lori sizemore

A friend (an awesome friend who I love, fyi) bought this book, Revision & Self-Editing, for me after I featured it on Material Girl.

I was correct in my assessment that it would be helpful.  It is, in fact, extremely informative.  James Scott Bell covers all the elements of writing: character, POV, scenes, plot & structure, etc.  Each chapter offers valuable exercises and techniques.  I couldn’t recommend this book more.

(Thanks again, Jen!)

Today I’m linking to an article by Julie Leto about Layering When You Write.

This article was a lifesaver for me when I first started writing.  This is how I write.  And I thought I was doing it wrong.

See, I can whip out the dialogue.  And dialogue is crucial.  It keeps the pace, it raises tension, it adds emotion, it… well, dialogue can do anything.  It’s like the superhero of writing.  Then it starts getting harder.  I usually write in the action, trying to see the scene like watching a movie.  This works, but it leaves me with a bunch of dialogue, a bit of telling vs. showing, and a lot of sentences that start with ‘He _____’ and ‘She _____’.  Then I try to layer in the deeper POV, the description, and tying up those loose ends.

Read the article.  See if it helps you.

I suddenly hate that word, “telling,” like I hate running out of coffee. Apparently, telling instead of showing is an easy mistake, especially for beginning writers. Here’s a wonderful post from Flogging the Quill.

How to Show, When to Tell

I’m editing right now, as well as participating in a crit group.  I’m thinking this book would help catch a lot of those mistakes.  It’s on my wishlist, anyway.