Category Archives: writing

Questions From Quora Regarding Editing part 2

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Since Quora likes to collapse my answers in an effort to keep me quiet, I’m copying and pasting some of the Quora Q and A’s in which I’ve participated. Here’s a question from Quora.

This time, I’ll be showing a few questions with some short answers. All of the questions revolve around some facet of editing, but if you find that you have some questions about the editing process, please ask right here or leave a comment.

Question 1: If I can omit the comma after “today,” can I do the same in “Fortunetly I don’t have work tomorrow.”?
Addendum: I’m able to omit the comma after “today” in the sentence, “Today I went to school,” but am I able to omit the comma after “fortunety” in the sentence, “Fortunetly I don’t have work tomorrow.”

Answer: You do not need the comma after fortunately. In this case, using the comma is optional, but make sure that you are consistent in your writing and punctuation. Also, be sure to correct spelling mistakes.

To expound a bit, the reason a comma may be placed after today, yesterday, at this time, fortunately, etc., is due to the fact that those kinds of words at the beginning of a sentence set up a sort of restriction.

For example: Today, the heat was excruciating.

The reader knows right away that the frame of reference is “today”, but there is no need for the comma because the frame of reference still exists without the comma.

Remember, commas do NOT indicate a pause in speech; they are used to clarify information, and if they are not clarifying the information they do not need to be there, but if they are used in such a manner, they must be used consistently.

Read more about commas here.

Question 2: I do not come to school. It’s passive voice?

Answer: No. It is active.

You are the subject and not coming to school is what you are doing. However, I do not go to school, or I did not make it to school, or I have not been to school, are more appropriate ways of phrasing such an idea in the English language.

One does not generally come to a place; they go.

Now, an example of passive voice is the following: The milk was spilled by the cat.

There is nothing wrong the sentence. It makes perfect sense, but the main noun, the cat, the thing that actually did the verb, has taken a secondary role in the sentence, thus making it passive.

The active version of that sentence is the following: The cat spilled the milk.

There is a time and place to use either passive or active voice, but that is up to the writer/editor, and what they wish to provide the audience. Generally, an active voice in the narrative forces the audience to accept at face value to events of the story, whereas the passive voice is a bit more suggestive in nature, perhaps even surreptitious. Both have their roles.

Question 3: Why do shorter paragraphs in a novel create the feeling of a faster pace?

Answer: First, it is imperative to understand that each paragraph should contain a single idea. A short paragraph means the idea is explained in fewer sentences, so numerous paragraphs of fewer sentences provides a barrage of ideas, which gives the pace speed, so long as each paragraph and their supporting sentences are structured properly.

If they aren’t, instead of a quick pace, the reader feels a jumbled confusion. Long paragraphs are still a single idea, but due to more sentences of a more complex nature being presented, the pace is slowed because less information is thoroughly explained.

So that’s three, little questions from Quora, and as you can see, editing is really a great deal more than correcting misspelled words, bad grammar, and incorrect punctuation.

Please visit my editing services tab for more information.

Also be sure to read through all my posts if you intend to become a better writer. Thanks, everyone, and stay tuned for more info.

So you want to be a writer part 4

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Welcome back to this series of posts about becoming a successful writer. As always, the most important concept to consider is the consistent and continuous release of quality content, and we’ll talk about how to improve the quality of content as we progress, or if you prefer, you can just hire an editor.

At this point, I’ve presented how to come up with an idea in order to begin writing. I’ve explained why short stories are important, and how they can help you build a fan base and credibility. I’ve also talked about fanfiction, a proven method by which a new writer can become well known. Now, instead of jumping right into writing your novel, I want to take some time and explain what sells a book, or any product, really.

You see, whether or not you choose to go the self published route or the mainstream route the principles of selling are the same; so, what sells a book?

There are four components upon which everything else is built; the title of your book, the cover art, the blurb, and networking. All of these together form your brand. You are not just trying to sell your book, you are trying to connect with readers; you are trying to sell yourself, your brand.

Kanye West once said something along the lines of: people love me or people hate me, but everybody knows me. That’s a great point to make. Kanye West the person is also Kanye West the brand, and in his case, it works. Will his brand work for you? Maybe, maybe not, but a successful writer must have their brand before the eyes of the public.

George Martin is certainly a popular and hot-selling author, but what is his brand? He doesn’t really have one, does he? No, not anymore, anyway, because he is already published by a major company, so the brand being sold is the brand of Bantam, (notice the little rooster? We’ll get back to that) which is an imprint of Random House, but did you know that he began writing A Song of Ice and Fire in 1991? Did you know the first book wasn’t published until 1996? He was perfecting his craft, creating a solid fan base, and ultimately solidifying his brand, which was picked up by Bantam.

Are you following me?

Now, for just a moment, think of yourself as a reader who is looking for a new book. You already know what you like and don’t like. You already know which authors you prefer, and which ones you dislike, and maybe you’ve only ever read books released by the mainstream publishers, but how did you know a new book was released? Are you subscribed to an e-mail list? Probably not. You probably already belong to a reading group, or you are following your favorite author or publisher on social media. Maybe, you just troll Barnes and Noble online, see what’s advertised, and follow the link.

Here’s the deal; mainstream publishers, be it Random House, Simon and Schuster, Roc Books, or whomever, regardless of the specific author or title, each publisher has a specific way of doing things, and all books released by Penguin, follow the Penguin formatting rules and guidelines; those Penguin specific editors all follow certain guidelines, too, so all the books, even if the writer, title, and voice are vastly dissimilar, still share some similarities, which probably bypass you—the style of the cover art, the lettering of titles, the blurbs, the little logo on the side of the book (remember the Bantam Rooster).

If you do get picked up by a literary agent, and you are published by a mainstream publisher, they will handle all of these factors on their own, but if you decide to go the indie route, or even before you get picked up, while you’re writing your short stories, it’s imperative to brand yourself, to present some form of consistency. For example, I only use the one cover artist, so even though the covers are as different as they can be, there is a hidden consistency.

Now, before you write your novel is the time to find your voice, your brand, and present it, consistently, to your fan base. Since you have not yet written and published your novel, this is a great time to experiment.

Let’s go back to being a reader looking for a book. First and foremost, you probably have an idea of what it is you want; someone either made a recommendation, or you know your favorite publisher or author has released something, or maybe you’re just trolling for something totally fresh. The first thing that will catch your eye is the title.

