It’s Independence Day and we have so much to be thankful for! What better day to talk about an author’s reasons to use a pseudonym. The first article, Why Authors Use Pseudonyms, listed 3 reasons (the first two of which are my reasons) — the name is too long and too difficult to spell, followed by gender. This article provides even more great reasons for writers to use pseudonyms.
Safety
Staying safe is important and there are many instances where your writing may make you a target. If your political views are contrary to those of your neighbors, friends, or your workplace, a pseudonym may be your answer. But your views/position may not be the only reason your safety may be jeopardized. An author I know who writes Christian romance was targeted by a prisoner. As his release date approached, and his obsession continued, she decided a pseudonym would be in her best interest.
Genre
You may be an author who wrote in one genre, but wanted to venture out into another. Your following would be very unhappy if they bought a book they thought was in their favorite genre, only to find this book didn’t even come close to their expectations. Disappointment is an understatement. If an author plans on venturing into another genre, a pseudonym may be right for you.
Writers
Family
A writer may write in a genre that they don’t want their family to know about. When I was a speaker for a nationwide conference, I was invited to a pre-conference gathering which I attended. An author’s shoes prompted me to approach the wearer/author. I had injured my foot and could not wear heals. Yes, I know this is a strange way to meet someone, but sometimes it brings amazing results. This author was sweet, conservative, and very shy. After we discussed where she bought the shoes and their benefits, I asked what she wrote. Needless to say, I was quite surprised to find that she wrote erotica, was the wife of a surgeon, and mother of 4 children. Obviously, she could not write under her legal name or it would seriously hurt her family, income, and way of life, so she wrote under a pseudonym. She’s not the only one to choose a pseudonym for this reason.
Family
work
Depending on who you work for or what you do for a living, a pseudonym might be just what the doctor ordered. If you are a government employee and disagree with their political perspective, no doubt you do not want them to know your political views unless you don’t mind risking the loss of your job. If it’s not politics, it might be something else associated with your position.
Work
In my last article, I asked what your thoughts were on my use of Karen Vann as my new pseudonym. Based on an overwhelming majority of my readers, it looks like this name is the winner. Thank you for your input!
Can you think of any other reasons a writer may want to use a pseudonym?
Welcome back to APODS. Are you ready
to talk about organization? I hope so, because I want to share some precepts
from experts in time management and organization.
This month’s post focuses on ideas
from Marilyn Paul, whose It’s Hard to
Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys is one of my favorite books
on the subject.
Although the entire book is worth reading, I found four of her points particularly useful.
APODS – Organization
1. Have a place for everything and everything in its place
This should be self-evident, since it’s almost the definition of organization, but the simple fact is, if you can’t find a critical writing tool or even the new ream of paper you need for your printer, the time you spend looking for it is time you could have been writing. On the other hand, if you establish a place for everything you need to write and then ensure that everything is returned to that place as soon as you’ve finished using it, you’ll reduce wasted time and the frustration of having to search for something.
2. Establish your own filing/organizational system, using the KISS principle
There are two key
parts to this. The first is that a filing system that works for someone else
may not work for you. You need to determine what makes sense to you. After all,
each of us is unique, and what seems logical for someone else may be confusing
to us. Don’t be fooled into believing that just because a writer you admire
uses a system means that it will be the right one for you.
The second part is the KISS principle. You’re probably familiar with it, but in case you aren’t, the acronym stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. While I don’t particularly like the “stupid” part of it, the call for simplicity resonates with me. Why create a system that’s more complex than it needs to be? You’re setting yourself up for frustration if you do that. Save your creativity for writing itself, not filing or organizing.
These two principles have as their goal avoiding wasted time. The next two focus on minimizing frustration.
KISS Principle
3. Learn how much time each task takes, allowing for transition time
Remember back in the Analysis phase when we charted our use of time? Among other things, that taught us how long it takes to do specific things. What we didn’t factor into the equation was transition time. It’s unrealistic to expect to finish eating dinner and go directly to writing a chapter. If you set up a schedule without including transition time, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Don’t do it.
4. Schedule “unscheduled time”
Does this sound
counterintuitive? After all, if we’re scheduling our time, shouldn’t we
schedule all of it? Marilyn Paul says we should, but that one of the things we
need to include in our daily schedule is some time without any task associated
with it. Why? Life happens. Things that you didn’t expect will demand your
time. If you’ve scheduled every minute, when the unexpected occurs and you’re
forced to deal with it, you’ll be behind schedule.
