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How to Organize Our Writing Research & Notes — Guest: Jenny Hansen

OneNote logo with text: A Writer's Secret Weapon: OneNote

Today’s post continues the “secret weapon” theme from Tuesday’s post, but this time we’re going to talk about issues related to our writing. And this time, the secret weapon is Microsoft’s OneNote. Researching character or location pictures? Use OneNote. Want to capture the most useful tips on a blog post? Use OneNote. Want to remember […]

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March 27, 2014

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Fix Showing vs. Telling with Macros & Word Lists

Laser light show with text: Secret Weapons for Show vs. Tell

Many writers will search in MS Word for red flag words that indicate telling. But there are a lot of those words, and that would be a lot of searches. That’s where macros can help, and today we’ll learn how to build our own trouble-searching macros with a few secret weapons.

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March 25, 2014

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Hiring a Developmental Editor — Guest: Stacy Jerger

Letter blocks with text: Everything to Know about Developmental Editing

Those of us who haven’t been through the editing process with professionals don’t know what to expect. In the case of developmental editing, we might not even know what editors do. That’s not good. We need to understand what’s involved with the different stages of editing to judge whether an editor is right for us and will meet our needs.

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March 20, 2014

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MS Word Trick: Using Macros to Edit and Polish

Tarnished silver tea set with text: Need a Polish? Editing with Macros

We want to clean up our story the best we can because copy editors often charge a “messy manuscript” premium. Yet it can be difficult to self-edit at this “polish” stage. For one thing, this step can be tedious to the extreme. Even with MS Word’s “find and replace” functionality, there are many words to check, and it’s hard to remember them all.

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March 18, 2014

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Finding Balance: Play Hooky

Woman lying down in a meadow with text: Is It Time to Play Hooky?

When we were school-age, many of us recognized the need to blow off classes and responsibilities once in a while to play hooky. The exhilaration of “getting away with something” can recharge our burned-out batteries just as much as the trip to the shopping mall or whatever we did with our goof-off time. But as […]

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March 13, 2014

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Websites, Beat Sheets, and Lost Pants—Oh My!

Chewed pencil on a keyboard with text: The Struggle for Balance

I’ve been there, struggling in the same way we all do. My life is a constant balancing act between family and all my (many) various work projects. Between that common understanding and my epic, mini-ebook-length workshop handouts, my workshops are popular.

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March 11, 2014

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Are You Living Your Dream?

Sunrays emerging from cloud with text: Are You Living Your Dream?

If we’re living our passions, life is pretty darn good, especially compared to the alternative. And if we’re not living our passions, that might be because we don’t even know what they are.

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March 6, 2014

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Could We Be a Good Editor?

Magnifying glass on a book with text: 5 Steps to Freelance Editing

Last week I wrote about how to find a good editor, partly as a rant against the flood of bad editors out there. It seems like everyone and their brother—and their second cousin three-times-removed—thinks they can be a freelance editor. And if my inbox is any indication, the flood is only going to increase. Since […]

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March 4, 2014

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How Can We Identify a Good Editor?

Compass with text: Finding a Good Editor

Back at the start of the ebook revolution, self-publishing was still a “no-no” and only a handful of small and e-publishers existed for my genre. Since then, our choices for publication have exploded, from self-publishing becoming accepted to dozens of small and e-publishers hopping on the ebook train. Before, we used to deal with whatever […]

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February 27, 2014

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What Makes a Romance Believable?

Wedding picture of couple holding hands with text: What Makes a Romance Believable?

Okay, so I’m a week-and-a-half late for Valentine’s Day and the topic of this post. I’ll “blame” the time I put into WANACon. *smile* We had a fantastic and successful WANACon though, with great sessions on many writing-related topics, so I’ll call it a worthwhile trade. I recently came across an interesting post at my […]

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February 25, 2014

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