Honestly, the title won’t sell you the book, but it will make you interested enough to look closely at the cover. If the book in question is one written by your favorite author or publisher, the cover won’t really make or break your decision, but if the author is unknown to you, you will scrutinize the cover, and then, if it looks interesting, you’ll read the blurb.

The blurb is what sells a book. The blurb is the reason you buy the book we’re discussing. The blurb is the little description about the book, and it should match up with the title and the cover.

If you stumble across a book entitled: Mars Raiders, and the cover shows a cow munching on green grass, you’re probably going to pass on the blurb, right? If you don’t pass, and you do read the blurb, and the blurb says something along the lines of: Farmer John Batey falls in love with a famed actress. The ravishing beauty, Helen LaMonte, just came to L.A. to make a name for herself, but ran afoul a sexually perverse agent, and she has to do nasty things to land a part in the next, big movie, Mars Raiders; you’re probably going to pass on the book, especially if you were trying to find a new sci fi to read.

Do you see where I’m going? Everything has to match up. Yes, my example is supposed to be ridiculous, but I’m trying to show you what a brand is, how it’s constructed, and why it’s important.

Now, If you see the same title: Mars Raiders, and the cover has a one-eyed, gruff-looking bandit holding a laser rifle, and he’s crouched behind a red boulder while peeking at some smoldering, alien-looking colony in the background, the title and the cover match up, right? Then, if you read the blurb, and it’s something along the lines of: Former Major Cash McManus of Earth Army has been AWOL for nearly ten years. Now, at the edge of Mars colony, he alone fends off an onslaught of slimy, worm-like aliens, but can a single man, even one so brave as McManus, save the human colony from themselves?

It’s much more interesting, right? At this point, you might check the reviews, but we’ll talk about reviews later. The truth is that reviews or no, if you’re looking for this kind of sci fi, you’re very likely to buy the book. I also have to mention that blurbs are generally longer than what I presented, at least for full length novels, and we’ll dive into blurbs a little bit more, but first I want to talk more about the title and cover art.

A catchy title is certainly helpful, and a great cover goes a long way, and these are important concepts to remember before you write your debut novel. You need to think about the titles of your short stories. You need to find a cover artist you like. You also need to make sure that the lettering of your name and title are the right colors, the right font, and there’s really no way to be sure, unfortunately, but you can go look at popular books.

Go look at Harry Potter, also look at previous editions of Harry Potter; publishers often change covers and fonts when they release new editions. Why? Because times change. People change. Tastes change, and they have to keep up. Also, as they sell more and more books by the author, or by different authors of the same genre, or new authors, they see trends in what sells. At this point, look also at the blurbs employed by the hottest selling titles.

Start comparing and contrasting, titles, covers, and blurbs. These three components are the onset of your brand, and without them, no amount of networking and tweeting please look at my book will sell a book, or even result in a free download.

The title, cover, and blurb must work in unison to provide a complete idea, the idea of your story, to your intended audience, and you’ll have to learn about your audience, and what they enjoy, but by writing short stories with proper titles, cool covers, and smashing blurbs, you will learn all of this before releasing your debut novel. It’s a growing process, and a process you must undertake now, before writing your debut novel, or you will have a devil of a time growing your fan base with a book in which no one is interested.

All of my books have a consistency, perhaps a hidden consistency, when it comes to titles, covers, and blurbs, and it’s extremely difficult to outline what that consistency is, but let’s look at these titles; Losing Human, Raising Dead, and Expedition. All three are short stories. Now, let’s look at the covers.

There are some similarities, the fonts aren’t entirely different. All of the titles are both simple and mysterious, and all the covers, while exciting, aren’t overly fancy or flashy. Now, let’s look at the blurbs.

Losing Human: A man has a dream, a vision to see the world through eternal eyes. Dr. Heisler, roboticist, funds Project Human to advance the human race. After funding is diminished, he takes drastic measures and uploads a human awareness into a mobile robotic construct.

Raising Dead: An ancient necromancer seeks but one dream, the power of perfection, the power of immortality. What he finds leaves him speechless. Is he but chasing the wind?

Expedition: King Eidon of Ilteriel learns of a new island, far to the south. He sends an expedition in search of new resources, allies, and power. Jorunhaal, Ilteriel’s greatest warrior, is to lead the expedition. Upon setting foot on the island, one disaster after another occurs. The men battle small were-wolves, fall prey to a foul sickness in the air, and uncover demons….

Each of these short stories are also free. They have been free since I released them, and they have received numerous downloads, but the original blurbs were very different. The original blurbs, in fact, must have been what hindered downloads because the rate of downloads more than tripled after I changed the blurbs to what they are now. I can also tell you that these covers are not the original covers, but I didn’t see much change in reception from the new covers alone; I also had to update the blurbs.

I can tell you for fact, beyond doubt, that blurbs matter, probably more than anything else, with the exception of the story itself, of course.

In the end, the point to consider is that when people come across your work, they start to become acquainted with your brand; your titles, covers, and blurbs, and subsequently, your voice. If everything generates a download, and the reader enjoys the story, the reader is more likely to try another title, and when the reader is satisfied by the quality of most of the titles, the reader is more than willing to purchase your novels, which carry the same brand.

Now, here it is: you are not selling your book. I am not selling my book. Readers, fans, are selling our books. Fans, who are trolling sites for a new read, find something they like, and when they like something, they tell everyone. Why? Because when people find something they enjoy, it’s only natural to want to share that joy with friends and family. People want to belong, and they love to share and discuss similar topics, so fans of fantasy, who like your fantasy stories, will share those fantasy stories with friends and family, and bango; your fans sell your books, which are easily recognizable due to your brand’s consistency. This is the concept on which publishers count; they want fans to sell books. Otherwise, they would be releasing book trailers and commercials to television on a regular basis, but they aren’t, are they?

At this point, I truly wish I was able to tell you exactly how to title your story, and which cover is best for you, and what the perfect blurb should say, but that’s impossible. All of you are going to write different stories. All of you are going to have a different target audience. All of you are going to enjoy different methods, but hey, you haven’t written that debut novel yet, right? So, now is the time to experiment with titles, cover artists, and blurbs, now, while you’re writing and giving away free short stories, or perhaps even before you publish your short stories. Right now, while you’re building your brand, your fan base, and improving the quality of your product, you are selling yourself.

One thing you can do, which has been proven to lead to success is hire different cover artists to make different covers for a single title. Then, you can ask your fellow readers and writers to choose which cover they like. You can present numerous titles, varying blurbs, and ask readers and writers which they prefer for that one story.

