by Jamie Chavez | Sep 7, 2015 | The Writing Craft
I got a second pass from one of my authors not too long ago, with a little note: “I’ve tried really hard to remove all the he-saids and she-saids. I may have missed some.” I opened the manuscript and saw a lot of sputtereds and demandeds and grimaceds. Wait … what? I...
by Jamie Chavez | Apr 4, 2015 | The Writing Craft
I’m currently in the middle of an edit of a story in which the protagonist has a very big secret to keep. (Or, perhaps, to reveal, but I can’t tell you any more than that.) I’ll tell you this: it makes for some interesting character development. That’s the theme of...
by Jamie Chavez | Dec 15, 2014 | Guest Posts, The Writing Craft
In this week’s guest post (we’re still operating in the Read Play Edit Blog Recovery Plan), author Norma Horton discusses character creation. The Voices in My Head Authors use a variety of tools to develop characters. My mentor, a Christy-Award-winning author, uses a...
by Jamie Chavez | Apr 10, 2014 | The Writing Craft, Your Editor Says …
You’ve seen it in dozens of movies, so many it’s practically a cliché: on a desperate deadline, the writer frantically types the last words of the manuscript—closeup of the words The End—then rrrrips the paper out of the typewriter carriage, and immediately sends a...
by Jamie Chavez | Mar 27, 2014 | The Writing Craft
It’s hard to be a beginner. Kids, they’ve got that whole teacher / student dichotomy down, but when you’re a grownup with a novel burning a hole in your pocket (not to mix my metaphors or anything), it’s not always easy to resume the role of student. But, my friends,...