Furthermore, no
matter how carefully you schedule, there will be times when a task takes longer
than you planned. If you have no free time in your schedule, once again you’ll
fail to meet your goals, and that will be frustrating. You want to ensure
success, not failure, so give yourself a break … literally. Schedule
“unscheduled time.”
Think about Paul’s precepts. Do they make sense to you? Can/will you implement them? I hope so. I also hope you’ll come back in August when we explore two other experts’ advice on how to organize.
(C) 2019 Amanda Cabot
Amanda Cabot
Amanda Cabot is no stranger to getting to “The End.” She juggled a sixty-hour a week job with nonnegotiable deadlines and building a house long-distance at the same time that she wrote two books a year. Whether or not she kept her sanity during that time is debatable. Amanda is the best-selling author of over thirty novels, eight novellas, four non-fiction books, and what she describes as enough technical articles to cure insomnia in a medium-sized city.
Her most recent release is A Tender Hope, the third in the Cimarron Creek trilogy.
Have you ever wondered why authors use pseudonyms? There are a wide variety of very good reasons that we’ll explore in this two part series, starting with the first two which affect me.
The Name Is:
Too Common
When your name is too common, it not only gets lost in the crowd, but chances are that there are other authors with the same name. Hence, the reason I chose not to write as Karen Fischer. There is another. I chose to write under my maiden name, Karen Van Den Heuvel, which is a pseudonym since it is no longer my legal name. It is unique, I could find no other author with the same name, and I actually like my given name. But alas, this brings us to the second reason.
Too Long and Difficult to Spell
What I did not consider was the fact that not only is Karen Van Den Heuvel a long name, but it is difficult to pronounce and spell — the reason I chose another name for my website (I had one too many people being taken to someone else’s website by mistake when trying to come to mine). Although you can still find me at www.KarenVanDenHeuvel.com, it redirects to something everyone can spell, www.LoveBooksandBling.com. I recently made the decision, to continue to write my romantic suspense under a new pseudonym. As my readers, I’d love your input, so I’ll share my thoughts at the end of this article.
Gender
Unfortunately, sexist views on gender still exist. There are men who write romance, but in order to sell their books, they need to write under a female pseudonym. The same goes for women who venture into an area typically controlled by men. They need to either write under a pseudonym or use initials to mask their gender.
L.A. Sartor
A writer I personally know, won the contract to write, Cry of the Dove. ABC studios thought that she shouldn’t be immediately identifiable as a woman writer due to the intense scenes of prison and war. They felt as a woman, she would be dismissed. She used her initials to mask the fact that she was a woman. Fortunately her initials worked well with her last name, L.A. Sartor. If you haven’t read one of her books, I highly recommend you check her out at https://lesliesartor.com. Once you start, you won’t be able to stop.
In closing, I will bring you back to the use of a new pseudonym for my fiction. I need a pseudonym I can:
relate to
answer to (in public signings, author gatherings, etc.)
won’t get lost in the crowd,
is easy to spell,
short in length, and
bold to attract my readers.
For me, this was a struggle, so I brought my predicament to my writers group. Leslie Sartor made the initial suggestion, followed by the buy-in of others, but as my readers, I would love your thoughts on this potential pseudonym: Karen Vann
Hooding of Victoria by Her Grandfather
It is an abbreviated part of my name used by my father’s patients for decades so I can relate to it and will answer to it, and there are no other authors with that name.
This is the third article in the SEO for Writers Series and it answers the following questions: What draws people to your site? How do you increase those hits in a positive way? The answer lies in key words… .
Keywords
Keywords are those terms and words people use when they look for something on the internet through a search engine, whether it’s Google, Yahoo, or another. A label is another good way to look at it. It states your post’s purpose in a few words — sometimes only one. Usually groups of words are used because that is how people search (one word often gives too many options). Your goal is to match as closely as you can what someone will input for a search.
Key Words
Guidelines to effectively use keywords include:
The keywords should always be used in the title.
Within the first 50 words of your article, repeat the keywords at least once.
Throughout the rest of your article, spread out the use of these keywords as a natural part of the article. For example, in a 350-400 word article, the keywords should be used at least 3 or more times.
Remember, the search engines use algorithms. This means they won’t necessarily understand and pick up on the way you cleverly use words or a double meaning. For example, a clever title of Chili That’s Too Hot to Handle will rank a lot lower than one with the title Vegetarian Homemade Chili. The reason is because the algorithm used the literal meaning of the words and because the clever title doesn’t include the word “vegetarian,” it will receive fewer clicks.
