The Tool-Kit: Revising, Re-visiting, Re-envisioning
THE FICTION-EDITOR'S PHARMACOPOEIA : diagnosing symptoms and treating the diseases in your own or someone else's manuscript
Itchy Bitesized 10: TEN REASONS TO READING YOUR WORK ALOUD
WRITING SYNOPSES FOR YOURSELF : perhaps the single best way to work out a plot, take an overview of a story, or un-scramble a novel that's got in a muddle.
Itchy Bitesized 32: TAMING YOUR DRAFT : are you drowning in scenes, files, feedback, hopes, dreads? This will help.
TACKLING REVISIONS AND EDITS : feeling as if you've got to eat an elephant, and your spoon is too small? Here's help.
DON'T FIDDLE : how to stop yourself endlessly tweaking, poking and mini-editing and getting in a muddle, and keep moving steadily forward whether you're drafting or revising.
OVERWRITING: has someone told you your work is over-written? : here is what they might mean, and what you can do about it.
Itchy Bitesized 25: BEWARE OF HIDDEN METAPHORS
ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS : why you're so often told to cut them, and why you shouldn't (always) cut them
HAVE YOU HEARD THE ONE ABOUT "WAS"OPHOBIA? : why cutting "was" from your writing isn't just a stupid idea, it's also a dangerous mis-taking.
Itchy Bitesized 12: DON'T PULL YOUR WRITING'S TEETH
REVISIONS: Taking down the scaffolding : many writers find it hard to spot the things which needed to be in the first draft, but must be fished out in revision. Here's how to spot them.
"FILTERING": HD for your writing : an unhelpful name for the single, simplest way to revise your writing into greater vividness.
FILTERING, SCAFFOLDING & HOW TO PERFORM AN EXPLAIN-ECTOMY : more about how to get rid of the extra clutter which is blurring and smudging your story's impact.
Itchy Bitesized 9: THREE THINGS ABOUT FILTERING a.k.a. HD FOR YOUR WRITING
THE WAKING-UP OPENING : Why it’s so natural, and so often a bad idea.
CUTTING, CONDENSING & FILLETING: what to do when your story is much too long.
WHEN DO YOU STOP REVISING? : how do you know you're not sending it off half-baked, without getting stuck in an endless loop of fixing things?
THE TEN STRUCTURAL EDITS I MOST OFTEN SUGGEST : what it says on the tin. (£)
THE TEN LINE-EDITS I MOST OFTEN SUGGEST : what it says on the tin.
THE TEN THINGS WHICH MOST OFTEN GO WRONG with beginners' fiction.
WRITE YOUR FIRST NOVEL Part Six: Revising 1
WRITE YOUR FIRST NOVEL Part Nine: Revising 2
