Tips for Getting Your Writing in Publishable Condition

by Tim Suddeth @TimSuddeth

I’m in the middle of editing one of my novels. And, honestly, I feel totally lost. After I finished the manuscript a few years ago and sent it out to agents with several rejections, I decided to give it another look. I’ve edited it and other books, but this is the first time I’ve returned to a story after a couple of years. To say my memory of it is a little fuzzy is an understatement. I really thought it was ready, but now I can see I have a lot of work ahead of me.

My first step after the last rejection was to send it to a developmental editor. When her comments came back, I realized I had a roaring dumpster fire on my hands. There were entire scenes that had to be tossed and character motivations that needed to be made clearer. How did I send this out with my name on it, thinking it was complete?

The Dilemma of Too Many Characters in Your Novel

by DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

The novel is finished. The writer inhales a breath of satisfaction. Now is the time to begin the editing process. But midway through, a dose of reality hits hard. The story has so many characters that it’s difficult to keep track of their names and the roles they play. 

While the problem may look bewildering, there is a solution, and the story will be stronger by implementing the following suggestions. 

Portly Prose – Does Your Writing Need a Diet?

by Lori Hatcher @LoriHatcher2

When you face a writing assignment with a word count of 250, do you clap or groan? For me, writing with a short word count is much more challenging than writing with a long one.

For several years the editor of a popular anthology invited me to submit 225-word devotions for her consideration. “Two hundred and twenty-five words?” I’d say. “I can’t even build a porch with fewer than 225 words, and you want me to build a whole house?” Crafting a devotion with a hook, scriptural insight, personal application, and conclusion in only a few hundred words seemed impossible.

4 Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Editor

by Harrison Demchick @HDemchick

We all need editing.

So after many months, and maybe even years, you’ve finally completed your very first manuscript. You’re proud of what you’ve accomplished, but at the same time, when you read through your work, you know you’re not quite where you want to be. Something isn’t clicking, and you don’t know what or why, so you’ve made the decision to bring on an editor.

Great idea! We all need an editor. (Even those of us who are, in fact, editors.) But if you’re new to the publishing industry, odds are you don’t really have a clear idea of what you should be looking for. The internet is filled with eager and enthusiastic people claiming that they, and only they, can enable you to complete the very best version of your story. Who do you pick? How do you know?