#editortips for 06.15.12

@smoulderingsea: "Not all verbs work as speech tags," he contorted. Then he spelunked, "Most of the time, 'said' is less intrusive."  #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Don't ignore technology just to make your plot work. If plot problems can be solved for $10 on Amazon, revisit your conflict. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: If your characters' plans always go according to plan, readers will skip pages because they already know how it turns out. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: When your alternate reality involves supernatural rules affecting the modern world, make sure they propagate through history. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Example: fairies have been openly involved in human life for centuries. That would change society, not leave it 98% the same. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Make sure names are appropriate for culture, generation, and time period. A cavewoman wouldn't be named Misty or Shaquanda. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Antagonists need character development, too. Give us a peek into their heads. Show us how they feel, and react to events. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Characters' reactions to stressful situations and interactions with others tell us more about who they are than narrated traits. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Is your voice right for your story's level? Are you writing adult with a juvenile voice? Are you writing YA with an adult voice? #editortips

@smoulderingsea: If your sentences feel muddled, see how many people are acting in one sentence. Break it apart by character and sequence. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: It's easy to fall into the trap of using "as" to link both sequential and simultaneous action far too often. Try to minimize it. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: It's not okay to write OK in narrative or dialogue. It makes for a rather stilted read. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Don't rely on common myth as an excuse to skimp on key world details. Not everyone knows the same version of the myth. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Once you've written more than one book, be careful that you don't settle into a formula story arc and become predictable. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Make sure you don't skip key moments of plot development in the middle of your story in your hurry to get to the end. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: The path to publication can take years. You'll want to quit. Don't. The journey is worth it. Persist, and you'll get there. #editortips

About #editortips:
#editortips is a daily rash of tweets from an only partially crazy editor, chock full of random chocolatey morsels about writing, editing, and querying vaguely disguised as helpful pointers and/or really bad humor. I tweet as @smoulderingsea, and try to post with some consistency every weekday at 6PM CST. Weekends optional, depending on if I’m spending yet another Saturday night editing because my social life consists of Netflix and calculating the exact level of force required to drive a stick pin through a plate glass window. For research, of course. And science. Yes. Science.