This most definitely shows my vintage. With a friend the other day, I was taking about books that were a stepping stone into the world of what adults were reading. This was one such book that bridged the gap for me. The Beach by Alex Garland. It was very studenty and that appealed when IContinue reading “Who were your gateway authors that pulled you away from teenage reads?”
Tag Archives: personalblog
Save The Cat! Writes a Novel. A great book about story structure. Have you read it?
🤩 I’ll tell you what I’m loving about Save the Cat! Writes a Novel so far: 📚 the examples. The novels which are referenced to back up the claims about story structure. There’s a really nice balance in the selection of texts across genres, styles, eras, audiences. It’s just a stroke of luck that IContinue reading “Save The Cat! Writes a Novel. A great book about story structure. Have you read it?”
Looking for a proofreader/editor who is experienced at working with indie authors? That’s me!
I’ve just been crunching some numbers. 📈 In 2021, I had: 1️⃣3️⃣ editing jobs. Of these: 8️⃣ were indie author clients 4️⃣ were business clients and 1️⃣ was an academic client. My word count for the year was 581,191. Not bad considering that’s been part-time. 94% of the words I proofread/edited belonged to indie authorContinue reading “Looking for a proofreader/editor who is experienced at working with indie authors? That’s me!”
Do you attend a creative writing group?
I’ve spent the afternoon at a creative writing group in Morecambe. I really enjoyed the writing prompts and exercises. 1) A piece of free writing based on the word of the day — travail. 2) A first lines auction. This was a great idea. Everyone writes an opening line (to a poem, piece of prose,Continue reading “Do you attend a creative writing group?”
How do I find motivation to tick things off my to-do list? I tell my accountability group I’m going to do them.
I’m currently ticking off my last couple of January goals. 🎯 I said I’d contact eight publishers in Jan. So far I’ve done five, so I’ll do another three today. 🎯 I said I’d attend an in-person creative writing group in Jan. So I’m going to one this afternoon. “I said I’d…” refers to theContinue reading “How do I find motivation to tick things off my to-do list? I tell my accountability group I’m going to do them.”
Are you on BookTok? I’m having a go!
Achievement unlocked? I’ve created my first TikTok video. I’m not sure what I hoped to achieve other than to just join in the fun. These BookTokkers have infectious energy. I’m loving the fun and creativity I’m seeing as I dip my toe in the platform. Are you on there? Drop your usernames and we canContinue reading “Are you on BookTok? I’m having a go!”
What is Parkinson’s Law? Knowing this helps me to be a more efficient editor.
⏰ “It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Cyril Northcote Parkinson, The Economist,1955. I gave myself the morning off today and I’m really glad I did. It’s been a mad few weeks and yesterday evening when I hit send on this month’s main editingContinue reading “What is Parkinson’s Law? Knowing this helps me to be a more efficient editor.”
Cherry Edits: making in-roads with traditional publishers.
That’s the proofreading test done for the big ol’ publisher. 🤞 It’s just over two years since I finished P3, my third CIEP training course. And it was noticeable this weekend as I was finishing off the test sample how much more confident I felt than when I did the final course exercises at theContinue reading “Cherry Edits: making in-roads with traditional publishers.”
How writing could help you if you’re feeling stuck.
Feeling stuck? Do some writing. (Or basket weaving or something. Whatever suits. 😁) Caught two minutes of the Steven Bartlett podcast and learnt a cool thing that I’d never thought about before. Well, I have, but not quite in such straightforward terms. Mel Robbins (? — I will look her up…) was talking about peopleContinue reading “How writing could help you if you’re feeling stuck.”
Indie authors: I’m making in-roads with publishers and that will benefit you too.
One of the Big Five traditional publishers has asked me to do a proofreading test. If I’m successful, I will hopefully be added to their freelance pool. The sample is from a fiction manuscript. It’s typeset and will need marking up with PDF tools. It’s ‘proper’ proofreading. As in, it does what it says onContinue reading “Indie authors: I’m making in-roads with publishers and that will benefit you too.”
CherryEdits 