Sometimes, the best thing you can do for a story is to cut. It’s most easily done during revisions. First, get your story on the page. Later, as you edit, look for parts to strike. Doing this can make your story stronger. It’s especially true if you’ve
Read more →This week I’m revising a piece I wrote more than a year ago. Some passages seem less clear to me than they did on my last round of edits. This is true of everything I write. My words can always be more clear. As the French writer
Read more →All good writing follows a style manual. These literary anchors add order to the sometimes-untidy universe we writers and editors inhabit. They salt our books with wisdom and pepper them with grace. Whether it’s The Chicago Manual of Style, The Associated Press Stylebook, or APA Style, every
Read more →Once I decided to write a book, I wanted help. My years as a journalist had taught me that any piece worth reading was the result of strong partnerships between writers and editors. So I launched a critique group. It was one of the best things I
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