Learn now, right now. Don’t get stuck on the idea of writing the perfect novel from start to finish without knowing, understanding, the basics, and what sells. Of course, in the end, since you are only writing short stories, you can always change the titles, covers, and blurbs even after they are published.

I changed the covers on all three of the titles I mentioned above. I changed the blurbs, too. I kept the titles for those particular stories, but I did change the title of another book.

A while back, I was published by a small press; I won’t go in to details at this point. I will say that the title I had chosen was rather poor in hindsight. It was an interesting title, but I hadn’t realized how much other stuff out there was called: Shadowman. After a return of rights, I employed my cover artist—so I changed the cover—changed the blurb, and even changed the title to: Otherside, which is much more fitting.

Now, these are things you can’t really do if you are picked up by a mainstream publisher, but then there’s no need to worry either. They throw all kinds of money into marketing—their brand into which you are signing—and they will help you along the way, but until you’re published by a major publisher, or if you decide against that route, you do have complete control over your content, however, if you release your debut novel today, and a year later you realize things aren’t working out for you, and you change everything, and you end up doing this for everything after you’ve already tried to establish your credibility as a writer, that credibility will vanish, and no one will take you seriously; you’ll be the writer who is always changing everything after publication, and that tells people that you don’t know what you’re doing. You won’t build a loyal fan base by consistently struggling to find your brand after you’ve already released books.

Learn what to do now. Learn what works and what doesn’t now, before you write your first novel. Learn while writing is just a hobby. Don’t wait to learn after trying to become a professional writer. Learn now before you start charging consumers for an actual product. Short stories are so good for this kind of practice, and if you really try to involve readers in the process, I promise; you will build a solid fan base.

In the end, when you do find your brand, the next key concept is the quality of your writing. If you’re just starting out, or if you’ve been writing for a while and other writers give you bangin’ reviews, but for some reason readers always give you bad reviews, it may because you need to hire an editor, or a better editor, and we’ll discuss editing more as we go along, but for now, you can check out my editing services.

Thanks for reading. As always, please share your thoughts.

How do writers practice writing?

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Since Quora likes to collapse my answers in an effort to keep me quiet, I’m copying and pasting some of the Quora Q and A’s in which I’ve participated. Here’s a question from Quora.

Question: How do writers practice writing?

Addendum: I can’t wrap my mind around what this means. When I sit down at my desk to try and ‘practice’ writing I fumble over what that actual looks like. I have a lot of vague impressions on writing in general so it would be great for me to start improving.

Answer: There are numerous ways to practice writing, however, it depends on what specifically you’re trying to improve; scene setting, world building, character interaction?

Are you writing fiction or nonfiction?

Are these private thoughts or entertaining ideas for others?

If I may suggest, visit my Quora blog where I break down how to edit. Knowing the appropriate way to edit work is what actually improves one’s writing ability.

Anyone can jot down a sequential account of events; anyone can describe what something looks like, how it sounds, what takes place, but transforming those thoughts into a story requires editing. This is precisely why mainstream publishers employ their own editors. This is why the best writers have the best editors.

First and foremost, the best way to begin to practice writing is to just write short stories and focus on a single area to improve.

Short stories don’t require in depth world building, management of numerous characters, a great deal of versatile dialogue, or all the nuances, which make novels a work of art, which means you can just focus on a single concept and build your story around it, like an exercise rather than a title you intend to present to an audience.

Obviously, you can present short stories to an audience if that’s your wish, and there are many reasons to do so, but even short stories require editing.

Like anything else, or perhaps, like everything else, writing is best practiced through writing. A writer doesn’t have to keep everything they write. A writer doesn’t have to publish and present everything they write. Some writers spend a ton of time just writing simple thoughts, character descriptions, pieces of dialogue, they way an object looks or sounds; writing is writing, the transfer of a thought or observation from the mind to paper.

Naturally, the more one writes, the more comfortable one becomes, but being comfortable isn’t the same as improving one’s writing ability, so I go back to short stories as well as editing.

A writer, when writing a novel, essentially has to link together numerous, correlated, short stories in a sequential order. Then, the writer must edit, or hire an editor, in order to make certain that each word supports the sentence, each sentence unveils the idea within the paragraph, each paragraph sets the scene, and that overall, something is happening throughout the book, which drives the story forwards.

All in all, it is not a simple task to release a perfect book, and perhaps no amount of practice can prepare a writer for such a task, but hey, that’s why editors exist, and if you can hire a competent editor, one who understand what you need, you should also be ready to work with them and really dissect and understand both the writing process and the reading process.

Please also visit my Editing Services tab.

Do editors have to be better writers than writers?

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Since Quora likes to collapse my answers in an effort to keep me quiet, I’m copying and pasting some of the Quora Q and A’s in which I’ve participated. Here’s a question from Quora.

Question: Do editors have to be better writers than writers.

Answer: First of all, that’s a great question, but the answer is no, editors do not have to be better writers than writers.

It’s important to understand that editing and writing while complementary are two different skill sets.

A writer provides a sequential account of events. An editor transforms that dry account into a story. Generally, one cannot work without the other.

This is precisely the reason that all mainstream, publishing presses employ so many editors, and every editor ends up working with numerous authors. It’s also important to understand that there are different kinds of editors. There are copy editors, who basically proof the story or title to be sure there are no typographical, grammatical, or punctuation errors.

Yes, some errors still go unnoticed. I have never purchased a book from any press that has zero errors. Errors happen.

There are also editors who read the story, searching for the best use of words, proper sentence structure, creativity, character depth, plot holes, consistency, and just about everything readers try to find when they read; these editors are readers, basically, and their job is to help the author make sure they are providing their very best.

I have talked and blogged extensively about editing. You can certainly search this website, and just about every post that isn’t about one of my books is about how to properly edit a manuscript.

I strongly suggest that all writers, and even editors, search this site for hints, tips, and the proper way to edit a manuscript. I also recommend visiting the Editing Services tab.

Finally, I will add that one who possesses both skill sets–writing and editing–can go far. Both skills require a degree of creativity, but a writer has to create characters, a world, interactions, reactions, a plot, a twist; the editor just ensures that all of those concepts are provided in the most succinct, cogent, and entertaining forms.

