Posted on March 28, 2024 at 1:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
The publishing experts we follow have plenty of craft advice to offer.
Here are the ones that we thought were can't-miss for our authors:
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Test your prologue against this checklist: Julie Artz says your prologue (or idea for it) should meet seven criteria in order for it to make the final draft, then provides three books with gold-star prologues (Writers Helping Writers).
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Do you know what backstory to include?: Another feature of a novel that can feel extraneous if not done well is backstory; editor Tiffany Yates Martin explains how to determine whether these details are essential to the story (Jane Friedman).
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Just right emotional appeal: Kristin Hacken South took her fellow writers' responses to a previous post on this topic and came up with what she calls three unbearable extremes when it comes to emotions in your fiction (Writer Unboxed).
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Memoir versus self-help: The line between these two genres can be blurred, but they're distinct from one another — and it behooves a writer to know which one their book falls into, both from a writing and marketing perspective (Author Marketing Experts).
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