Category Archives: Professional Advice

Like too many other budding novelists, I have been writing for years under the assumption that if I just keep putting in the hours I will somehow, magically, develop all the skills I need. Again and again I have finished a novel, tried to revise it only to make it still-lackluster, and moved on to the next new project thinking that this time I’d get it right. I thought, mistakenly, that I was simply bad at revising until I realized that it was just something I’d never learned how to do. After accepting the fact that revision was a skill set all its own, I went in search of how-to resources. There are a great many books out there aimed at helping writers improve their craft, books with advice on how to improve plot, pacing, characterization, etc. But I couldn’t find any with the basic, step-by-step instruction that I needed. Until now. Continue reading →

Not all that long ago, I became a volunteer slush-pile reader for an online magazine. It has been an educational experience for me. And while I am not a bona fide professional when it comes to telling anyone why they did or didn’t get accepted to any particular publication, I do have some general advice. Maybe it’s not so much advice as a plea. (English isn’t easy, folks, but it’s not quite as hard as some people are making it seem.) Continue reading →

Now that the holidays-and-bad-weather portion of winter has ended, I am finally tallying up the rejections from my inbox and scouting for new potential markets. In stumbling across some fledgling publishers, I’ve taken the time to research a few of them and make sure that they’re a reasonably safe bet. A fellow writer reminded me to visit the Predators and Editors website and I also discovered the Writer Beware site provided by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Along with the basics they offer a “thumbs down” list of agents and publishers to avoid.