Welcome to my June edition great collaborated helpful tips for Writers. In this post we have tools for editing, creating QR codes in WordPress, a re-phrasing tool, how to promote our writing using Youtube, getting back to bookwriting after a timeout, tips for making book trailers, and how to create 3D book covers.
Kathy Steinemann, featuring guest writer, Lori Wade with some great tools to aid in writing, editing, with tracking word count and more:
Janice Wald of Mostlyblogging.com has some helpful tools for rephrasing content, improving SEO in content for better internet exposure to articles, checking for plagiarism and more in this article:
Welcome to my December edition of Writer’s Tips. In this last edition for 2021, I’m sharing some great information and tools to help with creating social media posts, QR codes for books, Twitter, and editing tips.
Hugh Roberts demonstrates why every blogger should be using the ‘pinned tweet’ option on Twitter, also, how to draft a blog post
Welcome to June edition of Writer’s Tips. It’s an exceptionally crazy time for me right now in the middle of getting ready to moving madness. But I’ve managed to capture a few posts that stood out to me in my short travels along blogland. I hope you bloggers and authors all find something of interest here today. Hugh Roberts, Kathy Steinemann, Sally Cronin, Nicholas Rossis and Anne R Allen’s blogs are always filled with valuable information. I also came across an interesting new social platform – Clubhouse, an interesting new medium where we can be heard without being seen. Check it out!
Sally Cronin has a new series at her Smorgasbord Invitation, helping authors get the best exposure for their books and themselves in her Public Relations series for authors. Visit the post to find the others in the series
And, a double-header today from Anne R. Allen’s, featuring this article by Ruth Harris – Everything you want to know about Style Sheets and Guides but were afraid to ask
Welcome to my first edition of Writer’s Tips for 2021. I’ve had lots of time to read and curate some terrific articles from writers, bloggers, editors and publishers all encompassing helpful tips for Indies and Bloggers – marketing tips, book covers, editing, #Bookbub tips and more!
From the blog of Anne R. Allen – Tips on making book covers look professional
Well, those are a lot of links, but as I know, there is something for everyone, and I know I am grateful for those in our community who share such helpful information. I can’t help but pass on the goodies. Enjoy!
We as writers talk about editing a lot because it’s part of our profession.
But editing is something we also do in our everyday lives. We make plans that may have to change, so we edit and reschedule.
When we speak, we should think before we verbalize a typo, which can be corrected by apologizing and changing to the correct word.
We edit our lives when we delete things or people from our lives. We proofread important documents before signing them (or we should) to ensure we agree with what’ we’re signing.
A writer would never just throw a first draft into the world. A writer’s work needs a timeout, a timeframe to marinate in itself while the writer distances herself for awhile, so she can come back with fresh eyes and perspective on her work to edit and revise before it’s ready for the professional editor. It’s a process like life. We must edit our work like we must remember to make the edits in our life in the same fashion.
Like cleaning out our homes, every once in awhile it’s healthy to take a pause and take stock of what we have around us, in our homes, sometimes even with the people in our lives.
Decluttering is editing – eliminating. Perhaps a bad habit would be a good editing project to work on? Bad attitude? No problem, you can edit that too – if you want to.
Is there someone in your life who brings a black cloud around whenever in your orbit? Maybe it’s time to take a look at what serves your best interest. Does this person make you uncomfortable or shed negative vibes when in your presence? It may be time to assess and perhaps edit them out of your orbit.
Sometimes we get too comfortable with our life, habits and circles, and become a little complacent forgeting we’re in charge of our own life, and forgeting we have the power to edit.
If we aren’t satisfied with the story we’re living, we are the editors of our own lives. It’s up to us to proofread the story we live in and decide the changes we need to make to have our story reflect the life we want it to be by editing out the unnecessary words and characters that hold back our story to allow it to flow better and read the way we desire, to permit a happy ending.
Welcome to my July edition of Writer’s Tips. Typically, I clip and save these articles in a folder to share here for my writer friends and readers. We all know there is so much great information out in the ethers, but no way can we all come across the same information because there is just so much information available. From my nightly blog reads to my morning newsletter reads, when I come across a helpful post for writers, I save for future sharing.
