Ink For Thoughts

The side blog of flashymel. I love writing, but I'm awful at sitting down and actually doing it. Might occasionally post drabbles and little ideas here :)

[lostkiids]

someone be the bold person i can’t be and jump in my ims and gush about our characters so we can write plots and create aus together

[wordsnstuff]

What is the best/easiest way to plan a chapter? Outlining a chapter for new writers and have a hard time to write a chapter or planing one?

I have quite a few resources for planning and outlining, which will always be available to you on my masterlist! I’ve listed a few in particular that I’ve done in the past that hopefully you’ll find helpful:

How To Outline Effectively

Resources For Plot Development

When To Stop Planning

Planning A Scene In A Story

Things A Reader Needs From A Story (feat. @papercutwriting)

Novel Planning 101

Useful Writing Resources 

Useful Writing Resources II

I’ve included some articles and resources to guide you in planning/outlining scenes and your plot overall, as well as some resource posts I’ve made that have a category of those resources. I hope you find this useful!

If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee or supporting me on Patreon.

I’d also really appreciate it if you would check out my separate blog dedicated to my current work in progress, as well as my studyblr, which helps keep me motivated as a full time student.

[space-between-words]

Some info to break this blog’s lil quiet streak 😊

[marniewrite-deactivated20190120]

Gentle Reminder for NaNo Participants

NaNo is a pretty big deal this time of year and it can be a lot to deal with.

For a bunch of us, 50k in a month can seem daunting. Impossible, even. I just want to remind you guys that you are allowed to go at your own pace. Writing should be fun and if you aren’t having a good time, you’ll end up hurting yourself.

It’s okay to fall short of the goal if you’re putting your health first. You don’t have to win NaNo for your work to be relevant. Writing anything at all during this time is a huge step, and your work won’t end with NaNo!

Let’s all do our best and have an awesome time this year, okay? If it gets rough, please don’t deal with it on your own! My inbox is open to anyone struggling with NaNo at any point during the event. 

Be safe! You’ve got this!

[insomniac-arrest]

types of writers

The Lore-ist 

has detailed if not meticulous notes on the universe they’ve created, down to the food eaten and language quirks, they use mythos and setting to bring it all together

most of the character’s backstories are already loving laid out, though may not be all connected yet. 

Has yet to write a full chapter. (But they’re getting there!)

The Bae

Story is centered around a complex and engaging OC that they’ve spent years developing

said OC has been through A Lot, the love is real, so is the pain

OC may sort of be a loser? ie the story is a character-driven piece where the plot is moved ahead by said character’s bad decisions and questionable habits

The Researcher

akin to the lore-ist but spends more of their time on wikipedia articles jotting down notes and things like how much a watermelon weighs 

Everything from knowing Too Much about child-care to how a body decomposes or flapper chest-binding is on the table, their breadth is large and Should Be Feared

takes a long time to start but make the most of their words, from spot-on sci-fi to history to murder, readers will learn something on the way

The Lemon Flavored Factory

alright take it back now y’all, this writer has written enough smut to make a tom cat blush, they can write other things too, and often well, but there will inevitably be bed-rattling at some point (or car or shower)

either unusually creative or just sticks to classics like Aliens Made Them Do It, neither is necessarily bad but there is oddly little in between

their author’s notes tend to be hilarious or at least very self-aware

The Word Vomit Canoe

action oriented writer who spews out the words before they know what is happening, no plans, no outlines, 10k of the first thing that comes to mind, sometimes things like ‘maybe dragons?’ & they go with it

their strengths are productivity, weaknesses are not knowing what the hell is going on

style is marked by fast-paced tone and downright impressive word count

The Muse

their inspiration doesn’t come as often, but they are always listening for her & redy 2 go

update schedule is…sporadic at best, but makes up for it with long chapters and clean editing

Will write 30 pages in a day and then take a few months off, enjoys one-shots but can do longer works

doesn’t have the best sense of time and when they are in The Zone may forget to eat or shower

[just-a-jumbled-writer]

Hot Take: writers should do their utmost to support each other and make sure none of us succumb to the various demons sitting on our shoulders. No one here is in a competition, no one here should be some sort of rival, we’re all in the same boat. Be kind to each other, writers, everyone needs support sometimes. 