Guidelines to Using Key Words
My goal is not to quell your clever thoughts, we just need to be deliberate when and where we are clever. For example, that chili recipe with a name like Spicy Hot Vegetarian Chili would be a hit, and in its description, include the clever tag: too hot to handle.
Linking your website/blog with your social media will bring in even more traffic, but remember, if your social media site is set on private, Google can’t review these pages regardless of how great and active they are.
A few years ago, an SEO firm contacted
me to write nutrition, business, and law related articles for its clients. The
owner knew I was a Registered Dietitian and an attorney and he needed help.
This opened a new door and I realized that one of the most important areas of
expertise that SEO firms handle, is not just the behind the scene software
pieces, but even more important is the content.
And ladies and gentlemen, as writers,
content is what we do best.
It used to be that if you wanted people to find you and your business, you picked names for your business that would place you at the front of the phone book rather than toward the back. The days of the phone book are gone. What matters most is whether your name or business comes up in the first pages of a key word search. Instead of your fingers doing the walking, Google does the hunting.
Google/Yahoo, is like a battery
operated toy — it is programed to find certain things, to like certain things,
and to reject other things. The more it likes, the higher your ranking which
increases the chance that your web presence will appear at the top of people’s
search results — the top 10 is best.
Let’s take a look at some of those things:
Unique. If your content is unique, Google likes it. But how does
Google define unique? The information itself doesn’t have to be new, but the
way it’s expressed does. You can say the same thing many different ways and it
can still be considered unique by Google. This is because search engines like
Google use mathematical equations (algorithms) that take words literally. The
rule of thumb is 3 words. Don’t use more than 3 of the same words in a row from
something else that’s been published whether it was your own, or something you
have permission to use. One of the SEO’s clients was an orthodontist who had
different pages for 15 different locations. Each of the pages expressed the
same type of content, who he was, the services he offered, and the outcome his
patients could expect. I took his one page that expressed the information he
wanted to present to the public and rewrote it 15 different ways. Google saw
each page as unique and his ranking rose.
Unique
Hits. The number of visitors who visit your site and stay awhile. It’s not just how many visit, because if they visit and immediately bounce off, Google registers that they must not have liked what they saw since they made a quick exit. This decreases your ranking. Next, we’ll look at what draws people to your site and how do you increase those hits in a positive way.
My Dad: Christian Van Den Heuvel – Exercise is Key: A Tribute to Our Military
Did you have a memorable Independence Day? I did. One critical fact I couldn’t help but think about is that FREEDOM ISN’T FREE — it comes at a great cost. I want to thank all of those military men and women who have served our country, who now serve our country, and who will serve our country. I also want to thank those who train our military service dogs who play such a key role in securing our freedom. Without all of you … the thought makes me shudder.
God bless America!
Silent Heroes – Military Service Dogs
Freedom of Speech
One of the greatest freedoms granted to writers is the freedom of speech. Without that right, we could not express our views, write those stories we have a passion to share, and help those who could not receive help without the written word.
A Beacon for Life
A Beacon for Life
I had 3 children — 2 surviving who I am incredibly proud of and one who came between them. Mary Kathryn was Trisomy 18 and stillborn. It was a very difficult time and I wrote a book, A Beacon for Life. For me, it was cathartic, and I wrote it with the intention to only help others. The thought of making anything off of it wasn’t even in the picture. A traditional publisher picked it up, but as with all new authors, the contract clauses were grey, non-negotiable, and standard. At the time, I traveled the country doing speaking engagements and my goal was to buy books to donate. The publisher set my retail price at the high end for a book that size and my mere 30% author discount didn’t make my book affordable for me to purchase and donate.
One evening I got a call… . This was the beginning of print on demand and that is how my publisher operated. Someone ordered 3 books and 303 books were printed. They had no way to store them and wanted me to buy them. Needless to say, I negotiated them down to $3 per book and donated them. I have letters from those my book helped that I keep as a reminder of the importance of the written word. My book helped more than I could have ever imagined.
Make A Difference
As a writer, we all have the opportunity to positively impact the lives of others. Does that mean we need to be published to make that impact? Most of us think the answer to that question is a resounding YES. However, I am here to tell you that the answer is NO. Yes, you have the opportunity to reach more people if you are published (but that does not mean you will); the more important goal is to reach those you are intended to reach.
