Short Answer? Yes. Several. — If you’ve gone through the entire process of writing a novel, and you’re now in the long, arduous process of editing and revising, you’ve probably considered having someone read your book before you start trying to throw it out into the world. Beta Readers are an absolutely essential part of…

Hustle Culture is Going to Kill You if The Plague Doesn’t — Oh boy, we’re probably going into another lockdown, time for that existential dread from March to creep back in for the holidays. You know what that means: get out the knitting needles and pray to god that people don’t turn this into an issue that lasts another three years. So…

Exploring the Strengths of Perspective — Sometimes, writers will have an excellent concept. They’ll have an idea that’s just phenomenal, marketable, interesting, and inspiring. In spite of this, they’ll have difficulty actually completing the book, and find that they’re in a writing slump. Generally, when it comes to larger, structural edits in an unfinished manuscript that…

Publishing is a Matter of Perseverance — Many first-time writers are terrified that to send their manuscript. If they’re not involved in the world of publishing, that first step to begin querying is terrifying. As it should be! You’ve spent months (in some cases, years) working on a manuscript, so it’s definitely a major step to finally…

The easiest way to get on your editor’s bad side — Comma splices. One of the most-common grammar errors of writers at all levels. They sound like a some sort of aggressive act, some sort of aggravated assault performed with a comma. And they are! They’re an assault on the very structure of English! How dare you weld those two sentences…

Exploring the Main Two Types of Writers — There’s always a lot of buzz in the writing community about “Plotters and Pantsers.” Occasionally, there might even be mention of a “Plantser.” If you’re part of any group of authors, you’ve definitely been asked the question about which one you are, even if you weren’t familiar with the terms. Am I a Plotter? …

“You’ll go broke waiting for the muse to fly down and sit on your shoulder.” — If you’re trying to make a living off of writing, even if you’ve found your niche, and platform, you’re still going to be facing a lot of fierce competition, and the only way to keep up with that is if you’re willing to have to produce a ridiculous amount of…

Like a period, but precocious! — The semicolon is a weird one. It has very little function of its own, and what little function it does serve is rare, fringe, and occasionally redundant. …

Why you might be finishing short — You’ve written most of your novel. You finally finished the ending, untangled those plot threads, and paved over your plot holes. You decide you’re finished, and you’re ready to declare your project finally complete, and ready for submission! Except when you check the word count, you’re met with about half…