I’m analyzing my own work today. Lots of people think you can’t be objective about your own work, especially in the arts. Personally, I think developing an objective, evaluating eye is *exactly* what artists need to do. Not an internal editor that’s climbed up your back like an unwelcome hippo, but the ability to know what you’re aiming for and… Read More
Editing on Your Kindle
Thanks to Jewel Punzalan Allen and Song Palmese for teaching me a new thing today! Turns out you can export your manuscript notes from your Kindle now! This specifically applies to Kindle Fire (not sure about other kindles). You can send a Word doc to your kindle, edit/make notes there, then export the notes – it will email a file with your highlights and… Read More
CLEAR WRITING
If you haven’t read Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”… you should. It’s less about politics, per se, and more about astoundingly good writing. (I just sent this to my son, who is having to read some painful literary book over the summer for Junior year in High School. His assignment isn’t even fiction – it’s non-fiction! Which seems a… Read More
USING EBOOKS FOR REFERENCE MATERIALS
I’m a huge fan of ebooks for obvious reasons – I make my business with them. But I’m also a huge convert from buying paper for reference reading/research to preferentially (and exclusively) buying those books in ebook form. Why? Highlighting and note-taking is so much better in ebook form. ELECTRONIC NOTE-TAKING I used to buy all my reference books in… Read More
Editing Software
Okay, ran a quick analysis of various editing software packages – Grammarly (which I was already using), Ginger (which I had stopped using), ProWritingAid (new to me), and Whitesmoke (new to me). AutoCrit had a pay wall, so I didn’t evaluate that. And I also compared to my own eyes – the proofreader in my head. RESULTS: **I analyzed one… Read More
BEING OBJECTIVE ABOUT YOUR WORK
By popular request, I’m reposting this from my “Ask Me Anything” thread. Harlow Cyan Fallon had a SPECTACULAR question. Here it is along with my response. Harlow Cyan Fallon: “Is there a way to recognize whether your own writing is good or not? It seems I don’t have the capacity to discern it myself. I may write a story or a novel… Read More