Taking a hike
My son recently told me how thankful he is of my writing. I am an older mom (almost 37 when I had my son). He told me it was comforting to know that all he had to do was read something I wrote to hear my “voice.” You do not need to be published to hear the voice of the author and gain encouragement and help from their written word. I know a “young” man whose mom was never published, but whose written word provides comfort and inspiration to this day. Who do you want to reach?
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words The Clove Principle: Puncture Your Writing with Warmth by Kathryn Ross
Welcome Kathryn Ross to Thyme for Writers. Peppermint Bits — Words Spun, Broken and Sweet is Kathryn’s third in the The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words series! What better way to bring in the Christmas season than with Kathryn’s words of wisdom…
Like a good book, the sense of smell possesses the power to whisk a person into another time and place.
Memories
Memory connects a life experience stored in the brain to our senses, ready to unleash it upon our being should we come in contact with that particular sense trigger again. We flood with remembrance as nostalgia works a spa-like treatment upon our hearts—if the memories are sweet.
Peppermint Bits—Words Spun, Broken and Sweet By Kathryn Ross
Christmas may come but once a year, yet when I smell pine and peppermint in July, I have a momentary urge to string lights and plug A Charlie Brown Christmas into the DVD player while consuming sweetness in a cup of hot chocolate stirred with the red and white swirl of a fragrant peppermint candy cane.
But, what if the scents that stir us connect to less than sweet memories? Brokenness. Heart sick moments in our lives we’d rather not return to even in the fleeting imagery of the mind. Sometimes, we don’t want our memories stirred. We don’t want to return to painful moments.
As writers, our words act like the power of scent whisking us to another time and place—both broken and sweet. We stir within our readers either a curse or a blessing. How we balance the ingredients of the words we write and the messages we convey by knowing and targeting a specific audience, determines the value our work is to those we hope to influence.
Powerful vehicles, our senses. Much like trigger words in a story. Swirled together like the red and white of a candy cane, they become effective communication tools for the writer and speaker, spun wisely.
The Blessing Comes through the Broken
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words Peppermint Bits—Words Spun, Broken and Sweet By Kathryn Ross
In the late 1800s, America was growing with European immigrants from many diverse Western cultures. Christmas was a holiday marked by all, though celebrations differed. One thing many did hold in common from the Old World was to see the pig as a symbol of good health and prosperity—something all families hoped for as the new year approached. A candy maker in Saratoga Springs, New York created a unique trinket, to bolster his sales, built on this commonality. He mixed sugar and peppermint into a bright pink concoction and poured it into small molds of a pig. Then, cleverly, he packaged it with a cloth bag, a little metal hammer, and directions for instituting a new family Christmas tradition. After the meal on Christmas day, the pig was placed into the cloth bag and hammered to broken bits. Emptying the bag onto the table, chucks of fragrant peppermint candy poured out—enough for everyone to eat and enjoy,making memories bathed in the scent of peppermint and a wish for good health and prosperity in the new year. Only in brokenness came the blessing.
The Sweetness Comes through Consumption
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words Peppermint Bits—Words Spun, Broken and Sweet By Kathryn Ross
The scent of peppermint has long been connected to Christmas celebrations. As far back as the 1670s in Germany, folkore tells us about the choirmaster petitioning a candy maker to come up with a sugar stick to keep noisy children silent in the solemn part of their worship service. The clever candy maker designed the peppermint flavored candy cane we still use today in the shape of a shepherd’s crook. He swirled the sugar mixture with red and white colors in remembrance of the blood of Jesus shed to make us all whiter than snow. Story spun with tangible stimulants for the senses spoke directly to the youthful audience it was meant to still, as they consumed the sweet. Sticky and forever connected to Christmas, we consume tons of peppermint candy cane confections each year. Only in consumption comes the sweet.
As a writer, I compose my most effective words from a place of brokenness because of the bitter, and the consumption of a sweet remedy discovered. Memories I prefer to tuck away must be stirred to the surface to remember well the sour moments in time, so I might write the way to find the sweet blessing there. For me. For my readers.
Scent, like words, heal. Medicinally, peppermint oil is used to invigorate the mind and senses. It tingles the skin with coolness, aids digestion, comforts stomach upset, and washes over one with an inspiring a sense of peace.
