Midge Raymond's Blog, page 52

Ask Midge: Hiring an editor

Q: How do you know when you need an outside editor for your work, and what's the best way to go about finding one? — K.S., San Diego

A: The first part of this question depends on several things: your goals as a writer, the shape your project's in, and whether you have access to classes and/or writing colleagues. If you are able to participate in a writing class, fantastic — here, you will meet an instructor (who may also be an editor, or can probably help you find one), and you'll also meet...

Are you addicted to busyness?

Normally when I go jogging, which I sort of hate, I'm tuned in to an iPod or something else that takes my mind off the fact that I'm bored, out of shape, getting older, and would rather be doing just about anything else. And even though I still refuse to go to a gym, I recognized myself immediately in this New York Times story about people who multitask at the gym to avoid having to think about exercising.

But a few weeks ago, I began to feel differently about distractions. It happened when I ...

Stuff for writers

I recently discovered a new toy online: Wordle, which generates nifty "word clouds" from text that you provide on its web site. Input your text or a URL, and you'll see where your passions lie: The largest words in your cloud are the ones that appear more frequently in your source text. Here's the word cloud created from my blog:

And speaking of discovering your passions, Poets & Writers has listed its Top Ten Topics for Writers, a compilation of the most important issues for writers today...

How to write a novel … and other tips for writers

I stole the first portion of this headline from Nathan Bransford's recent blog post, mostly because I love that he not only dared but quite successfully managed to fit so many key points about this "rotund, ginormous, massive, weighty, of-gargantuan-proportions" topic into one post. (I'd have begun with character development, but that's just me.) And keep in mind that Nathan is not only a writer but a literary agent, so his advice comes at least in part from what he looks for in a new...

Taking fiction off life support

This LA Times blog post titled "Fiction is dead. Again?" was accompanied by a gripping image: a hearse. This photo  sums up this topic so well: every few years, someone somewhere claims that fiction is dead. And then we all move on.

Yet each time, the notion seems a little more alarming.

In this Mother Jones article, Ted Genoways, editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, writes about the struggles of literary magazines to keep publishing amid declining subscribers and "an even greater dent in ...

Be your own best publisher

Some of you may already be following my husband's blog about his adventures in self-publishing — and the adventure gets more interesting (and inspiring) every day. Last week, The Tourist Trail was featured in the Kindle Nation newsletter and quickly soared to the top of the Kindle Store's "Movers & Shakers" list.

Not bad for an author whose agent was told by editors that there was no audience for his book.

Fortunately, digital publishing and print-on-demand make it easy for authors to find...

Ask Midge: Character

Q: How do you write a first-person character whose voice doesn't sound like the writer's own? At some point does the character just take on his/her own life and you, the author, disappear? — J.W., Seattle

A: Many writers choose to write in a first-person POV because this voice comes naturally — it's similar to writing in a journal or writing a blog entry. But, as J.W.'s question points out, when it comes to fiction writing, an author needs to make the sure the character can live and breathe...

Clearing the workspace = clearing the mind

I recently adopted a new writing space, and I love it — most of all because it looks like this:

It's been well over a year since my desk has been a clutter-free zone — and probably since my mind has as well. But now that I have a nice, clean writing area, I am delving into projects with more mental energy than I've had in a good while. It's a beautiful thing.

Writers, here's an assignment for you: Take half an hour of your dedicated writing time and clear your space. Get rid of everything...

Stuff for writers

I hope this post finds you writing … if not, here are a few things perfect for a little helpful procrastinating.

This post on The Elegant Variation offers advice for writers, which sort of segued into advice for the lovelorn — and shows how interchangeable the words love/writing can be when it comes to advice, from "Love should bother you" to "Every day you will have to recreate your love."

And Janet Fitch offers 10 Rules for Writers on the LA Times blog — from killing cliches to stretching...

On connecting and disconnecting

A few weeks ago, I was meeting a friend for happy hour in one of the more popular restaurants in Pike Place Market. As I waited for my friend and our table, I pulled out my iPhone — just to check email. Then to check Facebook. Then to play a couple rounds of Words with Friends. Then to text my husband.

What I realized later, as I chatted with my friend, a poet, about writing and publishing and technology, was how much I'd missed out on by having my nose buried in my phone. I'd barely...