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How to Build a “Frankenstein” Revision

Revising can be messy. As someone who thrives on order and checklists and clean documents, unmarked documents, I’ve never liked how messy the revision process can feel. You’ve got tracked changes turning your pages into Jackson Pollack painting, comments cluttering up the margins, unfinished subplots dangling about, and torn-apart scenes strewn through your manuscript like  … Read more


Tips for Writers Writing Mastery

Make Your Dialogue Work For You

Dialogue can make or break a story. Strong dialogue can lift your story to new heights, while weak dialogue can turn a reader off. The key to writing strong dialogue is to think of it as another extension of your character development. Your dialogue is just another way you reveal your characters to the reader.  … Read more


Tips for Writers Writing Mastery

How to Make Your Readers Feel Smart

  “Show, don’t tell” is one of those pieces of writing advice you hear over and over again without a lot of concrete guidance on what it is and how to implement it. Which is why, for this month’s writing tip, I thought I’d present a fun writing challenge that will not only help you understand what “show, don’t tell”  … Read more


Tips for Writers Writing Mastery

How to Fix Info Dumping With Exposition Characters and Window Characters

  Writers are accused of a lot of unforgivable “crimes”: head-hopping, adverb overkill, predictable endings, cliched characters. Eek! I’m getting cold sweats just writing them all in one sentence!  But in the post, I want to talk about the common and far-too-often detrimental crime of “info-dumping” (also known as “too much exposition.”) Info-dumping is when  … Read more


Tips for Writers Writing Mastery


Instantly Improve Your Novel’s Pacing

  If your novel or story is suffering from slow pacing, dragging chapters, saggy prose, or just needs an overall pacing BOOST, then this revision hack might be just the thing you need. I picked up this trick while revising my young adult, sci-fi novel, SKY WITHOUT STARS, which is a retelling of Victor Hugo’s Les  … Read more


Tips for Writers Writing Mastery


A Week of Mondays – Week 10 #BehindTheBook

I hope everyone’s having a great NaNoWriMo! I’m busying revising away and trying to fill in the countless blanks in my manuscript. Sheehs, Past Jessica! You really left me some big work! Here’s a recap of what I did this week! WEEKLY SUMMARY: Date: 11/5/14 – 11/12/14 Word Count at the end of Last Week:  … Read more


Behind the Book