This is kind of like saying that an artist who can both draw and animate has two, complementary, skill sets. One does not preclude the other, but neither is better than the other. An animator does not have to be a better artist than a penciler or inker. Feel me?

self aggrandizing aaron

So you want to be a writer part 3

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Last time, we touched on short stories, and no, I will never stop harping over how important it is to write short stories, especially at the onset of your journey to living as a successful writer. This time, however, I’m going to talk about fanfiction.

Fanfiction is very important. Fanfiction is a must for a writer. As a matter of fact, fanfiction is practically the only way a screen writer can become a working screen writer. Fanfiction is a story based on an existing world, and every writer needs to write fanfiction for a multitude of reasons, but let’s back up.

There was a time, about 20 or 30 years ago, when writers just like you were struggling to become successful, and honestly, not too much has changed. Even back then, and probably even as far back as 50 or 60 years ago, vanity presses existed, so self publishing is not the new fad the mainstream publishers are pretending it is, what has changed is the popularity and success of self publishing, but we’ll talk more about that later.

What I want to talk about is the process through which your predecessors became successful. There was a time when readers read these weird things called magazines (ma-guh-zeens), and magazines had pictures, and articles, and interviews, and ads, and short stories. Now, we see all this same stuff on Quora, Reddit, FaceBook, and other social media outlets, right? We see this stuff on websites, too. If you Google “fanfiction” all kinds of stuff will come up, right? If you Google “free short stories” all kinds of stuff will come up, right?

Well, 20 and 30 years ago, people subscribed to magazines for the same content. People don’t really subscribe to magazines anymore, but you still want to write, and you still want readers to read your stuff, right? That means you need to adapt to a changing environment, but the good news is that this environment has evolved to a stable level; enough writers have figured out how to game the system.

Last time, we talked about short stories, and they are perhaps the most important aspect of becoming a successful writer. Back in the day, writers submitted short stories to writing magazines, and they were paid pennies per word, and sometimes, they weren’t paid at all, but if the story was good enough (well edited and free of errors) it was printed in the magazine, and if readers enjoyed the story, the writer had a chance to become known, and if the writer became known and liked, the writer had a chance to submit a novel to a publisher and actually be taken seriously.

Yes, even 20 or 30 years ago, it was insanely difficult to become a published, mainstream writer. You have to go back about 100 years to reach a time when writing was easy. 100 years ago, all you had to do was be able to write a book from start to finish. Then, if you found an actual publisher, they used their editor to make sure the book was its best (hire an editor!) and the book was released to the public. 100 years ago, when half the American population didn’t know how to read, writing an entire book from start to finish was a major accomplishment, and anyone who had the time and gumption, yeah, gumption, to do so was taken seriously.

Today, practically everyone can read and write, and writing is mandatory, so writing a book from start to finish is no longer considered a big deal; everyone can do it, and actually, lots of people do do it. (Do do…but there’s no time for that now!)

Let’s get back to the present. If people aren’t really reading magazines anymore, where or what are they reading? Where were you reading before you started writing? FaceBook? Google+? LinkedIn? Maybe, you were trolling Barnes and Noble online for free material. Maybe, you were trolling Amazon for free material. Maybe, you were trolling FanFiction for free material. Maybe, you were trolling the web and stumbled onto a writer’s blog where they posted free material, so that’s where you have to post your work, and you need to post it for free, at least for now.

This is where fanfiction starts to become your key component. First and foremost, you have a favorite genre. You know what genre you enjoy, and you know what you want to write. You also know which shows, movies, books, video games, and comic books you enjoy. You want to be a successful writer, so you’re probably a nerd or a dork, and that’s okay; in fact, that’s great. Use it!

Go to where the nerds and dorks are, and give the nerds and dorks what they want. The nerds and dorks are at Wattpad, and Quotev, and especially FanFiction. Since you’re not yet trying to earn money from your novel, this also a great time to put into practice everything you learned from writing short stories.

Now, you’re going to learn the best way to structure an entire novel. You’re going to learn how to structure chapters, build suspense, slow or quicken the story’s pacing, and other integral aspects of writing. What better way than to practice with something you already know?

For one, it takes a little of the pressure off because you at least have an entire back story and cast. The problem then becomes staying true to the franchise. If you’re writing Superman fanfiction, and you make Clark Kent a popular, outgoing, ladies man, people will be turned off by your presentation. If you’re writing a Dragon Ball Z fanfiction, and you make Goku a coward, people will be very disappointed, so there is a different struggle, but if you know your subject matter inside and out, it shouldn’t be that difficult to stay true to the franchise. Then, you can focus on the technical aspects of novel writing.

At this point, you should be presenting your story as you write it (after reading what you wrote once or twice) on Wattpad, Quotev, and your blog, and sending out updates through social media.

Now, I’m gonna’ go on a bit of a detour here. Stay with me.

One of the best sites a writer can use is Goodreads. Goodreads has a blog. Readers participate in discussions. Readers and writers can join groups. Honestly, the same thing can be said for Google+ and LinkedIn, so take what I say about Goodreads, and apply it to Google+ and LinkedIn as well.

Now’s the perfect time to join groups, groups of readers, and groups of writers, and talk to the readers about what they like, and then invite them to look at your blog. Then, talk to writers about what they like, and invite them, too. Be courteous. Be respectful. Engage people as a person, not a salesman.

Post your fanfiction to Goodreads, Google+, and LinkedIn, and your personal blog, of course, and invite the people of each site to view the corresponding blog, which will also have a link back to your personal blog.

Listen to the feedback as you go along. Thank people for their time. DO NOT ENGAGE NEGATIVE PEOPLE.

Right now, If you’ve practiced writing short stories and are in the middle of writing your fanfiction, all you want to do is release something like a chapter per week to each of your blogs. It gives you something to blog about. It gives people something to read without demanding a commitment. It gives you the feeling of being a writer.

The reason you want to delay publishing your fanfiction to FanFiction is simple and important. FanFiction has some serious readers, and they expect, demand, a level of quality you may not yet be able to provide. They want their books free of errors, true to the franchise, and well structured. They want your fanfiction to be an actual book that sounds as though it was written by an actual writer, not someone who is trying to become a writer, so, for now, stick to the other sites, and get all the feedback you can get.

After your fanfiction has been written to completion, it’s time to go back and read your old short stories. You’ll have grown leaps and bounds as a writer and an editor by the time you finish your fanfiction novel. You’ll even pick up on nuances you weren’t able to grasp when you first began writing, so touch up your short stories and re-release them; it should be pretty easy to do so.

At this point, you also have something new to blog about, your journey as a writer, and you can invite people to read your updated stories. You can start getting professional covers for your short stories and your fanfiction.

