Today’s Guest Blogger is Linda Lee Williams, with a look at how she tackles writing a first draft, and then revising it. You go, Linda! 🙂

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Revision: To See Again…

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” – Terry Prachett

I’m an author who spews from the heart. When I’m finished with my first draft, I have quite a mess to clean up.  The task to refashion the story seems daunting.  Over the years, I’ve learned how to manage the chore.  It’s impossible to do everything the first time around.  Multiple revisions are required before a book takes form.  Here’s how I tackle the project.

After a “cooling period,” I read the printed manuscript. I note where the story drags or the plot falters.  Then I start pruning, beginning with introspection—too much “internal monologue.”  It took me a while, but I figured out that readers don’t need to know a character’s every thought!  Another problem area for me is description.  I tend to go overboard rather than zero in on specific details.  During this phase of revising, I trim 10% from my book.

Next, I assess the characters. Are they who I imagined they would be?  Do they fit with the storyline and the situation?  Are the protagonists likable, sympathetic?  Do they have flaws, inner strengths, and emotional conflict?  Will the reader connect with them?  My fictional people grow and change, but I develop personality profiles well in advance of writing the story.  Knowing “the players” beforehand helps me keep the plot on course.

While evaluating the characters, I study the dialogue. I keep in mind that dialogue is the distillation of conversation.  Like introspection, it can be cut down or condensed.  Characters must live on the page, not be static.  However, too many gestures or actions can weigh a story down.  Often, I’ve qualified or explained a character’s speech when it wasn’t necessary.  I try to remember the adage, “If you tell, you don’t have to show; if you show you don’t have to tell.”

Now, it’s time to don my editor’s cap. I scrutinize grammar, punctuation, and syntax.  Do the sentences flow smoothly and make sense?  Did I vary their structure?  Are they punctuated properly?  Did I overuse adjectives and adverbs?  Are the verb tenses consistent?  Have I relied on too many “pet words” or expressions?  Did any clichés sneak in? Continue reading →

A nice, spooky place, eh? Would love to visit one day. 🙂

Today, our FabFriday Guest Blogger is Tony Riches. Thank you so much for joining us today, Tony. Now, without further ado, here is Tony’s wonderful and informative post on how to use Amazon’s Author Pages.

Ten Tips for Setting Up Amazon Author Pages

Your Amazon page should be an important part of your ‘author platform’ – yet many authors don’t bother. It may be they are so busy writing they really don’t have the time but it’s easy to do and here are my ten top tips:

1. Create your own Amazon Author Page

This only takes a moment to do. Once you have an Amazon Author account and at least one book published on Amazon, simply visit https://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk/ or https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ (US) and follow the instructions. You probably have short author ‘bio’ and a suitable picture somewhere already. (I’ve seen research suggesting that readers like to see a picture of the author, so try to resist using a book cover, as I have seen some people do!) Readers can click on any of your books and be directed to the Kindle store where they can download the book in less than a minute. Also, any time you update your biography or claim a new book through Author Central, About the Author will update on Kindle giving your readers access to the most recent information.

2. Make sure all your books are linked to the page

Amazon leaves this to you as they can’t always be sure which are your books. Simply click on the ‘Add More Books’ button and search for books you’ve written by title, author, or ISBN and add them. While you’re there you can also click on any of your books to check and add information about them.

3. Copy and paste your details to the other Amazon countries

Unfortunately, updates you make to any Amazon site don’t automatically find their way to the other twelve countries – but all you need to do is copy and paste the bio and update your list of books and add videos when you have the time. (I use Google translate to understand the prompts on the non-English sites – but would appreciate help from anyone who can help translate my German and French pages.)

4. Add your promotional videos

Promotional videos can bring your author platform to life and your Amazon pages are a great place to showcase them. Unlike some sites, you actually need to upload the video, rather than just add the YouTube embed code or link. You can ‘manage’ the order they are displayed and easily update them. I have had feedback from readers that they made the decision to buy my book after seeing the video, so they definitely work!

5. Link to your blog

Your writing blog can be linked to your Amazon US page with an RSS feed. This isn’t currently available on the other country sites and sounds more complicated than it is but really makes your page more dynamic, as well as bringing more readers to your blog. There are plenty of tutorials of how to do it – Amazon’s guidance is HERE. 

Continue reading →

An enlightening post about writing a novella…Thanks, S.E. Jones.

Source: Setting is Crucial to Your Story

Worth reading and worth sharing!