Hi! I’m Kathy Ide. In addition to being a published author, I’m a full-time professional freelance editor. For CAN, I’m blogging about “PUGS”–Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling … tips for writers based on the most common mistakes I see in the manuscripts I edit. These are excerpts from my new book, Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors, which reveal how multi-published authors proofread their manuscripts to avoid typos, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and PUGS errors. (The book is available from Amazon.) If you’re interested in working with a freelance editor (or know someone who is), e-mail me through the contact page of my website. Or go to the Christian Editor…
Category: Writing craft
This is our archive pageAre You Stuck? Be Counterintuitive!
Hi, Dave Fessenden here to talk to you writers out there for this Friday’s blog. One of the most painful experiences a writer can have is the feeling that your writing instincts have betrayed you. You encounter a writing problem, such as a nonfiction concept that seems to defy explanation, or a fictional character that is hard to describe. All your standard, tried-and-true writing techniques seem to fall flat, leaving you frustrated. While it often helps to set this kind of problem aside for a few days, if you are on a deadline you may not have that luxury. Even…
Tension and Conflict Part 3 – Kinds of Conflict
Here it is July already and so I’m back again with another part of Tension and Conflict. Hi from Gail Gaymer Martin. Most authors can name the two kinds of conflict talked about most in fiction, internal and external. Both of these are important to any novel, but don’t lose sight of two more that you may not have considered—inherent and extra-external conflict. These additional kinds of built-in conflict can add extra excitement to your fiction.
Proofreading Pointers #34
Hi! I’m Kathy Ide. In addition to being a published author, I’m a full-time professional freelance editor. For CAN, I’m blogging about “PUGS”–Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling … tips for writers based on the most common mistakes I see in the manuscripts I edit. These are excerpts from my new book, Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors, which reveal how multi-published authors proofread their manuscripts to avoid typos, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and PUGS errors. (The book is available from Amazon.) If you’re interested in working with a freelance editor (or know someone who is), e-mail me through the contact page of my website. Or go to the Christian Editor…
Why Do You Write?
I’ll be taking about a year off of my CAN blog and other CAN activities (but will still "lurk" on the message boards and chime in from time to time – and will still keep writing my Beliefnet blog). The reasons for this are several: Because of a new autoimmune disease/condition diagnosis, I’ll be starting a rather potent immunosuppressive drug and don’t know what the side effects will be; I have a number of longer writing projects that I am eager to complete; and, well, sometimes I know I have to "do" rather than write about doing! Which leads me…
Tips From the Pros: Winnie Griggs
Davalynn Spencer here again, from Colorado’s Front Range, welcoming today’s featured author, Winnie Griggs. Winnie was last featured on the CAN blog in 2009, and she’s written quite a bit since and come up with some great tips for us all. Thanks for visiting with us today Winnie. How many books do you have published now, and what are a few of your latest titles? My 16th just came out. The last four have all been connected and the titles and release dates are: Handpicked Husband September 2012 The Bride Next Door June 2013 A Family For Christmas October 2013…
What to Do with a First Draft
Hi, Dave Fessenden here to talk to you writers out there for this Friday’s blog. If you have completed your first draft, let me be the first to say it: Congratulations! Go ahead and celebrate. Bask in the glow of accomplishment. Take the tribe out for a nice dinner. Are you done celebrating now? Good, because you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you!
Tension and Conflict Part 2 – The Nature of Conflict
Good morning from Gail Gaymer Martin. For the next few months, I’m talking about conflict and tension, the heart of fiction. It is what grabs the reader and makes the story memorable. Last week, I introduced the set up to tension and talk about characters, their goals and the hooks that keep the reader turning pages.Today you read about the nature of conflict . While tension is the emotion of a novel, conflict is the power. It drives the story forward and causes the reader to hang on and go with the ride.Without conflict the scenes would be a slow walk through…
Taking the High Road
One of my favorite poems is Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” You may remember its closing lines: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Happy About Your Endings?
Hello! Maureen Pratt here with my monthly CAN blog about the craft of writing. This month, some thoughts about satisfying, "gotta read this author again" endings. Whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, each piece has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Although they are each crucial to telling a good story, it’s the ending that gives readers the final feeling, the ultimate impression, of the work as a whole. If your beginning hooked them into starting to read, and if your middle was expertly crafted to keep them reading along with your storytelling, then the ending is that wonderful…
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