[koedeza-deactivated20210514]

him

He’s calm.

He lies in bed and doesn’t move.

He locks and loads a gun precisely.

He adjusts the time on his watch.

He ties his laces and leans back.

He lights the pyre and closes the matchbox.

He shuffles through old pictures.

He breathes in soft and quiet.

He takes his time and buttons up his flannel.

-x-

He’s a hurricane.

He’s blind rage and nosebleeds.

He rips a machete through monsters.

He uses his curse to save people.

He’s neck deep in a grave.

He’s clawing at her, kissing her wildly.

He can’t fucking breathe.

He punches at people until his knuckles shatter.

-x-

He’s Samuel Winchester.

He’s beat the devil.

[damienhaaas]

FAMOUS AUTHORS

Classic Bookshelf: This site has put classic novels online, from Charles Dickens to Charlotte Bronte.

The Online Books Page: The University of Pennsylvania hosts this book search and database.

Project Gutenberg: This famous site has over 27,000 free books online.

Page by Page Books: Find books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells, as well as speeches from George W. Bush on this site.

Classic Book Library: Genres here include historical fiction, history, science fiction, mystery, romance and children’s literature, but they’re all classics.

Classic Reader: Here you can read Shakespeare, young adult fiction and more.

Read Print: From George Orwell to Alexandre Dumas to George Eliot to Charles Darwin, this online library is stocked with the best classics.

Planet eBook: Download free classic literature titles here, from Dostoevsky to D.H. Lawrence to Joseph Conrad.

The Spectator Project: Montclair State University’s project features full-text, online versions of The Spectator and The Tatler.

Bibliomania: This site has more than 2,000 classic texts, plus study guides and reference books.

Online Library of Literature: Find full and unabridged texts of classic literature, including the Bronte sisters, Mark Twain and more.

Bartleby: Bartleby has much more than just the classics, but its collection of anthologies and other important novels made it famous.

Fiction.us: Fiction.us has a huge selection of novels, including works by Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Flaubert, George Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.

Free Classic Literature: Find British authors like Shakespeare and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, plus other authors like Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and more.

TEXTBOOKS

Textbook Revolution: Find biology, business, engineering, mathematics and world history textbooks here.

Wikibooks: From cookbooks to the computing department, find instructional and educational materials here.

KnowThis Free Online Textbooks: Get directed to stats textbooks and more.

Online Medical Textbooks: Find books about plastic surgery, anatomy and more here.

Online Science and Math Textbooks: Access biochemistry, chemistry, aeronautics, medical manuals and other textbooks here.

MIT Open Courseware Supplemental Resources: Find free videos, textbooks and more on the subjects of mechanical engineering, mathematics, chemistry and more.

Flat World Knowledge: This innovative site has created an open college textbooks platform that will launch in January 2009.

Free Business Textbooks: Find free books to go along with accounting, economics and other business classes.

Light and Matter: Here you can access open source physics textbooks.

eMedicine: This project from WebMD is continuously updated and has articles and references on surgery, pediatrics and more.

MATH AND SCIENCE

FullBooks.com: This site has “thousands of full-text free books,” including a large amount of scientific essays and books.

Free online textbooks, lecture notes, tutorials and videos on mathematics: NYU links to several free resources for math students.

Online Mathematics Texts: Here you can find online textbooks likeElementary Linear Algebra and Complex Variables.

Science and Engineering Books for free download: These books range in topics from nanotechnology to compressible flow.

FreeScience.info: Find over 1800 math, engineering and science books here.

Free Tech Books: Computer programmers and computer science enthusiasts can find helpful books here.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

byGosh: Find free illustrated children’s books and stories here.

Munseys: Munseys has nearly 2,000 children’s titles, plus books about religion, biographies and more.

International Children’s Digital Library: Find award-winning books and search by categories like age group, make believe books, true books or picture books.

Lookybook: Access children’s picture books here.

PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

Bored.com: Bored.com has music ebooks, cooking ebooks, and over 150 philosophy titles and over 1,000 religion titles.

Ideology.us: Here you’ll find works by Rene Descartes, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, David Hume and others.

Free Books on Yoga, Religion and Philosophy: Recent uploads to this site include Practical Lessons in Yoga and Philosophy of Dreams.

The Sociology of Religion: Read this book by Max Weber, here.

Religion eBooks: Read books about the Bible, Christian books, and more.

PLAYS

ReadBookOnline.net: Here you can read plays by Chekhov, Thomas Hardy, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe and others.

Plays: Read Pygmalion, Uncle Vanya or The Playboy of the Western World here.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: MIT has made available all of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, and histories.

Plays Online: This site catalogs “all the plays [they] know about that are available in full text versions online for free.”

ProPlay: This site has children’s plays, comedies, dramas and musicals.

MODERN FICTION, FANTASY AND ROMANCE

Public Bookshelf: Find romance novels, mysteries and more.

The Internet Book Database of Fiction: This forum features fantasy and graphic novels, anime, J.K. Rowling and more.

Free Online Novels: Here you can find Christian novels, fantasy and graphic novels, adventure books, horror books and more.

Foxglove: This British site has free novels, satire and short stories.

Baen Free Library: Find books by Scott Gier, Keith Laumer and others.

The Road to Romance: This website has books by Patricia Cornwell and other romance novelists.

Get Free Ebooks: This site’s largest collection includes fiction books.

John T. Cullen: Read short stories from John T. Cullen here.

SF and Fantasy Books Online: Books here include Arabian Nights,Aesop’s Fables and more.

Free Novels Online and Free Online Cyber-Books: This list contains mostly fantasy books.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Project Laurens Jz Coster: Find Dutch literature here.

ATHENA Textes Francais: Search by author’s name, French books, or books written by other authors but translated into French.

Liber Liber: Download Italian books here. Browse by author, title, or subject.

Biblioteca romaneasca: Find Romanian books on this site.

Bibliolteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes: Look up authors to find a catalog of their available works on this Spanish site.

KEIMENA: This page is entirely in Greek, but if you’re looking for modern Greek literature, this is the place to access books online.

Proyecto Cervantes: Texas A&M’s Proyecto Cervantes has cataloged Cervantes’ work online.

Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum: Access many Latin texts here.

Project Runeberg: Find Scandinavian literature online here.

Italian Women Writers: This site provides information about Italian women authors and features full-text titles too.

Biblioteca Valenciana: Register to use this database of Catalan and Valencian books.

Ketab Farsi: Access literature and publications in Farsi from this site.

Afghanistan Digital Library: Powered by NYU, the Afghanistan Digital Library has works published between 1870 and 1930.

CELT: CELT stands for “the Corpus of Electronic Texts” features important historical literature and documents.

Projekt Gutenberg-DE: This easy-to-use database of German language texts lets you search by genres and author.

HISTORY AND CULTURE

LibriVox: LibriVox has a good selection of historical fiction.

The Perseus Project: Tufts’ Perseus Digital Library features titles from Ancient Rome and Greece, published in English and original languages.

Access Genealogy: Find literature about Native American history, the Scotch-Irish immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, and more.

Free History Books: This collection features U.S. history books, including works by Paul Jennings, Sarah Morgan Dawson, Josiah Quincy and others.

Most Popular History Books: Free titles include Seven Days and Seven Nights by Alexander Szegedy and Autobiography of a Female Slave by Martha G. Browne.

RARE BOOKS

Questia: Questia has 5,000 books available for free, including rare books and classics.

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

Books-On-Line: This large collection includes movie scripts, newer works, cookbooks and more.

Chest of Books: This site has a wide range of free books, including gardening and cooking books, home improvement books, craft and hobby books, art books and more.

Free e-Books: Find titles related to beauty and fashion, games, health, drama and more.

2020ok: Categories here include art, graphic design, performing arts, ethnic and national, careers, business and a lot more.

Free Art Books: Find artist books and art books in PDF format here.

Free Web design books: OnlineComputerBooks.com directs you to free web design books.

