Tag Archives: revisions

Professional Wednesday: Beginnings, Middles, and Endings, part II — Narrative Structure

Posted on June 21, 2023 by dbjackson

Last week, I began a new Professional Wednesday feature called “Beginnings, Middles, and Endings,” in which I plan to write about the various parts of story writing. In last week’s post, I focused on openings, on how to approach the … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: When To Fight an Edit, and When To Let it Go

Posted on April 5, 2023 by dbjackson

I know my knee-jerk response is not always my wisest response. All of us who have gone through the editorial process are familiar with the conundrum: We want to work with our editors. We want to cultivate reputations for being … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: An Alternative to NaNoWriMo

Posted on October 26, 2022 by dbjackson

First off, many thanks to those who offered feedback on last week’s post, in which I asked for input regarding what I might work on next. I appreciate your thoughts. The general consensus appears to be that there is no … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: Finishing a Book Actually Means More Work

Posted on October 12, 2022 by dbjackson

As I mentioned last week, I have recently finished the third book in my new contemporary Celtic urban fantasy, The Chalice Wars. This book, The Chalice Wars: Sword, will be out sometime fairly early in 2023. Book I, The Chalice … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: Dealing With My Latest Editorial Feedback

Posted on July 6, 2022 by dbjackson

I’ve written many times before about dealing with edits on a story or novel manuscript, and I don’t want to repeat myself any more than necessary. But I have just received feedback from my editor on the first book in … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: Dealing With the Slog, part II — The 60% Stall

Posted on June 8, 2022 by dbjackson

Many years back, while I was working on one of the middle books in my Winds of the Forelands quintet, my second series, I came downstairs after a particularly frustrating day of writing and started whining to Nancy about my … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Anatomy of a Rewrite

Posted on October 7, 2020 by dbjackson

As I described in a recent Writing-tip Wednesday post, I have been working recently on a trunk series — a pair of books, the first two in a projected trilogy, that I initially wrote nearly ten years ago. I have … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Let’s Talk Trunk Novels

Posted on August 19, 2020 by dbjackson

A good idea remains such, regardless of the market and our inability to execute that idea when first it comes to us. Sometimes we need to grow into the ambition of certain projects. Let me tell you about my trunk … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: When is a Manuscript Done?

Posted on April 29, 2020 by dbjackson

There comes in the revision process a point of diminishing returns. And upon reaching that point, we need to say, “The novel is good enough, as good as I can make it with the feedback and skills and tools at … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Self-Editing Techniques

Posted on February 12, 2020 by dbjackson

We know the shapes of our narratives, and we also know our own voice and style. So our stories are likely to make sense to us, regardless of whether they make sense to others. On Monday, I wrote about my … Continue reading →

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