I’m almost hesitant to post this, because once you have found this remarkable resource for writers, you won’t need me anymore. (Well, except for friendship, of course!) Beth Hill, who maintains this blog is both writer and editor. Her editing focus is on long fiction, primarily novels. Beth says, “I love the written word, the ability we have to create worlds and emotions with well-chosen phrases. It’s my intention to share tips and insights and encouragement with writers at all levels, to help you craft stories that will entertain and satisfy your readers. That will help satisfy you as writer as well.”
So, be sure to bookmark her blog, The Editor’s Blog, where you will find everything you need to know about writing and writing well. Here is the current list of her articles:
- A Novel Ending
- Add Poetry to Your Prose—Write with Flair
- Anyone Can Write a Book
- Assess Your Writing Skills—Turn Weaknesses to Strengths
- Beyond the Basics—Push the Story and Push Yourself
- Character Reaction—Make Your Characters Respond
- Character Voices Shouldn’t Sound Like Yours
- Checklist for Editors
- Clear and Simple Writing Advice
- Clichés–Are They Really That Bad?
- Clothe Characters Well—Choose Words that Fit
- Comma Splice—A Common Writing Mistake
- Common Writing Mistakes
- Conflict—Beyond Arguments and Fist Fights
- Convincing Readers Your Fiction is Real
- Creating Emotion in the Reader
- Creating Fictional Characters
- Creative Genius vs. Editing Witch
- Dangling Modifiers—A Common Writing Mistake
- Dealing with Discouragement
- Deliver the Payoff
- Detail Enhances Your Fiction
- Dialogue—The Speech of Fiction
- Don’t Call Me Ishmael—Name that Character
- Don’t Fear the Semicolon—It’s a Useful Writing Tool
- Don’t Let Your Writing Be Ordinary
- Don’t Write the Bland and the Boring
- Edit in an Instant? Ain’t Gonna Happen
- Engage Readers Through Character Reaction
- Equip Your Characters
- Finding Commas in All the Wrong Places
- First Impressions and Introductions
- Forget the Writing Rules
- Format Your Novel for Submission
- Head-Hopping Gives Readers Whiplash
- Hedge Words
- How Goes the Flow in Your Story?
- How to Hook Your Readers
- How to Respond to Rejections & Negative Feedback
- How to Write a Novel
- Invite Readers into Your Story
- Keys to Writing Better Fiction
- Kill Soulless Writing
- Lay and Lie—When to Use Which?
- Let it Flow
- Like vs. As
- Literary vs. Genre Fiction
- Maintain Point of View
- Male Writers & Female Writers—There’s a Difference in the Writing
- Mastering Scene Transitions
- Misused Words—Common Writing Mistakes
- More Punctuation in Dialogue—A Reader’s Questions
- Multi-Tasking Characters or Impossible Actions?
- New Experiences? Use Them in Your Writing
- No Comma Necessary—Coordinating Conjunctions Don’t Always Need Commas
- Novelist as Director…And as So Much More
- On Grammar and Punctuation
- One-Manuscript Diva or Working Novelist?
- Participial Phrases? C’mon, You Made that Up
- Plot Basics—The Events of Story
- Plot, Setting, and Character—Fiction’s Top 3
- Pros and Cons of Prologue
- Punctuation in Dialogue
- Reference Books for Writers
- Resolution—Tying up the Ends
- Rules of Grammar & Punctuation—The Weird, Odd, or Unfamiliar
- Sagging, Soggy Middles
- Self-Editing Tips
- Setting—The Place and Time of Story
- Sex in Fiction—Do They or Don’t They?
- Should I Use Absolute Phrases? Absolutely
- Show and Tell—Not Just a Game We Play
- Single Quotation Marks—A Reader’s Question
- Story-specific Words—Fitting Word to Story
- Style Sheets—The Setup and the Benefits
- Sub-plots, Main Plots, and Digressions
- Subtext—Revelation of the Hidden
- Take Off the Brakes—Write Boldly
- The Elements of Fiction—The Basics & Beyond
- The First Book is Seldom the Best
- The First Draft—What it is and What it isn’t
- The Mean, the Bad, and the Nasty—Writing Villains
- The Outline Dilemma—Plotting vs. Pantsing
- The Power of Repetition
- The Princess Bride—Storytelling Done Right
- The Psychology of Character
- The Sterile Story—Don’t Write Another One
- The Ubiquitous, Wandering It
- Tips for Writers—The Down and Dirty
- Use and Misuse of Dialogue Tags
- Use Words, Not Punctuation, To Tell Your Story
- Using Time Wisely
- Viewpoint Character and the Need to Choose Wisely
- What is Theme
- Where Should a Second Chapter Start?
- Why Write a Novel—Your Reason is the Right One
- Why Writing “The End” Doesn’t Mean You’ve Finished
- Word Choices—Contractions and Dialect
- Write for Your Readers
- Write Scenes Rather Than Reports
- Write What You Know? Maybe Not
- Writer’s Block—Real or Imaginary?
- Writers Are World Creators
- Writers Need Friends and Critics
- Writing Basics—The Paragraph
- Writing for the Emotions
- You Can’t Hook a Reader with a Yawn
- You Got My Attention, But Where’s the Action?
- Your Character’s Code
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