It’s just as important to be a real person throughout this journey. Don’t even think about going around, telling everyone that your stuff is better than what’s out there, not yet, because right now, you want people to like you. If people like you, they will be more receptive to your posts, discussions, comments, and invitations.

Now is also a pretty good time to hire a competent editor who can teach you how to better write for an audience.

I have a style of writing that I enjoy employing, but it is not necessarily what readers enjoy reading, and it’s my job as a writer, who is charging for a product, to find a balance between what I enjoy and what my audience enjoys, hence the editing.

Regardless of what you think you know at this point, I cannot stress it enough that the best and most successful writers have the best editors. Editors are paramount. They read your work differently than you do, but you also have to be careful because until you’re published by a mainstream publisher, you’re going to have to hire your own editor. Of course, a lot of the mainstream editors are terrible anyway, I’ve written about that as well, but that’s not really the point because if you’re published by a mainstream publisher, you don’t have to spend your money, and you don’t have a say on what the book is like at the publication stage, see what I mean?

If you’re spending your money to hire an editor, you want someone who understands both the writing process and the reading process. If your publisher has an editor, which they force onto you then you have no say, no control, but their job is to sell books, and at the very least, a mainstream publisher will try to do that. This can’t be said about some of the smaller presses or hybrid presses unfortunately, but we’ll discuss different methods of publishing later on.

At any rate, once your fanfiction is polished to perfection, publish it to FanFiction. There are people—nerds, dorks, readers—trolling the site, looking specifically for stories about franchises they love; Supernatural, Twilight, The Hulk, Game of Thrones, Skyrim, and more. These readers are looking for something fresh, and new, and written by a competent fan, someone who enjoys the franchise as much as they do, and you want to be the person who supplies that fanfiction.

Why? Because if you do a good job, these dorks and nerds will become your loyal fans. These are the people who will buy your original novel. These are the people who will post a link to your work on their social media pages. These are the people who will generate buzz for your book. These are also the people who will tell you what they like and don’t like about your writing, so you will also learn what to do to please them, and you want to please them. Nerds and dorks are the foundation upon which all great writing is based. I should know; I’m one of them.

I have to add right here that I didn’t understand any of this when I started writing. I skipped so many integral steps that I really hindered my career. My only saving grace was that I had some really neat story ideas, but if I had followed the advice I’m giving now, I also would have applied these same principles to writing my original novel, and then, instead of zero sales on my quarterly reports for years, I might have actually made some money off my first books (even though they were terribly written).

Back to business now—treat your fanfiction novel as if it were your original novel. Get a professional cover made for it. Publish it to Smashwords. Be careful with copyrights, and be sure to let everyone know that the book is fanfiction and cannot be sold for a profit; for all intents and purposes, this book is your original novel, and you must use it to make a name for yourself, which also means it must be free of errors, well written, and engaging.

You may now be wondering what any of this has to do with magazines and the writers who started becoming successful 20 or 30 years ago. Well, here’s the deal. Since those magazines to which they submitted their stories don’t exist anymore, and whatever prints or digital prints there are are owned by those writers now, the mainstream publishers have purposefully built a barricade to keep out new writers.

I know, it sounds crazy, but I’m dead freaking serious. They have this special good ole’ boy club, and they have it because they are terrified. The mainstream writers have all run into a major disconnect with the fans, but this happens to every facet of the entertainment industry every decade or so.

Doesn’t music change drastically every ten years? Don’t movies and television shows change drastically every ten years? Do you know why? Because every ten to twenty years there’s a new generation of people; there’s a new culture with a new language, and a new set of goals, and the major companies can hardly keep up. The book publishers are the worst at keeping up, and that’s why they’re terrified of self publishers, but, and this is a big BUT! when they find a self published individual who is doing well, they try to swoop in and sign the writer.

This is exactly what happened to Christopher Paolini. This is kind of what happened to E. L. James.

You see, it used to be that in order to garner the attention of a literary agent, or even a publisher, one had to get published by those magazines. Now, since those magazines don’t exist, or are shutting writers out, an up and coming writer has to find a new way to break in to the world of reading, but hey, that’s exactly what I’ve been teaching you with these posts.

Right here, I want to add that it pisses me off the way The Huffington Post and other journals smear self published writing. If it’s so bad, why do the publishers and agents keep their eyes open for successful self published writers? Because self publishing is actually a great way to connect with new readers, and when a great self published writer is drawing attention, the major companies swoop in to steal, sorry, augment their success.

Well, at any rate, you want to be a writer. It’s why you’re reading this. Start by thinking about your idea. Join social media groups. Start taking part in group discussions with readers. Start reading what other up and coming writers are writing. Start your blogs now. Invite readers and writers to talk about what they like, and all the while, you can start writing your short stories.

Then, you’ll already have a network willing to look at your short stories, a network of writers and readers, which is important. Then, when the time is right, you can publish your short stories for free, and they’ll sit there, bringing you more and more fans. Next, write your fanfiction. Develop your voice, and really create a fan base. I can’t stress it enough, building a fan base before you release your debut novel is paramount, and using social media to send people to your site to buy your book doesn’t work—another topic for discussion later on.

Yes…this is going to take a great deal of effort on your part. Yes…this is going to take a long time. I know you want to write your novel today. Hell, you may have already written it and started shopping for literary agents or publishers, but without the world’s biggest rabbit’s foot, literary agents and publishers won’t take you seriously.

I’m not saying it’s impossible. In fact, it happens all the time; a first time writer writes a novel, and it gets picked up, but will that happen for you? What if it doesn’t? Shouldn’t you prepare for that possibility? Don’t you want to start off on the right foot with as many opportunities as possible?

What I’m trying to help you accomplish is the building of a solid foundation. If you follow the advice presented in these three posts, you can garner some serious attention for yourself, and then, if you want to go the mainstream route, you’ll have a better chance of being picked up by a literary agent or publisher because they want you to be marketable, they want you to bring them your fans, not the other way around. If you want to go the self publishing route, and there are numerous reasons to do so, you’ll already be setting yourself up for success in that field, too.

Now, don’t think this is the last post on how to become a successful writer. We’re only just beginning. Thanks for reading, and I implore you, if you have any kind of input; if you want to talk about your experience, your pitfalls, your successes, please share. I can’t help everyone by myself. Being an indie or self published writer doesn’t mean working alone; that’s a huge misconception. All it means is that I don’t have the backing of a major corporation, so let’s work together.

