Real quick, before I get into strategies for writing a prologue, I want to address the whole prologue thing. Basically, agents like them or hate them. Readers love them or skip them. People have strong feelings about prologues and you should be aware of the general discussion before you publish a book with one or…
If you’re just starting to submit to literary magazines, congratulations! This is an exciting time and you should be proud of yourself for doing the hard work of writing and the brave work of putting yourself out there for appraisal by strangers. It’s gutsy and worthwhile. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t think writers need…
There are a number of writing how-to books that I turn to over and over and they’ve become my favorite writing craft books. In fact, I’ve read so many (hundreds) of craft books over the years I’ve put together a big list of recommendations. If you want to take a second to snag that list,…
If you’ve never hired an editor to help you with a creative writing project, there’s a good chance you don’t even know what types of editing are available to you. If you Google “types of editing”, you’re going to get hit with information like “Developmental Editing. (Also called: conceptual editing or manuscript appraisal)” and “Evaluation…
The first line of your memoir (or essay or novel) might come to you early on, fully formed. Or it might be a line you compose late in your drafting cycles. Either way, at some point you’ll have to evaluate it for the work it’s doing. Your opening sentence is a tone-setter, and you want…