Self-editing Tips Archives

How One Smart Scene Can Pull the Weight of Many

August 11, 2016
Staff Writer
Guest posts, Push Your Imagination, Self-editing Tips, Stuck? Discouraged?, The Writing Life, Writing Tips and Tools
2 Comments

By Rachel Garner, Staff Writer For six years, I couldn’t figure out how to write an opening scene for my book. It’s a running joke among my friends that I’m an obsessive editor—I’ve spent nearly ten years now on the book itself—but my struggles with chapter 1 were especially ridiculous.

How Writing is Like Throwing Pottery

July 14, 2016
Student Contributor
Guest posts, Self-editing Tips, Stuck? Discouraged?, The Writing Life
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By Jared Schmitz, Guest Contributor How do you view the early drafts of your writing projects? Do you view them as blocks of stone requiring smoothing and carving into shape, but essentially complete? Or do you view them more as lumps of clay, likely needing to be fully reshaped more than once?

Cultural Faux Pas in Fiction

May 31, 2016
Tineke Bryson
Culture, Self-editing Tips, World building, Writing Tips and Tools
2 Comments

By Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer There are ways to avoid cultural faux pas—missteps—so you can disarm even readers given to the occasional cultural snobbery. The word "disarm" is the key. Your goal is to send subtle signals to your reader that you know you won't do a perfect job, but you are trying.

Telling a Religious Story Without Being Preachy, Part 2

March 24, 2016
Staff Writer
Help with Characters, Self-editing Tips, Writing Tips and Tools
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By Rachel Garner, Staff Writer Last week, we looked at the problem of “preachiness” in Christian stories, and two major elements to eliminate to avoid coming off as preachy in your own work: Mouthpiece Syndrome and the Willing Recipient. This week, I focus on some other practical ways to address the problem of preachiness, especially when editing important thematic scenes.

Telling a Religious Story Without Being Preachy

March 17, 2016
Staff Writer
Help with Characters, Self-editing Tips, Writing Tips and Tools
4 Comments

By Rachel Garner, Staff Writer If everything else we write mimics life, then our characters’ faith should too. We have to give characters the dignity of their own opinion. Sometimes they will agree with us, sometimes they won’t. The important thing is that they express it in their terms.