If you fear making mistakes, you’ll accomplish little.
The lawn of the Manitou Springs, Colorado, library was filled with bold people.
On the platform, the Tender Foot Bluegrass band performed for an audience of two hundred. They could have been fearful. Music isn’t their day job. But they boldly performed song after song.
On the front of the lawn, a dozen children ran, jumped, … Continue reading
Keep readers firmly inside your character’s head.
The novel’s opening chapter reminded me of the car commercial that promotes its lane-departure warning system. If the car drifts across the center line, it sounds a loud alert.
This prospective author could have used something similar for his novel’s point of view. Unknowingly, he kept drifting from his main character’s awareness.
In a scene with … Continue reading
Make sure your submission is dressed for success.
Once glance at the manuscript told me the author was at best a hobbyist—not serious about the craft of professional writing.
All that without reading one word of his novel.
Even if the story were great, any literary agent or acquisitions editor would begin an evaluation having already counted several strikes against it.
A quick … Continue reading