#editortips for 09.14.12

@smoulderingsea: Don't open your book with a history narrated in omniscient voice. This detaches the reader from your characters and story.  #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Even if your characters struggle with it, they need to make decisions. Their decisions about key things tell us who they are. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: In your story, failure needs consequences. We have no reason to care about character struggles if the outcome doesn't matter. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Stories need a black moment--that moment when it seems nothing can save our heroes. It makes the triumph that much better. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Don't change your villain without cause to fix an ending you can't write your way out of. Do it right, and true to character. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Each act should end with new information or events that take the book in an unexpected direction, to keep readers hooked. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: If you follow a formula to help shape your story, that's fine...but don't follow it so closely your story becomes methodical. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: One small act that resonates deeply with readers can mean more than all the explosions, beasties, car chases, and wild sex. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Conflict isn't just external. Your story needs balance between outer/inner conflict. Assassination attempt, then inner demons. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: Don't build your antagonist solely around their attraction to the hero(ine). They need real goals, counter to the protagonist's. #editortips

@smoulderingsea: On days when it seems like you can't write another word and there's no point...remember why you write. How it feels. It'll come. #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 watching Hitch seven times a day just because that song at the end gets stuck in my head.