📖 Ready to craft a gripping first page? Join my FREE webinar for expert tips and live critiques of attendee submissions. Plus, get an invite to an exclusive follow-up Q&A session! 📅 February 26 | ⏰ 6 PM CT🚀 Register now: www.DLAEditors.com/Events

We're up and running at the #SanFranciscoWritersConference! Stop by table when you get the chance--I'd love to meet you and hear more about your book. And don't forget about the Self-Publishing expert panel at 11:45 AM, where I look forward to helping answer your questions!

On my way to San Francisco--can't wait to meet all of you great writers attending the #SanFranciscoWritersConference this weekend! @sfwc.bsky.social

Tuesday Editing Tip #9: Reduce the use of vague words: replace them, when possible, with more specific alternatives. Common vague words include: work (what type of work?), walk (how did they walk?), being verbs (can you describe an action?) and, of course, thing. What others can you think of?

Anybody else spend too much time customizing the folder icons in Scrivener?

Free-for-All Friday #9: A book can be excellent—your best book can be excellent—and still not one a publisher will take. It may simply come down to how clear is the path they can see to selling it. Which, by the way, is in large part a guessing game for them (and they know that). Thoughts?

What a great webinar yesterday evening on traditional vs hybrid vs self-publishing--thank you to everyone who attended, and your great questions! If you missed the webinar, don't worry: I'll be doing more, and am also happy to meet over Zoom to answer any questions you have.

Tuesday Editing Tip #8: If Gustave Flaubert is right, and there’s no such thing as a synonym, is there such a thing as an antonym?

Tuesday Editing Tip #7: Gustave Flaubert believed there is no such thing as a synonym. Do you?

Is it just me, or does anyone else wish public transportation were ubiquitous (and cities like Houston, where I live, were more public transportation-friendly) so as to be able to use transit times for writing?

Writers! I wanted to ask: What are your thoughts on Copilot in Word? I expect many are against it (I, myself, deactivated it). I'm more curious to know the opinions of those in favor of it. How do you use it? What advantages does it give you?

A little Saturday inspiration for the #writingcommunity!

Agents, publishers, & services often dominate the publishing conversation. What’s missing? A neutral, no-strings-attached perspective. 🎙️ Join my free webinar "Windfalls & Pitfalls: Traditional vs. Hybrid vs. Self-Publishing" on Jan 29 @ 6 PM CT. 🚀 www.dlaeditors.com/events

Does the very existence of social media undermine the ability of needed, powerful voices to be heard? How does an opinion get traction in a space flooded with them? (4/4)

Would you wish such a path for one of your kids? Or for your spouse or sibling? Or yourself? If you could have one singular impact on society—however large that “society”—what would you want it to be? How would you get people to listen? (2/4)

Crafting the Magic Monday #3: Today is the day to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr., a man who had a profound impact on society, whose personal life was not perfect, and whose legacy has been disembodied and appropriated for political gain. (1/4)

Sunday Sanity Check #3: What has been your biggest accomplishment this week?

Words of wisdom for sure! Here's wishing all #amwriting and #amediting members of the #writingcommunity a productive writing weekend!

Free-for-All Friday #6: Literary agents are like real estate agents—some are quite green and not that well-connected, while others are savvy and well-connected. Keep that in mind when considering offers from “agents.” #writingcommunity #amquerying

Excited to meet the #authors attending the #SanFranciscoWritersConference Feb 6-9, 2025! If you want to know what it takes to successfully #selfpublish your book, don't miss the Ask Me Anything panel! #sfwc's invited experts will answer all your questions! @sfwc.bsky.social

Thursday Thank-You #6: I’d like to thank all of you who follow me, your engagement and your support. You may notice that each Thursday, I try to post at least one expression of gratitude, as I believe a regular practice of gratitude, no matter what we’ve been through, can help edify those around us.

Thursday Thank-You #5: Thank you to the teachers and librarians who composed our high school summer reading list. As a senior, I read Light in August by William Faulkner, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Native Son by Richard Wright—three works that showed me the transformative power of fiction.

Wednesday Writing Tip #4: As a writer, you are a problem-solver. You create your starting point—whether it is a character, scene, question, dilemma, etc.—and from there ask questions to solve. The more insightful your questions, and your solutions to them, the better your writing will be. #amwriting

Wednesday Writing Tip #3: Instead of “but,” try to use “and,” whenever you can. #writingcommunity #amwriting #amediting

Tuesday Editing Tip #4: Can you eliminate the use of “that”? Every time you find “that” in your writing, can you see what the phrase or sentence looks like without it? If it works, then leave it out.

