How Editing for Others Helps My Writing

learn writing by editingLately I’ve had quite a few editing jobs, working them in between my own writing and promotion of my latest book. I enjoy editing. I’ve always had a critical eye and an analytic brain, so very often anomalies in the writing will jump off the page at me. The caveat, of course, is that this art we practice is a highly subjective one, so while there are guidelines and style manuals to set general rules, those rules can and are broken regularly if the story requires it.

But I’ve noticed an interesting side benefit from my editing work. It points up for me, in spades, the crimes I may or may not have committed. Continue reading “How Editing for Others Helps My Writing”

Why I Read

Just after Christmas the Evil Mastermind had a post called “Do Write and Fear Naught,”  about why he writes. His reasons and mine are much different and I thought discussing those differences would make a good post some day. (These differences are the reason why he writes fiction and it’s doubtful I ever will.) This subject immediately went on my subjects-for-posts-when-you’re-out-of-ideas list. This was one of those times. I saw that idea and, as often happens, my brain connected it with a couple of recent thoughts, and I was off on a tangent. My role at IU is more one of a reader than any ability to string words together, why not a post about why I read? As much as I like to think otherwise, it isn’t all about me, but perhaps it will trigger some thoughts about the range of readers and what they’re looking for in their reading experience. As an author hoping to connect with readers it would be valuable to ask yourself a few questions. What do you hope the reader will get out of your book? Does it provide it? Is this something readers are looking for? Continue reading “Why I Read”