“I’m making it worse!” | Crises in Revision

It’s not uncommon to hit a point in your revision where you fall back in your seat, cover your face with your hands, and hold back the screams and tears while thinking, “Oh my god, I think I’m making it worse!” Given that the goal of revision is to make the book better, this is […]

The Myth of the Silver Tongue

“I feel like God just gave me this poem to write, and I wanted to send it to you right away. It only took me 10 minutes to write and I truly believe it is inspired by God.” When I edited poetry for Relief, I would roll my eyes when I read this. It almost […]

Don’t Make the Mind Reading Fallacy

Have you ever had a fight with a friend or partner where at one point one of you said, “Well, obviously I meant this when I said that!”? We all long to be understood, but communication goes awry all the time. It’s frustrating when someone doesn’t know what we mean, but it’s even more frustrating […]

Fear of the Written Word

Does it make sense to talk about fear of the written word in our day? I mean, nine-year-olds are literally texting each other every day.  But there is a real sense in which some writers are “afraid” of the written word—and it’s hamstringing their writing. What are people afraid of? Not getting published, for one. […]

Bad Writing Rules That Are Killing Your Writing

As an editor, I hear a lot of questions from writers about this or that rule. It turns out a lot of people, even seasoned writers, have a lot of bad writing rules that trip them up unnecessarily.  It may or may not surprise you to learn that some of these bad writing rules have […]

I Started Revising My Book but Now I’m Stuck

Getting stuck on a developmental revision of your manuscript is a very common problem. It doesn’t help to see other authors posting about how much they love editing and revision. When many of my authors sit down to revise, they look at their draft and pages full of comments and a report full of recommendations—and […]

Damn you, Founders, this time it’s over for good

Founders Brewing Shows No Signs of Wanting to Do Better I’m looking at a bottle of Founders Barrel-Aged Backwoods Bastard that’s covered with dust. A date, “11/19,” as in November 2019, is written on the label in black Sharpie. That’s a long time to age a bottle, possibly too long, but I’m still not sure […]

ChatGPT Will Be the New Normal Because People Will Settle

When the updated ChatGPT came out at the end of 2022, it was difficult not to join the rush of people writing hot takes on why it was going to “change everything” or why writing jobs were “over” or why AI can never be as good as humans. But I like to mull things over […]

Publishing Myths Debunked: Working with a Literary Agent

What’s it really like to work with a literary agent? At The Muse and the Marketplace 2022, Kaitlyn Johnson of Belcastro Literary Agency presented her top myths about working with a literary agent, and I was there to bring you this report! Myths About Working with a Literary Agent Maybe you’ve thought these things and maybe you haven’t, […]

Publishing Myths Debunked: The Truth About Agent Query Letters

Writing a query letter to an agent can feel like trying to crack some secret code. If you can only say the right words in the right order, you’ll finally break through and get representation. But publishing isn’t about incanting magic words. It’s a human activity fraught with all the unconscious and intangible qualities of […]