Five story mistakes to avoid

1. Overdoing symbolism or themes. Let them speak for themselves. Don’t hit your reader over the head with them. Your theme doesn’t need to be underscored in very chapter or by every character.

2. Trying too hard. You’re writing a book. You want the readers to be hooked by the plot and the characters, not having to stop and look up a dictionary to find out what words mean.

3. Plot flaws. Every scene should move the story forward. There needs to be a reason for it and the reader needs to be able to understand that reason. On the other hand, if a particular item is going to be needed later in the book, make sure you’ve already mentioned it earlier. Don’t let it just magically appear in the nick of time.

4. Hook not gimmick. Your opening hook should not just be a gimmick. It should be an intrinsic part of the story.

5. Don’t hide key information from the readers hoping to create suspense. They need to understand what’s happening to remain interested in the book.


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

The blurb is all about the hook

Michaelbrent Collings said it well: The only purpose of the back blurb is to raise a question that can ONLY BE ANSWERED when the reader BUYS and FINISHES the book.
It seems as though I’ve read far too many blurbs lately that tell me too much. They name too many characters and give me way too much information on how the plot will turn out. We all know that a true romance story always has a happy ending. But the readers still want the hint, the possibility, the fear that in this book these characters won’t be able to solve their problems before time runs out.
The whole point of the blurb is to hook the reader, not to tell the story. The book tells the story. Blurbs should be short. In the olden days they were three very brief paragraphs. One about the heroine, one about the hero and the third about the plot. These days they might only be one paragraph.
The only things you need in the blurb are the genre (readers get cross if they think it’s a paranormal and it turns out to be historical), the mood (spooky, suspenseful, lighthearted), and the hook (that’s why they’ll buy the book).


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

The death of grammar and punctuation?

For all of you who hate the pedantic type of person (like an editor for instance) who insists on inserting a comma before a vocative (a what?) and correcting you when you misuse their/there/they’re, The Big Idea has an article suggesting we clean up the English language and remove all these confusing words and those people continually use wrongly or misspell.

To read some pros and cons on this idea go to:
http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/trends/blogs/the-big-idea/the-death-of-grammar-and-punctuation-20140606-39mdv.html

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

A writer’s exit strategy

An extremely punchy article every author or aspiring author needs to read.

http://www.theauthorshipprogram.com/2014/07/what-every-writer-should-do.html


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

More commonly confused or misused words

Irregardless and unthaw: These are not words. The words are regardless and thaw.

Bring and take: People bring things toward you and take things away from you.

Loose and lose: Loose means not tied down. Lose is when you can’t find something.

Borrow and lend: The person doing the giving lends and the person receiving something borrows it.


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Smashwords’ advice for Indie Authors

The full article is here, with links to download their slideshow.
http://blog.smashwords.com/2014/07/2014-smashwords-survey-reveals-new.html

But if you just want the headlines they are:

$2.99 and $3.99 are the sweet spots for most of the bestsellers. Free still works great, but it's losing some mojo.

Readers prefer longer ebooks.

Preorders yield sales advantage.

Series yield sales advantage.

Best-performing series have longer books.

Series that have free series starters earn more money for authors than series that do not.

Non-fiction earns more at higher prices.

Be cautious. Survey results are based on averages.


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.