Readers, talk about what you like and don’t like. Writers, talk about your struggles and successes.

Don’t forget to check out my Editing Services. Thanks again.

Do plot holes matter?

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Since Quora likes to collapse my answers in an effort to keep me quiet, I’m copying and pasting some of the Quora Q and A’s in which I’ve participated. Here’s a question from Quora.

Question: Do plot holes matter?

Addendum: … noting, of course, that some works of fiction are wonderfully, intentionally plotless.

Answer: Yes. Unequivocally, yes.

Now, I’m not sure exactly what the person who asked this question meant by adding that some great stories have no plot. I don’t know about that. Every story has a plot, but regardless, the point in contention is not the plot itself, but whether plot holes matter.

Yes, plot holes matter.

Nothing says, the author is a dumbass, like a plot hole.

Okay, let’s first consider what a plot is. The plot is nothing more than the main event around which the story is constructed. This means no matter how flimsy or banal, every story that has a beginning, middle, and end has a plot.

What is a plot hole then? A plot hole is an issue which nullifies the reliability and consistency of the plot.

Let’s look at Cujo for instance. I never read the book, but I saw the movie. Yeah, it’s an alright movie, but it’s actually really stupid because the first time your dog acts out the way Cujo did, any sensible human being, who is worried about their family, is going to either put the dog down, take it to a trainer, or let it go, right?

If that monster went to a trainer, what would the trainer suggest? Putting it down, right? End of movie, right? Dumbass plot hole, right?

Cujo has a major plot hole. The story doesn’t make sense in spite of the events that follow.

Yes, plot holes matter. No, they don’t matter at the same intensity for everyone. Yes, plenty of people can get past a plot hole if the other elements of the story are absolutely astounding, and when it comes to movies, often times, especially in the cases of horrors and slashers, we can give the plot a little leeway.

I love the Friday the Thirteenth movies. They are completely stupid, though, but hey, I’m rooting for Jason to kill ’em all.

When it comes to novel writing, however, a plot hole can totally kill the story and force the reader to put the book down and never read another story by that author, especially if the plot hole is blatant and simplistic.

At this point, it becomes important to make a distinction between an actual plot hole and a suspension of belief.

For instance, if I write a story about a zombie hunter, and in this world, the zombies can turn others into zombies with a bite, and I never have the zombie hunter get bitten, it’s a suspension of belief.

Being a good author, if I need to have such a thing happen, I’ll have the zombie hunter wear some protective gear to help with the suspension of belief.

However, if the zombie hunter does get bitten in this story, and he doesn’t turn into a zombie, that’s a plot hole. Wouldn’t you stop reading at that point? Wouldn’t you think I’m an idiot?

Now, there are some cases where such a thing can be repaired further in the story, but here an author has to be intelligent and creative, and all without insulting the intelligence of his the audience.

If, for example, in my zombie hunter story, the hunter is bitten, but doesn’t turn into a zombie, I can then add, a little ways into the plot, that he used to a be chemist, and he knew about the impending, zombie threat, and he actually found a way to immunize himself.

Do you see what I’m saying?

An author must force his characters into untenable situations in order to make them grow and develop, certainly. While writing, and then during the editing process, the writer needs to keep an eye open for holes in the story, though.

You see, readers are supposed to ride beside the protagonist, and learn, and grow, and feel what the characters feel, but a plot hole means the author didn’t take the time, didn’t give the audience enough respect, to properly direct the story. Yes, a writer must also be a director!

What’s worse is that often times an author, a writer, doesn’t hire an editor. An editor, a competent editor, will catch such a plot hole and at least make a suggestion on how to fix it.

When a writer chooses to both ignore the hole, and not hire an editor, and then release the poorly written story to the public, it becomes an insult to readers. This is not a problem specific to self publishing or indie publishing; numerous titles released by the mainstream publishers also have plot holes, so this is appropriately a publishing problem.

This isn’t a problem specific to novel writing, either; numerous movies, T.V. shows, and video games also have plot holes. The publishers of these media are called producers, though, so this is also a production problem, but whatever….

All I can add at this point is the following; readers, read the reviews of whatever it is that you’re buying, not just the 5 star reviews, go and look at the 1 star reviews, too.

Writers, hire an editor, a competent editor. Editing is extremely important. You can learn more about editing here.

Is Star Wars considered American science fiction or British science fiction?

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Since Quora likes to collapse my answers in an effort to keep me quiet, I’m copying and pasting some of the Quora Q and A’s in which I’ve participated. Here’s a question from Quora.

This is another instance where the question seems like it has nothing to do with reading, writing, or editing, but hold on to your speeder!

Question: Is Star Wars considered American science fiction or British science fiction?

Answer: Well it’s the abortion created by Spielberg and Lucas, so it’s American.

Now, allow me to dive headlong into the Rancor’s pit.

Star Wars is hardly science fiction. What constitutes science fiction? High tech? Aliens? Space battles? Sure, but don’t those things usually require some explanation? How do the aliens’ bodies work? What kind of engineering is involved in a death star? Don’t different planets with different atmospheres have differing gravity? Doesn’t anyone require a space suit? Even while piloting their ships in the far reaches of space, no one wears a helmet with breathing apparatus, do they? I just don’t think Star Wars qualifies as science fiction.

Star Wars is about a guy who uses a sword and casts magic spells with his mind. If it’s anything, it’s sci fantasy, kind of like the Final Fantasy video games. There’s nothing wrong with the concept or genre, but I’m not done bitching yet.

If Luke could, theoretically, use the force to lift a ship “only different in your mind” then why not use the force to knock Vader into that duct in cloud city?

Why not use the force to blow the emperor into that other duct?

The whole franchise is rife with poor writing, poor, poor writing.  It’s so totally uninspired, and filled with plot holes, and I don’t understand why people like Boba Fett.

He did nothing. Han was already frozen in carbonite when Boba Fett took him aboard the ship, and then blind Han hit him in the butt, and it killed him.

Boba Fett was utterly useless.

All of this ties into the principles of story telling, whether we’re discussing a movie, a show, or a book; what’s important is that whatever happens throughout the story is both logical and consistent.

Does it make sense that storm trooper armor can be destroyed by primitive, teddy bear arrows?

Is it logical that when Luke is chasing the scout troopers on the speeder, he doesn’t use the force to hold the speeder in place, or fling the scout trooper off the speeder?

“Different only in your mind, Luke”

The force is wielded so inconsistently, it is a severe problem, a detriment to story’s reliability.