Free Music Books: Find sheet music, lyrics and books about music here.

Free Fashion Books: Costume and fashion books are linked to the Google Books page.

MYSTERY

MysteryNet: Read free short mystery stories on this site.

TopMystery.com: Read books by Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, GK Chesterton and other mystery writers here.

Mystery Books: Read books by Sue Grafton and others.

POETRY

The Literature Network: This site features forums, a copy of The King James Bible, and over 3,000 short stories and poems.

Poetry: This list includes “The Raven,” “O Captain! My Captain!” and “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.”

Poem Hunter: Find free poems, lyrics and quotations on this site.

Famous Poetry Online: Read limericks, love poetry, and poems by Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Lord Byron and others.

Google Poetry: Google Books has a large selection of poetry, fromThe Canterbury Tales to Beowulf to Walt Whitman.

QuotesandPoem.com: Read poems by Maya Angelou, William Blake, Sylvia Plath and more.

CompleteClassics.com: Rudyard Kipling, Allen Ginsberg and Alfred Lord Tennyson are all featured here.

PinkPoem.com: On this site, you can download free poetry ebooks.

MISC

Banned Books: Here you can follow links of banned books to their full text online.

World eBook Library: This monstrous collection includes classics, encyclopedias, children’s books and a lot more.

DailyLit: DailyLit has everything from Moby Dick to the recent phenomenon, Skinny Bitch.

A Celebration of Women Writers: The University of Pennsylvania’s page for women writers includes Newbery winners.

Free Online Novels: These novels are fully online and range from romance to religious fiction to historical fiction.

ManyBooks.net: Download mysteries and other books for your iPhone or eBook reader here.

Authorama: Books here are pulled from Google Books and more. You’ll find history books, novels and more.

Prize-winning books online: Use this directory to connect to full-text copies of Newbery winners, Nobel Prize winners and Pulitzer winners.

[science-junkie]

… and here is a gift for all of us.

[muppethole-deactivated20240312]

me writing dialogue: “what is man but a vessel through which a higher entity may see? what is his purpose? must he find a purpose? we are but stardust; the universe comprehending itself.”

me writing action: they ran real fast from the bad men aand legs hurty

[incandescent-creativity]

me writing action: Her legs pounded against the earth, the familiar jolt grounding her like nothing else could. Magic, gods, royalty—she didn’t know anything about that. But running? That’s something she’d been doing since day one.

me writing dialogue: “I dunno man whatchu wanna do” “I dunno. What do you think?” “Hey man I don’t know”

[bidootdoot-deactivated20190601]

me writing action: room go boom

me writing dialogue: noppity nope, that ain’t dope

[wistful-pigeon]

^

[justawritingaid]

Hi there! I’ve read through your advice on chapter length, and while obviously your tips were brilliant, I still don’t feel like I’m clear on whether writing shorter chapters for the whole novel is something that’s recommended or would be a good idea? I find it easier for myself to write, and also enjoy reading books with short chapters, but I don’t want it to make my writing seem childish or to throw off the tone of my novel as it isn’t really action based. Any advice? Thanks in advance x

Chapter length is something that should be tailored to writing style, content of the story, pacing of the story, audience age range, and plot and scene organization.

You mentioned not wanting your writing to be “childish”, but it’s not as simple as short = child and long = adult. Younger children’s books should have shorter chapters because the audience is still developing reading skills and the stories tend to be shorter anyway. Chapter length doesn’t say anything for maturity of writing unless your writing is actually childish in the first place. Then you have a different issue to fix.

Novel “tone” also isn’t really affected by chapter length, it’s more based on word choice, writing structure/style, and phrasing. An aspect of tone might come from pacing, which is related to chapter length, but short chapters doesn’t automatically mean you have an “thrown off” tone. 

In the end, it’s less about short chapters being a general good or bad idea and more about if the decision makes sense for you and the story. Shorter chapters are fine to work with, but like any decision it comes with things you need to look out for that could cause issues:

Skeleton writing. Often appears as a failure to give the reader any real imagery or atmosphere, skeleton writing sticks too hard to the plot and doesn’t immerse the reader. Shorter chapters can be a flag that this is happening, so it never hurts to check and make sure that you’re writing proper description (link to tag embedded).

