This is the first entry in what might become a series of advice articles aimed at newbie authors and indie publishing startups. Today, I'm talking about why you shouldn't proofread a manuscript before you edit it. If anything's a dead giveaway that you're new to this business, it's a sentence like one of these: Looking … Continue reading Advice for New Writers: Don’t Proofread Before You Edit
So you've joined a writing group and now you're ready to workshop a story with your peers. You read your story-swapping partner's piece and... now what? Never fear. I have nine tips for writing fiction critiques that will make other authors love workshopping with you. The preferred method for writing fiction critiques varies from group … Continue reading Writing Fiction Critiques: 9 Tips to Become a Great Story-Swapping Partner
New Year's Eve is finally upon us, so I want to take this opportunity to share my submissions statistics for 2022. In many ways, this was the worst year of my life, but I scored some pretty cool achievements along the way. 2022 Submissions Statistics This year, I submitted fourteen short stories to 31 markets, … Continue reading End-of-Year Submissions Statistics, 2022
In October 2019, I took the plunge. I made my first short-story submission to a paying market. The rejection came twelve days later. It was a higher tier rejection—the best kind, short of one bearing a personal note from the editor. I felt energized. I was—to steal Mur Lafferty's phrasing—a working writer. Let me back … Continue reading Becoming a Working Writer: The First, Terrible Year in Review
Every October, I get a little bit jealous of my artist friends, who bust out their Inktober lists for 31 days of nonstop creative productivity. Instead of trying to get back to my artistic roots this year, I decided to publish an #InktoberWriting Challenge, for writers interested in making the month of October all about … Continue reading The 2019 #InktoberWriting Challenge