This post isn’t exactly covering new ground, it is more along the lines of gathering a number of tips, tricks, and advisories from other posts hither, thither, and everywhither, into one place. Our own KS Brooks trumpeted betas to the heavens only yesterday, and as has previously been stated, it is ALWAYS a good idea to have an editor, a proofreader, or beta readers who are not you looking at your writing. Otherwise, your brain is going to see what it wants/expects to see when it is reading stuff you wrote. Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: Do NOT self-edit. (but when you do…)”
Tag: author advice
A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
As I mentioned last time, I have found useful writing tips to be few and far between. This is, to me, one of the most powerful things you can use in creating fiction, but it’s subtle and has no real nuts/bolts application. But just being aware of it helps you when nothing else does. The term is “narrative voice”.
I first heard it in school from Jack Cady, a very talented short story writer who taught writing and science fiction in the Engineering department. Oddly, two weeks later I was sitting in a bar just off campus with Ken Kesey, and he said exactly the same thing. So I took it to heart.
It’s a vague and slippery concept as writing tips go, closer to psychology or spirituality than to medicine or exercise. But you should be aware of it: just keep that awareness a little unfocused. Narrative voice is, in Cady’s words, the way your story wants to tell itself. It’s way more than a point of view or style or dialect or mode or any of that, though all of those are elements in it. You pick up a children’s book about a kid looking for a lost friend and read it, it’s telling itself in a certain way that fits the story. Then you pick up a noir detective story about a guy looking for a lost friend and it tells itself in a very different way. Continue reading “A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS”
Ed’s Casual Friday: Writers & Reviewers (and the O.K. Corral)
This is not the first time somebody here at Indies Unlimited has opined about the writer-reviewer relationship. Our illustrious Evil Mastermind, Stephen Tiberius Hise, did a not one, not two, but three part investigation only last year. My weekly habit of ending columns with a real One-Star Review on a “classic” book is always intended as a friendly reminder that somebody out there hates every book ever written. But like the noted philosopher David Coverdale from the University of Whitesnake boldly proclaimed, here I go again. 😉 Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: Writers & Reviewers (and the O.K. Corral)”
We Are Your Dress Rehearsal
We’re watching you. Yes, we are. Didn’t you realize that? You’re always being watched. Everything you do. It’s that everything you do that gives us a sense of who you are and how you will be to work with. Perhaps you don’t realize exactly how important that is. And guess what? We’re not the only ones watching.
I’m often asked about soliciting agents, publishers, magazines, etc., probably because back in the dark ages when I started in this industry, that’s how you did it. And I did it a lot. So I’m speaking from years of experience to provide you with the following insight. Agents, publishers and the rest all get to know you the same way we here at Indies Unlimited do.
How do we get to know you? We see if you follow instructions with your initial query. Typos in your emails speak volumes. How your book is presented for purchase is huge. Did you read our submissions requirements? We can tell, trust me. If you read them, did you observe and respect them? These may all seem like little things to you, but they’re not. Not at all. How you perform and behave is extremely important. People are paying attention. Continue reading “We Are Your Dress Rehearsal”