Deciding where to start a new paragraph is important. Readers can get confused or lost if everything’s all in one. So, I made a list of the top three reasons to start a new one. Who’s speaking changes If a different character talks, start a new paragraph. Having two characters speak in the same paragraph … More CWM: #18 — When to start new paragraphs
Publishing a book takes many steps and many people. For new writers, it can feel like navigating a maze. So, I break down most steps in this blog post. I hope this helps you along your journey.
A lot of writers—myself included—have characters with similar names. For one novel, I found about seven names that all started with the letter j. While we get these names right because we know the characters well, readers, who are learning them, might mix them up. Changing character names is hard though. We spend a lot … More CWM: #17 — Characters with similar names
Lay, lie, laying, lain, etc. always get mixed up. It’s hard to keep them straight. So, I’m going to break them down with some examples that’ll hopefully clear everything up. Lay To lay means to put or set something down. The character has a thing in their hand and places it somewhere. Remember that an … More To lay or to lie?
Editors are essential to help bring a writer’s stories to life. But with thousands of editors out there in the world—especially in the digital age—writers may struggle to find the right editor. Just because an editor is good, doesn’t mean they’re the right editor for you. For example, if you write science fiction novels, getting … More 6 steps to find an editor
Sometimes, sentences start to stack up. When that happens, they can feel as if they’re too similar to each other. In those spots, it’s good to check how those sentences differ. Because if you’re not careful, they can all sound the same and feel bland. See what I mean? I’ve caught sentences like this back-to-back … More CWM: #15 — No sentence variation
There are a lot of different publishing terms thrown around, and they can get confusing. Navigating the publishing world without an understanding of these words is difficult. To help, here is a list of different terms to know: A Advance — Writers get advances—or a lump sum of money—from the publisher before their book is … More 50+ helpful publishing terms to know
I’ve done one of these on commas before. I had talked about using commas to continuously add information to a sentence. But I haven’t talked about when to use a comma and when not to. Commas are complicated. What tends to get overlooked with them though is independent clauses and dependent clauses. An independent clause … More CWM: #14 — Misusing commas
When looking for editors, you’ll hear the term sample edit thrown around a lot. But what is it exactly? How big is it? Is it free? Here’s everything you need to know about sample edits: What is a sample edit? A sample edit is when an editor edits a part of your manuscript before you … More Everything you need to know about sample edits
Dialogue tags can be tricky. But they’re easy to understand after knowing the difference between them and action beats. Dialogue tags show who’s speaking and how they’re speaking. These can include but are not limited to: Dialogue tags are formatted with a comma before the ending quotation, and a period goes after the tag. For … More CWM: #13 — Dialogue tags vs. action beats
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