It’s extremely important for both writers and editors to be able to recognize these kinds of instances, because if a story has these issues, readers will find them, and they will be very, very upset to have spent their money on dreck.

Now, I know, everyone’s going to get their panties in a wad because I’m badmouthing Star Wars. Everyone’s going to point out that if I’m right, why then was the trilogy such a success?

Well, people like what they like. The movies do look amazing. The first three had a terrific cast, great music, and the whole concept behind Star Wars is the eternal struggle of good against evil, the underdog against the immovable empire, so, okay, Star Wars isn’t the worst trilogy out there, but all the points I made stand on their own.

YOU are not writing Star Wars. YOU are not Spielberg and Lucas. YOU most likely don’t have an entire corporation backing you, helping to market whatever it is that you’re writing, so YOU need to be certain that your story has no issues of inconsistency, suspension of disbelief, or plot holes.

This is especially important for new writers, because they don’t have a solid fan base yet, and there’s no more direct road to failure than starting out by selling a crappy product.

Always consider editing. Always consider hiring an editor. Visit my editing services tab.

 

 

 

What did Tolkien add to the fantasy genre that weren’t already elements of mythology?

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Since Quora likes to collapse my answers in an effort to keep me quiet, I’m copying and pasting some of the Quora Q and A’s in which I’ve participated. Here’s a question from Quora.

Question: What did Tolkien add to the fantasy genre that weren’t already elements of mythology?

Addendum: It seems that preexisting mythologies such as Norse mythology had a lot of the same elements as modern fantasy and inspired Tolkien.  What were Tolkien’s contributions that made him the father of modern fantasy?

Answer: I agree with the whole premise.

Tolkien just mished-mashed it all together, and the readers made it a success.

Frankly, I think Tolkien is a crappy writer and Martin, too, for that matter.

They added no elements that weren’t a part of the Arthurian Tales or tales of Vikings. I think both writers suck, but until now, no one has offered anything of value. That’s the problem. Readers need a new writer to rally behind.

Now, after my seething answer, allow me to elucidate.

There are no original ideas. There are only original presentations. I’ve said it before, and I won’t tire of saying it.

No writer out there today, be it Tolkien, Martin, King, or anyone else has new ideas, original concepts never before presented in stories of any genre. Yes, there can be new elements.

If, for instance, someone writes a new novel today, a sci fantasy along the lines of Final Fantasy, but in novel form, and they include something like social media, yes, that’s a new element you won’t find in Germanic Folklore, or even most current novels, but it’s a new presentation of an existing idea–communications.

See what I mean? A writer needs to find something new, but it’s a new presentation, not a new idea.

What makes a writer great, or a story great, is the presentation of the correlated ideas, not the ideas themselves.

Yes, there are readers of fantasy who consider Tolkien and Martin great writers, but compared to whom?

What other writers are there of that genre for average readers? Le Guin? She’s actually underrated, and many die hard fantasy fans prefer Le Guin to Martin or Tolkien when it comes to fantasy books. Then, there’s Jordan, who is also widely underrated.

Also, don’t forget that before the Harry Potter movies, The Lord of the Rings movies, and The Game of Thrones T.V. series, none of those writers were as popular as they are now.

There was time when only nerds and dorks read The Lord of the Rings, but after the movies came out, everyone went back and read the books.

There was a time when only children read Harry Potter, but after the movies came out, everyone went back and read the books.

There was a time when only nerds and dorks read A Song of Ice and Fire, but after Game of Thrones came out, everyone went back and read the books.

Unfortunately, the Earthsea miniseries ran Le Guin into the ground, and now she’s begging people for a kickstarter campaign to help her fund her documentary.

Are you kidding me? Is she not a successful writer?!

There are two things to take away from this post.

  1. There really are no new ideas.
  2. People will only be able to enjoy that which they find.

It has become increasingly difficult to find material worth reading, especially in the fantasy genre. Truthfully, there are numerous unknown writers like Barnitz who are far and away better than Tolkien and Martin, but if no one is making movies or shows out of their short stories, novels, and series then few people will find those great books without a great deal of leg work.

Sure, everyone thinks Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and A Song of Ice and Fire are the best of the best, but are they? Or are they just the most popular?

So you want to be a writer part 2

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Happy New Year. Start the new year off right. Follow your passion!

There are so many of you out there trying to figure out what it takes to become a successful writer, so I want to provide you with a series of posts, which will help to outline the processes that can lead to your success.

These posts are in no way a perfect outline; however, if you follow them closely, you will eventually become successful. Why am I so sure? Because the only guaranteed method to achieving long term success is to continuously release quality content, and that’s what I want to help you accomplish.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but if you write, edit, and release decent stories on a regular and continuous basis, you will eventually be the successful writer you’ve wanted to be.

Last time, we touched on how to come up with an idea for a story. I said that ideas are everywhere; you can look at pictures, watch movies, listen to music, read other stories, or just relax and day dream.

Then, all you have to do is jot down what it is that interests you.

If you don’t have an idea yet, that’s okay. Don’t get discouraged. The surest way to fail is to give up on your goal. In fact, that’s the only way you really fail, so if you want to be a writer, keep thinking, keep dreaming, and just keep living.

If you do have an idea, and you think you’re ready to start writing a novel, stop right there. DO NOT write your novel yet. There are numerous reasons I want to delay you, and we’ll touch on all of them as these posts progress, and by the end, if you follow the outline, you’ll save yourself years of torture. That’s a promise.

Once you have your idea, the best way to get a feel for writing is to write short stories. If it worked for King, Asimov, Stein, and Martin, then there’s probably something to it.

The great thing about short stories is that they don’t require the attention to detail, the complexity, the time, or the effort that a novel requires. You can just pick a facet of novel writing and apply it. Here’s what I mean:

A novel consists of a world, characters, a plot, foreshadowing, rising action, climax, resolution, dialogue, prose, actions, reactions, and interactions—people reacting to the world, plot, and each other. A novel is very complicated, but with a short story, you can just pick a single facet, say, world building.

Think of writing a novel as you do drawing a picture. First, you have an idea and a blank sheet. Then, you draw a portion of the picture. Perhaps, you want to start with the overall shape. Perhaps, you want to start with an aspect of the picture; the eyes of the person, the roof of the house, the full moon in the night sky over the prairie, and then you move on to the next section you wish to draw. Then, you add shading, a foreground, a background, other items, color, etc. Writing a novel is the same, and learning to write a novel is like learning to draw a picture; you have to practice with each individual section.