I don’t like to overwhelm readers with too many links, but I promise you all that if you are an Indie author in particular, you will find these articles I curate here of interest at some point in bookwriting. So today here are some fine posts I’m happy to share. Today, two successful authors, Effrosyni and David Gaughran, both sharing great lists of book sites where we can promo our books, complete with details and pricing. Natalie Ducey has a new tutorial on creating animated posts with Canva. Marcia and John are both contributors now at the Story Empire, offering valuable tips on writing notes and video lighting. Jessica wrote a great entertaining instructional on the use of Italics. KM Weiland shares a list of editors and their specialties. And Hugh is back with more good ideas on how to re-purpose older blog posts. Check it out and save them for later reference!
Are you an author looking for assistance? Whatever your need, chances are you’ll find a pointer or two here! Browse through Effrosyni’s FREE resources at your leisure and make sure to bookmark this page.
John Howell has recently become a contributor at the Story Empire, and he has a helpful article out on how to use the best lighting when making videos.
Welcome back to a new year of my Sunday Book Reviews. In this first review of the year I’m featuring my review for Harmony Kent’s – Polish Your Prose. This book is an invaluable guide book for every writer’s desktop to have nearby for both refreshing the seasoned writer and a must have for every new writer.
Blurb:
Polish Your Prose is a powerful new guide that gives essential editing tips for authors.
Lots of books have been written on the art of writing, and here—at last—is a guide that will teach you the essential techniques of editing your own book. This will help you turn a promising manuscript into a published novel. And, it does this without the jargon. You don’t need to know all the grammatical terms in order to make use of this book. You don’t need to know the definition of a split infinitive, a comma splice, or a ‘to be’ verb, as this manual explains these in detail in easy to understand terms, and a lively and engaging style.
Chapters on Passive Writing, Tense, Point of View, Dialogue, and other techniques take you through the same processes an editor would go through to polish and perfect your manuscript.
Good writing is nothing without good editing. Learn the secrets of good editing and writing with this essential author reference, which offers so much more for so much less.
Harmony Kent is an award winning author, and accomplished editor and proofreader. Her passion is helping Indie Authors to successfully achieve their goals and dreams.
New Apple Book Awards Top Medalist Winner 2015
“This book is a mine of useful information. It’s concise and easy to understand. You don’t have to wade through pages upon pages of chatter; Harmony Kent gets straight to the point. ” — Michelle Abbott, Romance Author
“If the complexities of grammar and punctuation sometimes confound you – this gem of a book is for you. This is a guide I’ll be dipping into over and over.”–Wendy Scott, Fantasy Author
My 5 Star Review:
A concise writer’s guide written in simplicity with easy to refer to chapters, no filler babble in these bite-sized chapters to help hone your editing skills. This book succinctly covers chapters on all bibs and bobs of writing a clean and concise manuscript. However, this is not a book about how to write a book, but rather, a complete checklist on the dos and don’ts of writing clean, complete with easy to understand lessons with examples covering all the topics that make for better writing.
In this book Kent covers such topics as: show don’t tell, how to avoid head-hopping, weeding out adverbs and cliches, importance of staying in tense, use of contractions, dialogue tags, overuse of starting sentences with same pronouns, common stylistic and grammar issues, and more! Kent also adds good tips for proofreading, what to include when writing book reviews – and what not to, how to handle bad reviews, and once learning the rules – how they can be broken.
Polish Your Prose also includes added bonus charts on common word replacements from British to American English, and a list of commonly used words that are used incorrectly. Point of view use is also discussed and demonstrated with concise examples.
This book is a handy guide for writers on all levels. For the seasoned writer, it’s a wonderful refresher guide for those moments we are stumped while revising and editing. And for new writers, it’s a must have on every desktop.
Today I’m sharing an interview I did with Sally Cronin at the Smorgasbord Invitation. Sally has opened a new interview series for authors, and I am thrilled to be kicking off the series with her.
Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore New Series – Sunday Author Interview – #Non-Fiction #Memoir – D.G. Kaye
Welcome to the first in the new Sunday Interview series, exclusive to the authors in the Cafe and Bookstore.. details of how you can participate and join the other authors in the cafe can be found at the end of the interview.
Delighted to feature D.G. Kaye (Debby Gies) as the first author and whilst if you are regular visitor, you will have met Debby before as a contributor with her Travel Column, and the Laughter Lines, you will find out a great deal more about her writing and her selected book today.