Do the words you write and speak do the same? Are they flavored to draw to the surface bitter things and so heal with the sweet? How can you add a dose of peppermint to your work and minister peace to your readers?
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words When Cinnamon Bark Editors Bite By Kathryn Ross
Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words When Cinnamon Bark Editors Bit Kathryn Ross
Writer, speaker, teacher, and enrichment artist, Kathryn Ross, sweeps readers into the story-worlds of Jane Austen, C. S. Lewis, Hannah Hurnard, Marguerite de Angeli, John Bunyan, and others, exploring powerful truths to fulfilling God’s plan for your life in her latest publication, The Gatekeeper’s Key. Discern your place and season, with encouragement to see purpose in boundaries, find comfort in trials, and gain fortitude in going forth. Short story, personal testimony, excerpts from classic literature, visual imagery, challenge questions for discussion, and journal prompts for writing assignments draw you before the Gatekeeper. It’s quite a journey—but you’re never alone. Always in His Presence, with an Invitation, a Gatekeeper, and a Key. Perhaps more than one. Purchase on Amazon or direct from Pageant Wagon Publishing.
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words The Clove Principle: Puncture Your Writing with Warmth by Kathryn Ross
In Thyme for Writers, The Clove Principle: Puncture Your Writing with Warmth is the second in the The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words series by Kathryn Ross.
Thanksgiving
The pantry, fragrant in Thanksgiving spices, overflows with all the ingredients for holiday baking. Not the least of which are the cloves necessary for flavor-filled pumpkin pie, succulent hams, and first aid should the need arise.
In fact, with diets thrown out the window in the season of family feasts and horn-o-plenty holiday entertaining, a bit of clove oil on hand, rubbed on the tummy, aids digestion and stomach upset when over-eating overtakes the merry-maker at the dinner table.
The chill in the air outside impels us to seek warm things, and clove is the spice to warm traditional dishes this time of year, as well as symbolically impart the inviting fervor of affection in gift-giving.
Victorian Times
In Victorian times, the simplicity of homemade gifts from the kitchen or treasures crafted by hand found a warm welcome. Popular gifts were aromatic pomanders made of tiny, stick-like, brown floral cloves inserted into an orange, like beads studded on a ball ornament for a tree. They, too, hung by a ribbon or nestled in a bowl, releasing the citrus scent of the fruit, mingled with the clove’s own pungent passion. A room enhanced by such fragrance stimulated the human senses, mind, and heart, inviting intimacy.
Puncture your writing with clove to inject warmth and the fragrance of human emotion into your descriptive writing.
The Clove Principle: Puncture Your Writing with Warmth By Kathryn Ross
When I write my first drafts, I’m more concerned with laying out the meat and potatoes of the work without garnished language. Facts must be represented accurately if I’m writing non-fiction; the scene must be played out if I’m writing fiction. Technical language in early drafts, though properly in place, often lack the visceral quality necessary to arrest the senses of the reader and inflame heart and mind with the story material. The select insertion of spicy words help draw out the full flavor of a manuscript.
Use the thesaurus tool in your writing program to locate quality words:
Keep the thesaurus window open throughout a writing project to have ready access.
Find descriptive words that connect to one or more of the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) to engage gut responses from your reader.
Don’t overuse words—one evocative and intimate descriptor can do the job more efficiently than a handful of mediocre modifiers.
Clove adds stimulating, warm flavors to the traditional Thanksgiving menu fare, as it aids digestion when eating generous portions. Help your reader better digest your inviting words by applying The Clove Principle to your manuscripts.
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words When Cinnamon Bark Editors Bite By Kathryn Ross
Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words When Cinnamon Bark Editors Bit Kathryn Ross
Writer, speaker, teacher, and enrichment artist, Kathryn Ross, sweeps readers into the story-worlds of Jane Austen, C. S. Lewis, Hannah Hurnard, Marguerite de Angeli, John Bunyan, and others, exploring powerful truths to fulfilling God’s plan for your life in her latest publication, The Gatekeeper’s Key. Discern your place and season, with encouragement to see purpose in boundaries, find comfort in trials, and gain fortitude in going forth. Short story, personal testimony, excerpts from classic literature, visual imagery, challenge questions for discussion, and journal prompts for writing assignments draw you before the Gatekeeper. It’s quite a journey—but you’re never alone. Always in His Presence, with an Invitation, a Gatekeeper, and a Key. Perhaps more than one. Purchase on Amazon or direct from Pageant Wagon Publishing.
