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Friday, October 12, 2012

Tweetalicious Advice from an Editor (and a contest for MG/YA/Adult manuscripts!)

Adrien-Luc Sanders  has won my awesome-dude-of-the-week award for his service to writers everywhere.

Tweeting advice and commentary from the handle @smoulderingsea, his hashtag #editortips is a well-known goldmine of information. Yes, keep in mind that not all editors think exactly alike, but also keep in mind that free advice from a Senior Editor at Entangled Publishing should always be welcomed (unlike a free/discount root canal...which goes under the category of "bargains to avoid"). See Entangled's editing team profiles HERE to find out more about him and his interests.

Here are a few tweets from this Tuesday's #editortips:

Adrien-Luc Sanders@smoulderingsea
If you start thinking "Well I need to explain all this before the story really starts..." Stop. Look at what you wrote. Delete. #editortips


Your main character doesn't have to be a good person. They have to be someone interesting readers can empathize with. #editortips

Even if your MC is good, they won't always do good things. In a moment of weakness, under duress, etc.--they'll do bad things. #editortips

The message to take away from all this is character complexity. No one is ever defined by one trait. No one remains constant. #editortips

Key characterization factor: plausible motivation. Readers don't get why the MC does what they do? Readers won't stick around. #editortips

While characters need to express their opinions to build voice, interjecting a snarky comment on *everything* derails the story. #editortips

Anyone can do snarky. The important thing is revealing who your character really is under the snark and cleverness. #editortips

While tropes can provide a skeleton for your story, don't fall back on them for everything. Twist them into something unique. #editortips

90% of the time, italicized first person thoughts can be rolled into third person to strengthen the overall voice and flow. #editortips

If you do use italicized first person thoughts, make sure not to over-use them. When it's every other paragraph, it's annoying. #editortips

There should never be a part of your book you label "boring, but necessary." If it's necessary, make it interesting. #editortips

Many don't seem to understand: you can make anything interesting. Bookshelves. Golf. Slime mold. That's what writers do. #editortips
~~~
**To find more advice from Adrien-Luc Sanders and others on Twitter, simply go to twitter.com and enter "#editortips" in the search box
~~


CONTEST ALERT:

Have a Middle Grade, Young Adult, or Adult manuscript ready to submit? Head over to Dee's blog and read the guidelines for the Hook, Line, & Sinker contest. Round 1 opens Saturday, October 13 at 11:00 am EDT.

Read about the agent line-up and wish lists HERE.







23 comments:

  1. Those are some AWESOME writerly-tips. Thanks for sharing those.

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  2. He also posts them on his blog, if you miss a week! They're just fabulous.

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  3. I don't have Twitter, so it's nice to know he posts on his blog. I love finding interesting, juicy tidbits like this:)

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    1. I didn't know about the blog, so I'm glad Kelsey mentioned it!

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  4. Thanks for the great tips and the heads-up on the contest. You're always my go-to person for all the news in the writing community. Thanks for all you do! :-D

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  5. I love Adrien's tweets! So helpful, and they cut right past all the BS.

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  6. Great advice. I'll definitely look him up on twitter!

    And thanks for the contest information.

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    1. Are you on Twitter? I'll have to check your blog to see if there's a link...

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  7. Love the tips, great reminders. Thanks again, Jess :-)

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  8. All really great advice. Love the snarky tweets. LOL. Thanks for sharing, Jess! <3

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  9. Those are great tips! Thanks for the heads up. I'm off to find him on Twitter!

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    1. Good! Hope you glean more info from #editortips in the future :)

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  10. Lots of great advice in these tweets!

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  11. Great advice - thank you! Scarlet O'Hara. Love her, hate her, one of the most memorable characters of all time. Complex, mean, strong, sometimes so hard to like but we keep reading b/c she's so fascinating. I always think of Scarlet when it comes to character!

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  12. I love him! Seriously, two of his tweets caused me to do serious edits to my last manuscript. And when I entered his contest, his suggestions helps me edit the beginning of my story.

    He's amazing.

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