Too-fast pacing.Generally, books with shorter chapters read like they’re paced more quickly. This can be beneficial because it tends to keep reader interest, however it can backfire if your story ends up having no rest points or the pacing doesn’t make sense for the plot. A more interesting story structure varies chapter length according to pacing needs.

Poor scene organization. Chapters are used to group similar scenes so if your chapters are super short then there’s a chance you aren’t including more than one scene (or your scenes are suffering from skeleton writing as well). The average story doesn’t quite benefit from a lack of scene organization/grouping.

Step-by-step plot. All plots are pretty much step-by-step but this one actually feels like it is. Shorter chapters sometimes risk reading like snapshots in a guide rather than a full story, particularly when combines with the other issues above.

In the end though, chapter structure is pretty easy to fix. Shorter chapters can be added to, grouped into a longer one, scenes connected, etc. but that’s something to truly buckle down and worry about in a 2nd or 3rd draft. Some writers just naturally writer shorter chapters and they tend to be fine as long as they remember the main pitfalls 

Good luck with your story!

Thinking of asking a question? Please read the Rules and Considerations to make sure I’m the right resource, and check the Tag List to see if your question has already been asked.

[tast3of1nk]

tag yourself

[wordsnstuff]

[vanaiza-deactivated20201025]

To every fanfic author who may not receive a thank you today or message in their inbox, to every author who doesn’t receive kudos or comments on their fics, to the author who doesn’t receive notes on tumblr or maybe only a few, to the author who is unsure about their writing and too afraid to post online, to the authors who are only authors in their minds and have yet to write a single word, to every author who is too tired to write right now, to the authors who are just too tired to update their fics, to the fanfic author aspiring to be published, to the fanfic authors who may not receive fan art of their work or may not be considered popular:

You are all valid and today is about you, too.

Happy Fanfic Author Appreciation Day

[wordsnstuff]

Writing Prompt

There was a mine cave-in, trapping 25 miners underground. After 2 months all 26 miners have been safely rescued.

Tag your responses with #wordsnstuff // Ko-Fi

[space-between-words]

At first the miners screamed.

No one knew why the mine caved in. No one knew why the lamps brought down all died at once.

It was just light, and then it was dark.

It was not the kind of darkness that was natural, or expected: a mere section of earth hidden away from the sun. It went beyond any mental capacity to quantify and understand, a black so empty it screamed.

Screamed even louder than the miners did.

The workers, many old and sick, and all frail from exhausting and isolating labour, had all given an inward sigh when the lights went out, the sound of rocks grinding against each other echoing from above. Another cave in, they thought. And we will be victims of it, just like all the others. They had played their roles far too long.

They did not expect the complete darkness to tear at their minds so effectively, to distort reality into the horrific fantasies their brains painted along their skulls as the hours wore on. They did not expect to break before they died.

And so they screamed. They shrieked and yelled and screamed themselves hoarse until their throats gave out and only offered blood and hoarse whispers to the frigid air.

The strongest ones continued on, to cry out harsh breaths to each other through ruined lungs, to attempt to force words even as their very lips turned blue and stubborn.

Within four days, they had all been broken regardless. Mute, sitting against the damp walls and rock-strewn floors as they gazed to nothing, their eyes useless to the onslaught of the darkness that now ruled their heads. Their food and water lay forgotten in their bags, their names forgotten to the stale air.

This is where the story should end. People in the town should look back on these miners and think Oh, so sad. My heart goes out to those families. If only we had gotten there in time. And they would move on.

The air should have turned too thin to consume after two weeks. They should have been incapable of movement because of starvation before then. Dehydration should have become their guillitine after two to three days.

But the men did not die.

If the workers were in any right mind, they may have reflected upon this fact in confusion. But they were not, so they did not think to question it. Thinking was beyond their capacity at that point.