Christine Henderson Why Storyboards Are Great Tools for Picture Book Writers
I’d like to welcome Christine Henderson to Thyme for Writers. Christine enjoys writing about family life. Her writings have been featured in numerous anthologies including Chicken Soup for the Soul and Heaven Touching Earth as well as The Secret Place Devotional guide.
Why Storyboards Are Great Tools for Picture Book Writers
by Christine A. Henderson
Why Storyboards Are Great Tools for Picture Book Writers
I brought a new picture book story to my children’s writers’ group meeting and asked for their assistance in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the story. They all liked the unique plot and the characters but they thought the story was too long. For those of you who write novels, it’s probably hard to imagine that 900 words is too long to tell a story. However, these days 800 words tends to be the max length that publishers want to see.
Being inquisitive and stubborn, I really didn’t think I needed to shorten my story. Surely, new books had at least that many words or more. To test my theory, I went to my local Barnes & Nobles and picked up an assortment of new books that I thought fit my story idea concepts. Sad to say, that word count rang true. Most pages had an average of two to five lines of text with an upper end of nine words per line. The books were 24 or 32 pages with at least two of those pages either being blank or showing the publishing details and acknowledgements.
So it was back to the drawing board – literally. I had imagined a storyboard in my head with the images previously, but now I wanted to put it on paper. Not being a great artist, I drew my stick figures with a bracketed scene description below each drawing. Now I started adding the text. Once I did that, I could see what words weren’t needed because the picture showed that part of the story. It was easy to chop 100 or more words. The story hasn’t lost its plotline, but now it flows better with the images.
Another reason to do a storyboard for a picture book is to see if you have a short story, rather than a picture book. If your storyline takes place in just one or two scenes, it may not be a picture book because there aren’t enough options for illustrations. If that is the case, perhaps you could incorporate that story in a book of stories or submit it to one of the many children’s magazines who accept short stories.
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words When Cinnamon Bark Editors Bite By Kathryn Ross
I would like to introduce Kathryn Ross as my next guest on Thyme for Writers. Kathryn will be a monthly guest with her series, The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words. Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview.
When Cinnamon Bark Editors Bite
By Kathryn Ross
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words
Crisp fall weather invites us to visit pumpkin patches and apple orchards, filling baskets with the raw ingredients for our favorite Autumn treats. The scent of applesauce and pumpkin pie fill our kitchens and warm our hearts with lip-smacking expectation for when dessert will be served. The intoxicating aroma of ground cinnamon bark wafts through the air while these traditional goodies simmer in a pot and bake in the oven.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words When Cinnamon Bark Editors Bite
Cinnamon is an indispensable spice for fall recipes and has been a vital ingredient in healing remedies from ancient times. Historical records from China include cinnamon in every prescription used to treat a host of infectious ailments. In addition, cinnamon acts as a stimulant to enliven a weak heart, lift depression, settle digestive issues, and as a tonic for treating the common cold.
Add a little cinnamon bark to your writing with the healing nature of an editor’s bite.
The Story
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words When Cinnamon Bark Editors Bit Kathryn Ross
When we pour the raw materials of our story onto the page and stir it about, carefully adding the varied ingredients of our setting, character, plot, and literary elements, we need to taste-test with the help of a skilled editor. If you are seeking to publish, budget enough funding to pay a professional editor. Investing in a skilled editor prior to submitting to a publisher ensures your best work is put forth. Along the way, engage your writers critique group in the creative process.
The Editor
But, be aware—an editor may flavor your work with a pungent bite, just like cinnamon pervades whatever you add it to a with sharp zest.
You may wince at an editor’s advice when they red-line some of your pet paragraphs or favorite turn of phrases.
Glass of Water The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words
You may need to swallow the burn of raw cinnamon with a cool glass of water when the edit requires major plot shifts you had not anticipated.
You may grow weary of the tedious corrections of punctuation, point-of-view, and tense errors.
In the end, the sharp bite of an editor’s critique heals what ails your manuscript. You’ll have a healthy story ready for submission and be the better for it. Just as applesauce and pumpkin pie don’t satisfy without a generous addition of ground cinnamon bark, so too, your writing won’t be the best it can be without the generous critique of a good editor—the “write” spice for flavorful words.
Have you had a “spicy cinnamon” moment with an editor that made you wince at the sharp bite of their critique, only to ultimately swallow their advice and realize it was the best thing you could have done for your manuscript? Share what you learned from your experience.
