The slush pile, that place that all entry level writers dread.  When I come across advice about how to get out of the slush pile I sit up and listen.  And 21 Tips to Get Out of the Slush Pile by James Plath is just such advice.  Go ahead and read it.  I’ll wait (so to speak).

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Patrick recently solicited advice from the rest of the AAAWG members on giving characters a unique voice in dialogue. He received much excellent advice that I will attempt to summarize here. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are a writer you may have heard of the admonition “kill your darlings“. Read the rest of this entry »

E. E. Knight posted a great quote on his blog, which I am going to re-post here. Read the rest of this entry »

I was reading something Lyda Morehouse was blogging about at sfnovelists.com and, as she was making the point that manuscript formatting is important to writers seeking to become published, I thought I would revisit manuscript formatting.

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Here is some good advice on the craft of manuscript editing. Vonda McIntyre has this (pdf) good introduction to manuscript preparation. Or, in a nut shell, use 12 point courier font, double spaced lines, with Title / Author / Page in the upper right corner, one inch margins on all sides, printed only on one side. Oh yes, paragraphs are indicated by first line being indented and don’t use italics, use a single line underscore instead. Bold has a squiggly line underscore.

More of my links on manuscripts at del.icio.us.