Tuesday Editing Tip #4: Can you eliminate the use of “that”? Every time you find “that” in your writing, can you see what the phrase or sentence looks like without it? If it works, then leave it out.

Tuesday Editing Tip #3: Before rushing to use “as per,” check that you are actually using it correctly (it means “in accordance with” or “according to”) and, even if you are, check to see if you can’t simply use “as” or “per” (the latter of which already means “according to”) instead of “as per.”

Crafting the Magic Monday #2: The first author whose books I fell in love with was “Franklin W. Dixon.” I don’t remember how I discovered them, but when I did, at around the age of 10, I was hooked, and wanted to own every book in the series. (1/10)

It may not sound like a lot of progress, but this weekend, I focused on developing my characters as I build my novel's foundation. I'll spend a lot more time on this to make sure I get it right. What has everyone else been up to?

Good luck to everyone writing this weekend!

Free-for-All Friday #3: When querying agents, keep in mind that the agent’s ability to get you a contract comes down to (1) who they know (do they know someone who will take your book?) and (2) how hard they will work to get you that contract (how many other books are they also trying to place?).

Thursday Thank-You #4: I’d like to thank my high school English teacher, Shirely Wiley, for instilling in me a desire to pursue excellence in writing. That was more than 30 years ago, and I still remember her name!

Thursday Thank-You #3: I’d like to thank the Looscan Neighborhood Library in Houston, TX, for their summer reading competition for elementary school students. I loved competing in this when I was a kid!

Ever wondered how to know if your book is worth all the fuss of traditional publishing? Are you enticed by, but wary of, the opportunities of self-publishing? And is hybrid publishing a scam? Join me Jan 29th, where I will be answering all these questions and more! DLAEditors.com/Events

Wednesday Writing Tip #1: The best writing is honest writing. Most writers have experienced trauma that makes it fearful, painful or difficult to be completely honest. They must, at turns, be kind, accepting and confrontational with themselves to produce their best writing.

Tuesday Editing Tip #2: Save (a ton of) time by creating macros in Word to automate common tasks, and assigning custom key sequences to them so you don’t need to use your mouse. For example, I use Alt+C to add a comment, and I use Alt+Enter to return to the text.

Tuesday Editing Tip #1: Want to see easily where you have 2 spaces instead of 1? Or why a paragraph isn’t indented correctly? In MS Word, click the backward P in the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph group in the Home tab. In Scrivener, select Show Invisibles under Text Editing in the View menu.

I'm really excited about these three books I received for Christmas. Which one should I start reading first?

Sunday Sanity Check #1: What are you working on this weekend?

You got this!

Announcing my upcoming webinar! Sign up today at www.dlaeditors.com/events. Spots are limited!

Following my New Year’s post, I wanted to share an impactful book I read for all those who want to stop procrastinating and get more out of your time pursuing what is most valuable to you. If this is you, or someone you know, I highly recommend Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy.

Thank-You #2: I’d like to thank both my parents and my grandmother, Stella Lombardino, who, when I was growing up, would buy me any books I wanted for my birthday and Christmas.

Thursday Thank-You #1: For this first-ever Thursday Thank-You, I’d like to thank my mom, for instilling in me a both creative and critical way of looking at the world around me and inspiring my love of reading.

I am 48 years old. Within the last few months, I made two significant decisions. First, I have decided to take a new direction with my editing company. Since 2008, we've offered editing services to a broad range of clients and project types. (cont. in comments)

What do you see as more important for building an ideal society, conformity or acceptance?

Do you believe social media hurts or helps you as a writer? #writingcommunity #amwriting #amquerying

Other than how much passion you have for writing and how hard you've worked on your book, what is the one thing you wish someone considering whether to read your book knew about you? #writingcommunity #amwriting #amquerying

Does anyone write by hand anymore? I used to--for years, b/c typing was too fast to permit for reflection--but then how to organize all the notebooks/scraps of paper? Then I discovered Notes and typing with my thumbs only--in short, the best of both worlds. #writingcommunity #amwriting #amquerying

If you could achieve one social change with your book, what would it be? #WritingCommunity