Unburden Your Dialogue

Don’t clog your lines with double attribution.

The author didn’t realize she was wasting words whenever her characters spoke.

In nearly every instance, she provided not only a dialogue tag, “Christina said,” but also a “beat” or “action tag,” a phrase describing what the character did as she spoke.

Consider this double attribution line:

“I’m so sorry,” Christina said, … Continue reading

Essential Information

A writers conference may be just what you need.

This past week, a literary agent vented his frustrations about the submissions he’d reviewed that morning. Though the writers assumed they were ready for the Big Leagues, their responses betrayed serious shortcomings.

They lacked a basic understanding of not only the vocabulary, but also the expectations of professional publishing. Without that foundation, no … Continue reading

Manuscript Format Gaffes

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.

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