Editing

Excerpt Peer-Critique: YA Fantasy, “Shadowed”

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Here’s our fourth fiction excerpt ready for critique. You can check out the previous ones here: Not Quite, YA fantasy Feathered, YA fantasy On the Thames, literary short story As you can see, YA fantasy seems to be the most popular genre amongst our readers. Still, I think it’s wise to mix things up every [...]

Excerpt Peer-Critique: Literary, “On the Thames”

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Here we have another excerpt ready for your feedback. Only, today’s piece isn’t going to be anonymous like the previous ones. I’ve been getting a number of excerpts sent to me for review, but the problem is they are all YA fantasy (even when I’ve requested other genres). Not that I have anything against YA [...]

Excerpt Peer-Critique: YA Fantasy, “Feathered”

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Here is our second anonymous excerpt ready for critique. The first got some excellent reader feedback, and I wish the author all the best with his/her writing. Today’s excerpt is from YA fantasy work-in-progress, “Feathered.” Please leave some feedback for the author in the comments section below. The sun had barely crested the horizon when [...]

Excerpt Peer-Critique: YA Fantasy, “Not Quite”

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Here it is–our first anonymous excerpt ready for a free critique. Thanks to everyone who submitted, and I’ll open my inbox again in a few weeks. But first, a few kinks: Initially, I forgot to ask writers to specify their titles and genres when they submitted. I’m waiting to hear back about the title/genre for [...]

Quick Fixes for 6 Fiction Writing Weaknesses

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This week, I went to the library to load up on new books. I deliberately chose one light read, so I would easily be able to identify its story structure–something I’ve been researching lately. Though I wasn’t expecting literary perfection, I was quite disappointed in my selection. I found a number of common writing pitfalls [...]

15 Reader Frustrations to Avoid in Your Novel

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If you’re writing a novel–or planning to in the near future–have you stopped to consider your readers? Some of you write solely for the pleasure of it, never intending anyone to read your work. In that case, write however you want. Do what makes you happy. Most of us, on the other hand, write to [...]

Writers Face Off on 13 Hot Topics

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A couple of weeks ago, we noticed there were certain topics writers just can’t agree on. Discussion seems to be a huge part of the writing life, especially because there are so many hot topics to choose from. And, as we move toward the digital age, I believe the number of friendly arguments will continue [...]

Do You Make This Unforgivable Writing Mistake?

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I wrote a short story some years ago–a story I thought was fantastic. It was funny. It was clever. It was sure to be snapped up by some literary magazine or another. Instead, I ended up submitting it to a magazine, only to have it promptly returned, covered with red marks. Boy, was I indignant. [...]

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