We are watching the first season of Dexter, the Showtime series about a serial killer, that is now in its fifth season. Yes, we are a little behind but we weren’t sure we wanted to weigh in on the side of serial killing which is the dilemma the series presents for viewers. But Dexter has […]
“I like it a lot better! It seems ‘meatier’ for lack of a better word.” These are the words of a client who recently finished a revision of her novel along lines we suggested. The resulting change was dramatic and while there were other factors, the difference can be characterized by one word: detail. Detail […]
There is no worse feeling than getting deeply into a piece of writing and come to the conclusion that it isn’t going to work out, that a character is behaving out-of-character or a plot twist is improbable or the ending is simply impossible. We come to these panicky realizations every day when we are writing. […]
Writing a short story requires almost as much legwork as writing a novel. The author has to bring the story’s characters to life, give them backgrounds, put them in a context, develop a voice and so on and on. It is a lot of investment for 3,000 to 4,000 words. Last week, we sat down […]
Hiring editors like ourselves can be very helpful in solving problems with manuscripts. We read carefully and give our best opinions about what can be done to improve the material. But all we can do is suggest. The writer has to be the final arbiter of what works and doesn’t work to improve an ms. […]
Really. The market for personal stories is so over saturated that memoirs are almost as difficult to sell as works of fiction and as in fiction, they require a strong narrative voice. In other words, it isn’t enough to have a good story to tell. You have to tell it with a strong voice and […]
Much is made on various writing Web Sites about how to format a manuscript for submission to agents and editors. The ms. should be double spaced, in 12 point courier font and, if in hard copy, on 8″ by 11″ white paper. An agent told us once that this is because the book industry has […]