FOR WRITERS
A little help for your next draft.
Two series I post every week. Root Lessons takes one craft idea from the editing books on my shelf and puts it in plain words, with an example you can test against your own pages. Root Notes shows what my notes look like on a real page, so you can see what developmental editing actually involves. Take what helps and leave the rest.
Root Lessons
· NO. 02
What does your character do that no one else would?
Make your character specific. Vague gives you a character sheet. Specific gives you chapters.
Root Lessons
· NO. 01
She’s real to you. Is she real on the page?
Three questions to check your main character before a reader meets her.
Root Notes
· NO. 01
Notes on a first chapter
The good, the bad and the structural, the way I’d leave them in the margin.