David Farland’s Writing Tips: “Mental Toughness”
As writers, we’re faced with lots of different types of stresses. It’s not always just searching for the right word in a description or trying to meet a story deadline. While working on novels, I’ve had to deal with just about everything. For example, I was once deep in writing a great scene when […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips—Writing Superstars
When you begin writing, you go through different phases. As a “wannabe,” you may begin practicing writing as a hobby and start developing your talents. As a “first-time author” you may begin winning notoriety and further developing your skills—learning to organize your time, gauging the markets, and so on. As a “midlist author” you’re […]
David Farland’s Writing Tip: Touching Your Audience Deeply through Viewpoint
Almost every time a book is made into film, you will hear the comment over and over, “The book was better.” Some time ago I was talking to a friend of Christopher Paolini, whose novel Eragon was made into a movie, and some fans of the books were so disappointed in the film adaptation, […]
Accepting Responsibility for Your Novel: Editing
When you write a novel, the chances are good that the publisher will hire editors to massage your text. There are problems with that, of course. Not all editors are as good as you’d like. Editors get tired. Editors don’t get paid enough. Editors have lapses of judgment. Your editor might not like your work. […]
Most Common Editing Problems
One time I taught a writing workshop in Salt Lake City and spent some time reading stories. In the past, I haven’t spent much time talking about stylistic problems, but I thought it would be interesting to bring up the six problems that I see most often: 1) Weak verbs. Very often, people will use […]
Damaged Characters
One time I caught the season finale to a show that finds needy families and then rebuilds or replaces their homes. In this case, the father in the family seemed to be a great coach and a great person, but he was suffering from ALS, a disease that will take his life within a year […]
Choosing Your Editor
Have you ever thought about the fact that when you submit your lovingly written novel to a major publisher, you get to choose your editor? You choose your potential editor by submitting to that person. You write a letter of introduction, a synopsis of your novel, and send in a sample of your work—all in […]
The Irresistible Novel
Two or three times a week I get asked, “Where can I find a great book on editing?” I’m always flummoxed by that question. You see, I’ve read dozens of excellent books on editing, and I always have to stop and say, “First, you can’t read just one book on editing. If you really want […]
A Proofreader in Your Pocket
A Proofreader in Your Pocket A Guest Post by Nikolas Baron from Grammarly Do you enjoy editing and proofreading your own work? If you’re like most writers, self-editing is a slog—but it doesn’t have to be. You can use an automated proofreading tool, such as the popular program Grammarly, to supplement your self-editing process. There […]