Writers’ Tips and Tools
As a fledgling writer of fiction, Vince had a great deal to learn. He profited immensely from attending writers’ workshops in the UK and his home country, Switzerland, with renowned speakers such as Adrian Plass and Joanna Penn. Participating in a local critique group was also most helpful.
Have a look at some of the things he has gleaned in the posts below.
Translating English into English
I’m afraid she did exactly what I feared. Much to my grief, the good lady editor said my book was unworthy. And she begged me not to take steps toward self-publishing, like finding someone to design a cover for it. ‘It’s far too long. The plot is all over the place. Most of the action happens off stage. It…
Beats, Tags and White Space
As an aspiring author, I’ve read several books on the art and craft of writing. They confused me. I didn’t even understand the terminology, let alone the principles they advocated. There’s nothing better than jumping in the deep end and getting feedback from more experienced authors. My hesitant attempts at posting individual chapters of my…
Re-Vision
It’s one thing to say I have completed the first draft of Aquila – all 34½ chapters – but quite another to say my book is finished. I’ve benefitted greatly from the constructive and critical feedback I’ve received over more than two years through kindly colleagues in the Ubergroup on Scribophile and through less tolerant friends at…
Make the Reader Work!
One of my grossest errors when I first started writing fiction was to tell the reader exactly what was going on, why, and what the characters thought about it. How boring is this? Another pastime of mine was to observe snakes. There was something mystical about snakes. Some people thought they represented an evil power, but…
Historical Novel Blog Tour
Intro As an author of a mere half of a book, I feel greatly honoured to have been invited by the enterprising Tiffani Burnett-Velez to participate in her Historical Novel Blog Tour, mingling with such illustrious writers as Meara Platt, Douglas Hawkins, A. David Singh, Claudia Long, Greg Michaels, Barbara Eppich Struna, Eleanor Parker Sapia. Thanks for the privilege. Who you are,…
Extremely useful authoring tool
Among many interesting bits and bites, the December 2012 issue of The Woolf plugged the personal writing editor and coach Pro Writing Aid. Perhaps you all know and use it already. ProWritingAid highlights elements like repetitiveness, vague wording, sentence length variation, over-dependence on adverbs, passive voice, over-complicated sentence constructions, and so much more. I tried out the free online version and soon subscribed…