If they were in any right mind, their heart beats may have quickened at the sound of rustling footsteps, the sticky patter of bony feet against stone echoing in the mine that should have been their tomb. Perhaps they would have yelled in fright at the occasional glare of pale eyes, impossibly glowing in the dark. Or jumped back when their clothes brushed against a moving being, its skin strangely damp, just like the stone around them.

But the men were not in any right mind, so they did not do these things.

And when, after two months of their brains rotting in their skulls, the 25 miners were finally found, their breathing corpses hauled out of the ground, they did not think it strange that a 26th man was among them.

They had learned long ago to accept the darkness.

[sulfurousdreamscapes]

There’s a night when the stars come down to earth. They settle in the forest, where their twinkling lights illuminate the tall tree trunks and send bewildered bugs scurrying away.

The stars go there because it is their maternal home. Long ago, the trees secreted them from their bark. The little things, like diamonds as they were, fell to the ground, where they were trampled by the paws of the jaguar and the boar. Buried underneath the soil, they went unnoticed and unknown.

But they drank the rains just like the trees they came out of, and they took in the sunlight that percolated through the canopy. Their crystal stems crept out of the soil, shining silver and glass.

The insects crawled all over, but they could find nothing to provide them sustenance. The jaguar and the boar stepped on them, only to be injured by the shattered glass. The little star-plants grew higher and higher, using the trunks of the trees for support.

Their leaves dug into the wood. As they grew higher, they stabbed the trees that they used for support. The animals cleared out of the area, both predator and prey. The star-plants found each other, hanging off of the trunks, and they formed a web. If you were to visit the forest at the time, you’d think that it was covered in the web of some grandiose spider.

So sharp were the vines and creepers of the star-plants, that the flying squirrel was shred to pieces gliding between them. And yet, for as lethal as they were, the star-plants were stunningly beautiful. When the sun made it past the green leaves, it reached the star-plants, and myriad colours reflected across the forest. The soil would be bathed in colours that had no names yet. A dazzling kaleidoscope, that could kill you.

The star-plants became so tightly integrated to each other that the trunks could no longer support them. A dear old tree, unable to bear the burden of a particularly gigantic star-plant, collapsed in the wood. It shattered crystal vines and leaves as it came down with a deafening crash.

One by one, the trees that could no longer support themselves began to fall. The ground was littered with uprooted trees, lying in a bed of glass shards. The forest was dying from within.

The star-plants could not stop growing and joining. While they were being crushed under the weight of trees, they also sought to reach the sun. One day, a little crystal leaf peeked out of the canopy and looked at the sun. It was soon joined by others. Having tasted a world above the forest, the star-plants accelerated their growth.

Before long, the star-plants had formed themselves a tower. It was at first supported by the trees, but then the trees had become prisoners within the webbing of crystal. The tower grew taller and taller, until its kaleidoscopic radiance colouring the skies for miles.

When the tower reached the celestial world, it could no longer rise higher. The star-plants spread outwards, covering the night sky in silver. When the sun shone through, the world was bathed in every colour imaginable.

But the tower had stretched itself too thin, and when the last tree was unable to stand, a weak link in the tower broke. The star-plants rained down, impaling all life unfortunate enough to be caught in the open.

Some of the star-plants, however, pierced the heavens and began growing even beyond. Their roots can be seen in the night sky today, little twinkling gems, hiding the massive expanse that lies above the black.

On one night, however, the stars shed tears for their lose homeland, for their maternal home. On that night, the stars come down to earth, to a forest that doesn’t recognise them anymore, to a forest that doesn’t bear their scars.

If you enjoy reading Sulfurous Dreamscapes, but are supportive of racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, fascism, sexism, ableism, misogyny, or any other kind of assorted bigotry or hate; unfollow me right now, because I don’t need your likes or reblogs.

[letswritesomenovels]

Hi there, I just discovered you blog and I think it's amazing! Congrats on your contract! :D I've recently finished writing my third novel and my friends and family keep prodding me to try to publish. Do you have any advice on how to get started on that? Thanks in advance ^^

Hi! Thanks for all of those nice words :) 

First of all, I would just like to say that you shouldn’t try to publish unless it’s something you’re sure you want to do. No matter how stellar the book you’ve written is, you’ll receive tons of rejections. To withstand all of those, you’re going to need a belief in your work that doesn’t rely on external validation. 

