Wednesday links: Warning signs and losing track of your story

I love regularly reading tips and advice articles in certain subjects — particularly writing and publishing. I don’t always need the information right then, but I know that it’ll eventually come in handy. Or at least, I hope it will.

I know there are a lot of other people out there who feel the same way I do, but sometimes it can be difficult to find every useful advice article that’s out there. So I thought I’d bring you a few.

Here are the tips and advice articles that jumped out at me the most over the past week.

1. Five Warning Signs Your Story Needs Revision, from Kristen Lamb’s Blog: There are certain things that every editor (or self-editing writer) knows to look out for when reading through a manuscript. But there are also certain small things that a writer can fix themselves before even sending the manuscript on to an editor. Excerpt: “Not only will cleaning up these oopses make the editing process faster—because your editor can actually get to the MEAT of your work instead of being distracted by small errors—but the bill should be smaller because your editor can work faster because there are fewer problems to correct. Also, if you’re sending sample pages to an agent and he/she sees too many of these newbie blunders? NEXT!”

2. Abandoned Story? Pick up the Story Lines Again and Create Magic, from Fiction Notes: Life, being the overwhelming presence it can be, can sometimes get in the way of your writing. And if it gets in the way for too long, you can end up losing track of your story. But, with a bit of work, you can get yourself back on track again. Excerpt: “You know where the story is going, you’re in the drafting mode and going strong and BANG! Something happens. You have to set the story aside for a while. Momentum is lost. The story almost seems lost, too.”