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Thanks so much for your most generous invitation Sally. I’m delighted as always to be here sharing my thoughts and experiences as a writer, and of course, a bit about my book – Twenty Years: After “I Do”
Always a pleasure to have you as a guest and contributor Debby and time for you to reveal which questions you have selected…
Looking back on your life, what key elements such as childhood, education, inspiration, motivated you to write?
My childhood inspired me to write at a very young age. I was a curious child who loved to learn by whatever means, be it reading, watching TV or just observing people. I had a voice and was quite inquisitive but had no confidence to use my voice. So, at a young age, I’d craft love notes and amateur poems for people I loved to demonstrate my affection because I didn’t feel comfortable saying ‘love words’ to anyone, mostly, because they were unfamiliar words to me.
My voice was through my writing. As I grew up, love notes turned into letters, a frequent method I used to communicate to people what I was feeling in order to avoid one-on-one confrontation and nervous fluster, which would have me forgetting all the points I wanted to cover.
From my teens onward, I began observing my mother closely, and journaled my discoveries. Then after years of being a victim inside my mother’s web, as I neared mid-life I felt compelled to start writing my first book compiled from all my journaling.
If you’re a nonfiction writer, please tell us about the inspiration behind your books, and if personal, how you feel it has benefited you to share your life experiences.
All my books are written about experiences I encountered through my life, from growing up emotionally neglected with a narcissistic mother to living out my life with a narcissistic mother, low self-esteem issues, living through menopause and staying sane, to snippets of some of my travel discoveries, sharing first-hand advice gathered through my stories. My featured book here – Twenty Years: After “I Do”, is about how I navigated my marriage happily, despite the challenges of what life can throw our way. Many of the issues I write about are also other people’s issues, this is why my readers can relate, and perhaps through reading how I manage to plow through these events, I can lend some encouragement for someone else’s circumstance.
As for myself, I’m a storyteller and a big believer that if I find something useful, I feel compelled to share with others who appreciate learning something that may enlighten or encourage them. It’s a wonderful feeling to write and share my stories.
Sometimes I wonder, who am I that someone would want to read my books? I’m a girl who experienced a lot since her young life who just wants to share her stories so that others can take something from my words, and hopefully, enjoy the read along the way.
Where did the inspiration for your featured book come from?
As some here know, I’m married to a man a generation older than me. I share about what it takes to keep a marriage going strong despite the pitfalls of life that happen, and that could potentially tear apart a relationship.
When I accepted my husband’s wedding proposal, I replied. “Yes. But you have to promise me 20 years Mister!” My sarcastic humor was really my fear of the distant future, knowing we wouldn’t have the luxury of growing old together, but if I was somehow promised 20 years, I would accept that as a good amount of time together. We’re now 20 years married this year.
As this anniversary was approaching, I wanted to commemorate my 20 wonderful years of marriage and share in story that life will always present its ups and downs and dilemmas, but it’s about how I keep my marriage thriving despite our age difference and obstacles presented to us along the way. I wanted to share some of my situations to pass along some learned wisdoms.
Love has no age or time limits.
What is your editing process, and do you use any software you’ve found particularly helpful?
Editing for me begins with first round revisions. For those who aren’t familiar with my prehistoric method of writing books, all my books are written in longhand. Once I’m finished writing my first draft, I enter each chapter into the computer and in doing so, I begin the editing process – revision round one begins. Once the chapters are entered, I begin round 2 of edits. By the third round is where I’ll turn on my ProWritingAid program, installed on both my website and my Word docs, to do further edits and discover inconsistencies and typos overlooked through that program.
Next, I like to leave my manuscript alone for a period of time – from a few days to a week, so I can distance myself from it for a while and go back with fresh eyes. While my MS is marinating, I’ll work on other things which are part of the book, such as the blurb, and cover art images I find that represent the book’s essence so I can send to my book designer to help her get a feel for what I’m after. Then when I’m ready to go back to my MS, I print it out to do a paper edit. It’s amazing what our eyes pick up on paper as opposed to on the computer screen.
The next round of edits, I turn on the ‘text to speech’ feature in Word, make myself a coffee and a comfy spot on the couch, and listen to my book being read back to me. This helps me to discover any other typos, missed punctuation, or weird sounding sentences my eyes may have missed. When I hear something wonky, I just pause the reading and highlight the issue to fix later and continue reading so as not to stop the story flow.
After listening to my book and editing . . . continue reading at the Smorgasbord
DGKayewriter.com 