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About
Are you a writer who would like to polish up your manuscript? I can help you do that. Writing Consulting is fun and you will learn a lot. The first 10 pages are free. And if you like what you see, I will work with you to improve your entire manuscript.
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Read Between the Lines
Is it Nail Polish or Shoe Polish, or What?
Is it Nail Polish or Shoe Polish, or What?
If you haven't gotten everything you see in your mind's eye on paper, your reader might as well read between the lines. The blank space between the lines will be just as good. How do you keep from making this mistake? Contact me. I would love to help you learn how.
Is it Nail Polish or Shoe Polish, or What?
Is it Nail Polish or Shoe Polish, or What?
Is it Nail Polish or Shoe Polish, or What?
What does it mean to 'polish' your manuscript? Writing several novels myself, under the pen names of Sissy Marlyn and Anna Drury, it didn't take me long to realize that what I thought I had put down on paper wasn't what actually existed. Fortunately, I contracted with a writing consultant early on, and I learned a great deal.
Do you know what lazy verbs are? If you do, great! Then you know to avoid them at all costs. I didn't know this and delighted when it was pointed out to me. (Example: The train was racing down the track.) Lazy verbs make the story tired and a reader might lose interest. You want them to tear through your book and want more, not lay it down with a yawn.
Have you used all of the five senses as you create your scenes? You may think you have, but when someone else reads it, your manuscript may be lacking. The mind plays tricks, and you may think you have a coveted masterpiece, with vibrant imagery that will stay in the mind of the reader long after reading your manuscript, when all you have is a blank canvas, crying out to be painted.
So it isn't nail polish or shoe polish, but it will make your manuscript come to live and shine. Why not e-mail me your first ten pages today? I would love to show you what writing consulting is all about.
Making Sense of the Senses
Is it Nail Polish or Shoe Polish, or What?
Making Sense of the Senses
Okay, you've started your novel. The steady rhythm of clicking keys is music to the ears as you type away. Words appear and flow across the page like a paint brush stroking a blank canvas, creating a masterpiece. It's the best thing since fresh baked bread (which, by the way, makes me salivate. Why? Warm memories of mom baking in the kitchen and the you-must-come-get-a-piece aroma).
The paragraph above utilizes all five senses. Do the paragraphs in your novel? Or does it read something like this?:
You've started your novel. You're typing away. There are words on the page. It's good.
Yawn. Think I will go watch a movie instead.
If you want to write a novel that will magnetize the reader, and have them longing for more, you must make use of the senses. And sometimes, as the writer, you believe you are using the senses, but oftentimes, the senses do not make it to paper. That's where a writing consultant can help. I can see what ISN'T on the paper and still in your head. I would love to help. Why not give it a try today? Send the first ten pages to: sissymar@bbtel.com and I will review them and give your suggestions on how to make your manuscript the best it can be.
Don't put your reader to sleep. Have them on the edge of the seat, experiencing everything you, the writer, and all your characters are, firsthand.
Writer's Block??
Writer's Block??
Making Sense of the Senses
How do you overcome writer's block? The simplest answer is WRITE :) Yeah, I know. Sounds way too simple, right? (Write?)
Oftentimes, a new writer will feel that they have to write the perfect manuscript, each chapter, right out of the gate. But perfecting the art of writing is done by...you guessed it...writing.
So get what is in your head out of there and into a computer file. Type like mad. You can always go back and fix it, and you may find that you discover, instead of writer's block, a whole new beautiful direction for your manuscript to go.
Let people like me - writing consultants - be the ones to polish your manuscript. But to do so, we have to have something to polish. So write. There is no such thing as block if your fingers are flying across a keyboard as your creative juices flow and you allow yourself the delicacy of having fun while writing again. Try it; you'll like it.
2020 Vision
Writer's Block??
2020 Vision
Is one of your New Year's resolutions or goals to begin writing something this year, or perhaps to finish something you began writing?
If it is to begin something, then when will you do this? Have you started today? If not, will you start tomorrow? Make a plan to start writing some each day, and set a deadline on when you would like to finish your project.
Don't let self doubts about your writing skills cause you to give up your 2020 vision on becoming a writer/author. Send your mind into orbit and your fingers into a flurry and send whatever is in your mind through your fingertips and save it in a document on your computer.
Then what? Send your completed manuscript to someone like me - a writing consultant - and let me help you clean it up. I would love to work with you in 2020 to make your vision of writing a reality.
As the motto for Bearhead Publishing goes: "Don't Die with the Story Inside". I will take it further and say, "Don't let a day pass with the story inside." If you feel inspired to write something this year, then "WRITE!". I look forward to seeing your 2020 vision come to fruition.