Hard Lessons | The Writing Site of R K Athey
The Painful World of Grey
There are some stories that flow from your mind into Scrivener like water down a stream. World of Grey wasn’t one of those. I had to beat the flaws out with large, literary hammers. The story started out simply enough. A friend wanted a short story of about two thousand words to go into one of […]
Ya Ain’t Talkin’ Right
My copy editor from Flourish Editing returned my latest story. There’s a few persistent flaws that need work, one of which is dialogue. This post and others like it become a check list for the revised draft phase. Yes, I use my blog as a personal notebook. Use ‘said’, ‘asked’, etc. sparingly. Other methods let […]
My Writing Goal
It’s submission day, the day I turn over my latest work to an editor. Most editors ask a series of questions about your goals for the piece. As I prepare this package, I realize my goals really haven’t changed. Here’s the last response. My goal as a writer is to produce fun stories that are easy to […]
Writer’s Blindness
I learned a hard lesson when I began writing with an eye toward publishing. I have one heck of a time finding my own writing errors. You are one of a lucky few if you’re gifted with wonderful self-editing abilities. The rest of us have real issues finding problems in our own work. Why is […]