#7 Have you had your draft edited by a developmental editor?
Yes. Continue to #8. No. A developmental editor doesn’t focus on spelling, punctuation, grammar, or style, but rather on consistency […]
#6 Have you written a first draft?
Yes. Continue to #7. No. Check out Writing Your First Draft Resources. Featured image credit: Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
#5 Do you have an outline, summary, or synopsis for your story?
Yes. Continue to #6. No. Consider whether an outline will help you get started. If it won’t, skip this step […]
#4 Is your book idea fiction, memoir, or creative nonfiction based on history?
Yes. Continue to #5. No. Explore requirements for writing nonfiction. *Tips from publisher and distributor IngramSpark may provide a starting […]
Saying No
Saying no has never been easy for me. While I have a hard time asking someone else for something, I […]
#3 Does your audience want books?
Yes. Continue to #4. No. Perhaps you should write blog posts, journal articles, ezines, short stories, flash fiction, poetry, op […]
#2 Do you know who your audience is?
Yes. Continue to #3 No. Do the research to figure that out before you commit to what you write. Again, […]
#1 Do you have a story or idea in mind?
Yes. Continue to # 2. No. Stay on this step, or come back to it now and then, until the […]
I want to be a writer. Where do I start?
Most important—Don’t be fooled into thinking there is only one way. There is no single guaranteed path to producing a […]
Holidays Around the World: Canada’s Independence Day
Canada observes its independence day in the same month we do in the United States. Theirs is earlier, July 1. […]
Use Your Head
Before I retired, I spent a good deal of time taking part in online webinars to keep current with new […]
World Refugee Day
The United Nations designated June 20 each year as World Refugee Day in order to highlight the needs, rights, and […]
MS Word Tip #5: Smart Quotes, Straight Quotes, and Apostrophes
Controlling use of smart vs straight quotes MS Word offers two styles of quotation marks: smart quotes and straight quotes. […]
MS Word Tips #4: Paragraph Formatting Features
Document Vs Paragraph Formatting All the formatting information for the document is stored with the final character on that document. […]
MS Word Tips #3: Setting Up Pages and Formatting Documents
MS Word provides two separate options for formatting documents. The first is Page Setup or Layout which includes setting the […]
MS Word Tip #2: Understanding Templates
Why do I need to know about Microsoft templates? MS Word templates are like cookie cutters. Everytime you begin a […]
