Thank you for the opportunity to write a guest post here at Author Haven. You all do such a wonderful job of writing articles to help authors improve their writing. That’s what my new e-book, Write This Way: Take Your Writing to a New Level is about too. I learned so much from other authors when I first started writing, and as I progressed through the laborious rigors of revision after revision, so I am thrilled to be able to pass along the many lessons they taught me—lessons that helped me take my writing to a new level, and eventually to a contract for publication.
Once I
got some editing experience under my belt, I began to notice a pattern. Certain
issues repeatedly cropped up in the manuscripts of new authors. Most of them
were issues I had to deal with in my first draft as well. So I started my first
Top 10 series of articles, Top 10 Mistakes New
Fiction Writers Make.
Over
time, I accumulated over one hundred articles, but they were scattered
throughout my blog and it takes effort to sift through them all. This realization birthed the idea to consolidate
the articles into an easy-to-use e-book so authors could have the information
at their fingertips as they write and revise.
The
following issues are covered in Write This Way: Take Your Writing to a New
Level. It is my hope and desire that authors will grow and learn from the
advice they find in this book, and that they too will make their way to publication.
Chapter One – Evaluate and Outline
Chapter Two - Dialogue
Chapter Three - Punctuation
Chapter Four – Comma Rules
Chapter Five - Point of View
Chapter Six – Show Instead of Tell
PART TWO – WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT
Chapter Seven – Writing Chapter One
Chapter Eight – Start Chapter One With…
Chapter Nine – Don’t Start Chapter One With…
Chapter Ten – While You Write
PART THREE – REVISE, REVISE, REVISE
REVISION ONE: GRAMMAR ISSUES
Chapter Eleven – Uses of “Was”
Chapter Twelve – Participial Phrases
Chapter Thirteen – Filtering
Chapter Fourteen – Weak Words
Chapter Fifteen – Weasel Words/Phrases
REVISION TWO: STRUCTURAL ISSUES
Chapter Sixteen – Evaluate Where the Story Should Start
Chapter Seventeen – Make Sure Every Scene Has a Purpose
Chapter Eighteen – Details, Details, Details
Chapter Nineteen – Is Your Middle Sagging?
REVISION THREE: FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Chapter Twenty – Check Your Goals, Motivation, and Conflict
Chapter Twenty-One – Final Polishing
PART FOUR – LEARN FROM OTHERS
Chapter Twenty-Two – Join a Critique Group
Chapter Twenty-Three – Read Books on the Craft of Writing
Chapter Twenty-Four – Attend Writing Conferences
For
more information about Write This Way: Take Your Writing to a New Level, or to
purchase the e-book, please visit my website: Write This Way.
Keeping
with the spirit of helping authors improve their writing, I am offering free copies
of the complete checklist from Write This Way, which lists each issue to watch
for as you write the first draft and guides you through the revision process. I
will send a copy to each person who leaves a comment with an e-mail address. This offer is valid until October 10th, 2011.
About the Author
Suzanne Hartmann is the author of the e-book, Write This
Way: Take Your Writing to a New Level . She is also the author of The Race
that Lies Before Us ,
a Christian suspense novel available next year through Oak Tara. On the editorial side, Suzanne is
a contributing editor at Port Yonder Press and operates the Write This Way Critique
Service.
