Tag Archives: editing

Professional Wednesday: Creativity and the Market

Posted on January 20, 2021 by dbjackson

As a professional writer — as a professional in the arts — I take on several career roles. I am an artist, of course. I create. I am an editor, and not just in the traditional sense of editing the … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesdays: Editors and Writers — The View From Both Sides

Posted on January 13, 2021 by dbjackson

Right now, not for the first time, I find myself on both sides of the editorial process. On the one hand, I am co-editing the DERELICT anthology, reading submissions and starting to think about how authors might want to improve … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Dialogue Attribution Revisited

Posted on December 16, 2020 by dbjackson

So why am I revisiting the topic now? The short answer is it’s Joshua Palmatier’s fault. Maybe I should give you the long answer.   Back in the early spring — it feels like a hundred years ago now — … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Call For Stories, and Submission Advice Revisited!

Posted on December 2, 2020 by dbjackson

I am co-editing a new Zombies Need Brains anthology with my friend, Joshua Palmatier, who is the founder and owner of Zombies Need Brains. Joshua is co-editing all three of the ZNB anthologies this year, which to my mind is … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Goals Revisited Again, End of Year, and NaNo

Posted on November 11, 2020 by dbjackson

That is what the last month or so of most years is about. I want to set myself up to be organized, motivated, productive, and successful in the year to come. First let me wish a peaceful, healthful Veterans Day … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Waiting…

Posted on November 4, 2020 by dbjackson

[11/4 Edit:I went to bed last night thinking all was doom and gloom. This morning I see rays of hope. This isn’t over, and counting votes doesn’t happen according to ANYONE’S timetable. Hang in there folks. We are living in … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Anatomy of a Rewrite

Posted on October 7, 2020 by dbjackson

As I described in a recent Writing-tip Wednesday post, I have been working recently on a trunk series — a pair of books, the first two in a projected trilogy, that I initially wrote nearly ten years ago. I have … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Crutch Words — Finding Them and Limiting Them

Posted on September 23, 2020 by dbjackson

Last week, John Hartness, my good friend and the owner and editor at Falstaff Books, posted on Facebook about something he was seeing while editing manuscripts. Many of his writers were starting too many lines of dialogue with, “So…” As … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Let’s Talk Trunk Novels

Posted on August 19, 2020 by dbjackson

A good idea remains such, regardless of the market and our inability to execute that idea when first it comes to us. Sometimes we need to grow into the ambition of certain projects. Let me tell you about my trunk … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: When is a Manuscript Done?

Posted on April 29, 2020 by dbjackson

There comes in the revision process a point of diminishing returns. And upon reaching that point, we need to say, “The novel is good enough, as good as I can make it with the feedback and skills and tools at … Continue reading →

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