marketing—especially via online media. To grab reader attention, you’ll need eye-catching graphics. Sure, professional graphic designers can create amazing book graphics, but so can you. This blog will get you started.
Do you want to be an advertising editor? If you want to help brands bring their products to market and play a part in iconic campaigns with slogans like “It’s Not Delivery, It’s DiGiorno.” then editing advertising copy might be for you. However, you also need to be ok with unconventional hours, executives having the final say, and other pitfalls.
The idea of a client avatar doesn’t just apply to big business. If you want to be a successful author, you need to know who you’re writing for; you need to understand your ideal reader. This is especially important for the kind of nonfiction book that helps a reader solve a problem or reach a goal. How can you help if you don’t know who you’re helping? You need an ideal reader profile.
To comma or not to comma, that is the question. This seemingly insignificant punctuation mark causes more confusion in the lives of writers, editors, and all who work in publications or with web content than all other punctuation marks combined. This blog reviews some basic rules for the use of the comma, so you can brush up on your usage of the pesky comma.
If you want to publish a polished, well-crafted piece of writing, you’ll likely need feedback to help guide your revisions. Most authors, however, aren’t ready for a professional editor after the first draft. Instead, join a writer’s critique group! They’re free, they’ll make you a better writer, and they’ll help build your network. Here’s how.
The editing question I get more often than any other is about the Oxford—or serial—comma, the comma that precedes the word “and” in a list. Here are my thoughts on that bit of punctuation.
Writing a memoir, novel, essay, magazine article, or blog post sometimes requires authors to tackle some tough topics, including content that might be psychologically or emotionally difficult to read, especially to those who have experienced a trauma. How do we balance realistic depictions or discussions of challenging content with the needs of readers who could potentially be traumatized? Trigger warnings might—or might not—help. Here’s how.
Fiction has an obvious story arc, but memoirs and narrative nonfiction benefit from a structure that supports compelling storytelling too. Consider that your story, whether real or imagined, has a protagonist: you, if you’re writing a memoir, or a main character. Even a self-help book has a protagonist—the reader.