Welcome, fellow writers!
Below are some highlights of what I’ve learned on this writing journey. If there are specific topics you’d like me to cover, please ask on my contact page, and I’ll do my best!
MG/YA Agents & Their Books
I maintain a list of agents who represent middle grade/young adult books, along with books they have represented—a great way to get a feel for their taste! MG/YA Agents & Their Books
If you write in a different genre or would like to make your own list, here’s how: How to Find Books Agents Represent
Publishing Behind the Scenes
What is it like working with a traditional publisher?
- Developmental Edits
- Line Edits
- Copyedits
- Pass Pages
- Interview with cover artist Jacqueline Li
- Interview with audiobook narrator Kimberly M. Wetherell
Social Media Tips
Researching Agents & Querying Strategy
Note: I signed with my agent in 2018.
- How to Research Agents: Creating a Detailed Spreadsheet
- How to Research Agents: Querying Strategy & Hitting Send!
- Tracking Agent Responses & Knowing When to Revise
- Quick Tip: Visualizing Your Feedback
- Quick Tip: What’s Happening on Page 20? 50?
- Subjectivity and Why You Should Get Multiple Opinions
- If You Have to Explain It, Something’s Not Working
- The Evil Synopsis
What I Learned Querying
Each year, on the anniversary of sending my first round of queries, I posted about what I’d learned. I queried for just over seven years.
Writing Thoughts
From drafting (ugh!) to revising (yay!), here are some of my favorite tips and musings.
Drafting
- Don’t Get in a Rut with Your Writing Process (or Drafting as Brainstorming)
- All About Brainstorming
- Why I Love Writing Out of Order
- Why I Stop Writing When I Reach My Daily Word Count Goal
- How NaNoWriMo Shaped My Writing Process
- Before the Draft: A New Approach to Outlining in Scrivener
- It’s Just a First Draft
- Before the Draft: Outlining in Scrivener
Revising
- How I Restructured My Work In Progress Using Save the Cat
- Easy Words & Phrases You Can Cut From Your Manuscript
- How I Self-Edit A First Draft
- Why You Should Read Your Manuscript Aloud
- On Revising and Killing Those Darlings
- A Revision Plan of Attack Using Collections in Scrivener
- Why You Might Want to Change That Repeated Word
- How Repeated Words Affect Your Voice
- 6 Reasons You Should Critique for Others While Revising
- How I Tackle Revisions: Synthesizing Feedback
- How I Tackle Revisions: Reading in a Different Format
- How I Tackle Revisions: Getting Inside Secondary Characters’ Heads