If this is something you really do want to pursue, I’d say there are three major steps. 

1. Readying Your Manuscript for Submission 

I don’t know whether this is a first draft, or something you’ve revised, but you’ll need to do at least three levels of revision: a macro-edit, a micro-edit, and a copyedit. 

The macro-edit focuses on all of the big features of the book. This is where you make sure your characters are fully fleshed out; that your plot makes sense and has a defined beginning, middle, and end; that your world building is engaging and realistic, etc. There may be multiple macro-edits as you whip your book into shape. 

Once you’ve finished the macro-edits, move on the micro-edits. Micro-editing is about making your sentences flow. In your micro-edits, you focus on fixing your dialog, descriptions, syntax, etc. You also fix any small plot holes, cliches, and character inconsistencies.

After micro-edits come copyedits. Here, you mainly fix spelling, grammar, and style errors. If you haven’t submitted work to formal workshops/writing classes, I’d suggest doing some research on how to style punctuation/paragraphs/pages in fiction. Fiction writing has a ton of largely unspoken style rules, and breaking these rules will make your writing appear more amateur and unrefined than it may actually be. Here are some great sources to check out:

Fiction Style Guide

Strunk & White’s Elements of Style 

Format Your Novel for Submission 

Once you’ve readied your manuscript for submission, it’s time to actually prepare to send it out.  

2. Finding Agents to Query 

Most publishing houses don’t take unsolicited submissions. Instead, they take submissions from agents. So when you want to get your manuscript published with any of the big publishing houses, you should look for an agent instead of a publisher. 

This answer is already going to be long enough without an explanation about what a literary agent is and why you should get one, so if you’d like more information, I’m going to direct you to this article:

What Literary Agents Do (And Don’t Do) For Writers

An agent is someone who’ll support you throughout your career. This is going to be a very important relationship in your writing life, and so you should do quite a bit of research into them. There are a great number of sources for researching agents. These two are some of the most popular: 

Query Tracker

Manuscript Wish List

If you need some more advice about how to find the right agent, check out these articles:

On Finding the Right Agent

Questions to ask your prospective literary agent

3. Querying 

Once you have a list of agents you’d be interested in representing you, you’ll notice that they all require query letters. Luckily, I’ve already typed up a thorough guide to writing one of those. 

Writing the Perfect Query Letter

You’ll want to query a good handful of agents at a time: between six and ten. Agents may get back to you within a day or after a few months, so it’s a good idea to track who you’ve queried, when you’ve queried them, and what they’ve said. Query Tracker is a good source for this, but you can also just use a spreadsheet or a notebook. This article suggests not giving up until you’ve queried 80 agents or more, which could represent an entire year of querying. 

(There’s a reason this is called the “query trenches.”) 

Once you land an agent, the rest of your journey to publication will be decided in discussion with them. 

Throughout this entire process, from step one to step three, you should be keeping up with the publishing industry, and doing your best to learn about it. There’s only so much I can cover here, and I’ve really only skimmed the surface. 

I recommend:

Listening to these podcasts, which will all provide you with vital publishing/writing advice

Reading publishingcrawl.com, which I’ve linked to multiple times in this answer

Reading sites like http://www.writersdigest.com/ 

And keeping up with the authors you love on social media, many of whom will post about writing/the industry 

Best of luck! 

[writing-in-the-grave]

ATTENTION WRITERS

Google BetaBooks. Do it now. It’s the best damn thing EVER.

You just upload your manuscript, write out some questions for your beta readers to answer in each chapter, and invite readers to check out your book!

It’s SO easy!

You can even track your readers! It tells you when they last read, and what chapter they read!

Your beta readers can even highlight and react to the text!!!

There’s also this thing where you can search the website for available readers best suited for YOUR book!

Seriously guys, BetaBooks is the most useful website in the whole world when it comes to beta reading, and… IT’S FREE.

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

“They eat the light and shadow, they drink the wind.”

— Erich Fried, tr. by Beth Bjorklund, from “Description of a Landscape,”