You can write an entire short story just about a world you have in mind, just the same as you can draw numerous pictures of hands before you begin to draw entire portraits of people. Practice describing the world, its history, how it came to be, what people do there; you can write an entire short story without having anything really happen: it’s your story, it isn’t etched in stone, and it is not a published title out for the public. Plus, if you really want to, you can write about the world in which your novel will take place.

This is like what comic book artists do. They draw their new super hero from every angle, performing many actions. Then, they draw pieces of scenery. Finally, down the road, when the entire story has come to fruition, they put everything together, and make a comic book.

For instance, I wrote a short story called Expedition, and a year later I started writing a novel called Cayneian, which is only loosely based on the short story, but it was there—I had it, I had the practice and reference.

You can write a short story about just a handful of characters. They can be at a café where nothing really happens, but they talk, and you can practice writing dialogue. You can write just an action scene and get a feel for it.

I cannot stress it enough, and I won’t stop stressing it; write many, many, many short stories before tackling your novel. If you want, if you must, do write down snippets you want to remember for later, but don’t sit down and begin writing your novel yet.

Here’s another reason why: once you have 5, 7, 10, a dozen short stories, you can go back and read them. You’ll find things you like, and things that make you cringe. Now, you can practice proofing your work, and once you’re done, you can also start building a network.

Here’s what you do: get yourself a wordpress or blogger site. Start a blog where all you do is post your work and talk about it. Invite others to comment. If you really want to, you can also talk about other things you like; movies, other books, video games; as long as you keep everything centered around writing, like the story line of the video game, or the dialogue in the movie, your fans will enjoy your posts because there will be a hidden consistency, and then, as you post more and more of your short stories, you’ll get more and more feed back, and you can learn to see the difference in what you like to write, and what your fans like to read.

Be wary. First, they will ignore you, and then, they will criticize you, but there will be some people with helpful tips. At this point I must stress the best advice I will ever give about anything: do not interact with negative people. Pretend they do not exist. Anyone can find a nice way to tell you they don’t like your work, but only a useless butt hole will try to make you feel bad about yourself for trying to follow your passion.

DO NOT INTERACT WITH NEGATIVE PEOPLE. LEARN IT NOW WHILE YOU’RE JUST WRITING SHORT STORIES.

Okay, but you see, you’re not only learning how to write, you’re learning how to be a successful writer before writing your novel. Being a successful writer is a lifestyle. As you continue to blog about your stories, and writing in general, you’ll learn what works for you, for your style, your genre, and your target audience. You can also invite other writers and editors to comment, and learn from them—take what you like, and discard the rest. Finally, listen to the readers; they will tell you what they like, and then it’s up to you as a writer to find a balance between writing what you like and providing them what they like.

All of these concepts are important before writing your first novel, so I urge you to write a ton of short stories first. Furthermore, you can also begin your social media presence, and we’ll touch on that in a future post, but it is imperative to have a loyal fan base of readers before you release your novel.

You see, now is the time to learn. Don’t do what I did, and start learning after releasing four, horrible books. Save yourself the misery, the irritation, the anger, the stress, the self-pity, and the humiliation. Learn now what it’s like to be a writer, a successful writer.

Next time, I’ll be touching on writing fanfiction and provide you with some great websites where you can showcase your work to readers and get valuable feed back.

Happy New Year. Thanks for reading. Enjoy your new year. Start your new year off right. Don’t forget to visit my editing services tab.

Why didn’t Sauron simply place some guards over the access to Crack of Doom?

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plot holes editor

Since Quora likes to collapse my answers in an effort to keep me quiet, I’m copying and pasting some of the Quora Q and A’s in which I’ve participated. Here’s a question from Quora.

This one sounds like a strange question, I know. It doesn’t really sound like it’s on the topic of writing and editing, but it really is.

Here’s the whole question: The Lord of the Rings (creative franchise): Why didn’t Sauron simply place some guards over the access to Crack of Doom?

My answer: The creator of the series wasn’t bright enough to see it’s flaws.

That’s the truth of it right there. There’s a lot of writers–screen writers, novelists, journalists, all kinds–living and dead, past and gone, and those coming up now–either they aren’t bright enough to see their flaws, or their editors aren’t bright enough to catch the flaws.

Now, specifically, in Tolkien’s case, he croaked, and subsequently his son was so amazed by the story that he missed the obvious.

Look at the movies, though; there’s a reason 90% of the books’ content didn’t make it into the movies–Tom Bombodil and a whole bunch of other characters and events–the books suck, they’re written by someone with a colorful but limited imagination. They’re a cliched good versus evil match up with the underdog coming out on top by just walking somewhere, and in the mix, there’s some Germanic Folklore, but Tolkien didn’t invent elves, dwarves, or anything else; even hobbits are really just gnomes. There are better books….

The thing is is that a great many writers, stories, movies, franchises, etc., have tons of flaws or plot holes.

One of the movies I hate the most? Prometheus

Why? It’s filled with plot holes!

I wasn’t even able to finish the movie, but here’s why.

The geologist tosses his flying, spherical devices into the air, remember? They’re scanning for molecular makeup, and hey, they don’t pick up any DNA–as if living molecules aren’t also made of minerals or metals, but that’s alright; I got past that.

Then, the storm hit, and everyone’s rushing back to the ship, remember? The groups get back to the ship, and they can’t find the geologist and his partner, and they’re worried, and they’re all scrambling, and then they see them on the camera, which the captain was monitoring…….?

Okay, first of all, they were all in communications, so when the other groups started freaking out, the geologist and his partner would have said: “Don’t worry guys, we’re coming.” At the very least, their scrambling commotion would have been heard by someone else, but that’s not the point: the other groups called for them, questioning their absence, and they would certainly have replied.

Furthermore, the captain was watching the screens the whole time, so he must have, at some point, witnessed the geologist and his partner trying to make their way from the caves.

PLOT HOLES=BAD WRITING/BAD EDITING

Maybe this kind of stuff doesn’t bother you. Maybe you don’t catch this kind of stuff when you read or watch movies, but I do, and so do lots of other people.

If you’re going to be a writer, it becomes imperative to catch this kind of stuff. It also becomes important to try to figure out how to solve these issues–plot holes. In the end, you may just need an editor to make certain you have no plot holes; avid readers do hate them, and you don’t want your story to fail because of a simple oversight, right?

Hire an editor. It can’t hurt. Hire me as your editor. You can find my services here.