#editortips for 09.11.12

@smoulderingsea: If you think there's no sex, foul language, or violence in YA or even MG, you don't read enough.  #editortips

@smoulderingsea: There's a fine line between being an online personality and going over the top. I edged across it today. Try not to yourself. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: The image of the frazzled, sleepless writer is just that: an image. If you don't take care of yourself, your writing suffers. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Have a life outside your writing. Experience fuels how you shape your words. You'll stagnate without new input. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Have a goal in mind when you start your query. I get at least three a day that are pure rambling madness with no point. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: If you tell me your book will change my life, I'll ask how. How have you even changed my day, let alone my life? #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Give your MC's love interest their own story and motivation beyond just being a plot device, por favor. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Very few things happen quickly in publishing. If you expect them to, you'll just end up making yourself miserable. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: You know that feeling you get when someone asks you a rhetorical question? No? Oh. Crap. There went your premise. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: "Real fast" is slang. "Really fast" is proper grammar. Both probably have absolutely no place in your story. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: It's "I'm doing well," not "I'm doing good." Well is an adverb describing the action: doing. Good is an adjective. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Writing won't always be fun. It won't always be magical. But even when you're putting the gritty work in, the magic is 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 invoking Zardoz in the worst of ways.