Fast Tips for Tightening Your Writing

Whether it’s a letter, essay, short story, or longer pieces, here are some easy ways to make it tighter, snappier, and (if you’re up against a word limit) shorter.  Go active:  change passive voice (“He was hit by a truck”) to active voice  (“A truck hit him.”)   Watch for sneaky forms of passive by scanning Read More…

First Draft in Revision (Writer Stuff)

Revising a first draft gives the writer a chance to re-think and re-vision the project.   Almost everything is up for grabs–grabs to keep, and grabs to toss in the garbage.  If the book in question is part of a larger work, and if it is under contract to a particular publisher and editor, some things Read More…

SQUIRREL!!

There’s a charming blogsite called Scientist Sees Squirrel where Steven Heard writes about his research, others’ research, writing for science, history of science (his new book is Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider)  that I used to read a lot until NewBook dragged me deep into Ky Vatta, the family, and Slotter Key, the Read More…

Revision: Firing Up the Chainsaw

Like everything else in writing, there are many ways to approach revision, and I’ve written quite a bit about the process elsewhere.  But every writer and every project has unique challenges.  For NewBook, I’m choosing a slower (since I have no deadline) but thorough and reliable method to cope with its nature and history.  I  Read More…

NewBook Has an End

About 1:20 pm today, NewBook attempted the “trickling away” ending (which usually means the real ending is some pages back) and sure enough, the real ending was some pages back.   It’s found its end.   Now comes the chainsaw of correction, the gorilla glue of mending and patching, the jewelers’ rouge for polishing, and weeks more Read More…