Everything I Know About Writing I Learned from the Rolling Stones "Mick Jagger probably never realized this, but he and his bandmates knew a lot about how to write a good novel." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/r... #writingcommunity
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Everything I Know About Writing I Learned from the Rolling Stones "Mick Jagger probably never realized this, but he and his bandmates knew a lot about how to write a good novel." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/r... #writingcommunity
What is the most underrated book you've ever read? #writingcommunity
"Bonsai" is from the Japanese "bon," meaning "tray," and "sai," meaning "planting." #etymology
The word "earth" comes from the Old English word "eorthe," which meant the ground or soil. #etymology
"Candy" comes from the Sanskrit "khanda," meaning "piece or fragment." #etymology
"Sudoku" is from the Japanese "suji wa dokushin ni kagiru," meaning "the digits must remain single." #etymology
Truth in Fiction's Clothing: The Subtle Distinctions Between Memoir & Autofiction "All fiction is autobiographical in some way." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/m... #writingcommunity
Setup Is Not Stasis: How to Write a Gripping First Chapter "A story worth reading is a story worth experiencing, at least vicariously." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/h... #writingcommunity
Book Broker — an interview with Anne Hawkins "The number one warning sign for me is sloppy prose, whether in a query letter or in the sample chapters." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b... #amwriting #amquerying #mswl
Book Broker: an interview with literary agent Erin Hosier "I recommend having your manuscript vetted by a couple other people in a position to honestly judge" darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b... #writingcommunity #querytip #amquerying
The First Page Challenge: a writing contest for novelists Only $5 CAD to enter Deadline: Sept 30 darlingaxe.com/pages/first-... #writingcommunity #booksky
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Get back to work!!
"Do you know," Peter asked, "why swallows build in the eaves of houses? It is to listen to the stories." —From Peter Pan, by James M. Barrie
Get back to work!!
"Fashionable" comes from Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. #etymology
🌟 Word of the day: flagrant 📚 Part of Speech: adjective 🔊 Pronunciation: ˈflā-grənt 📖 Definition: conspicuously offensive
"The mind is its own place, and in it self can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." —from Paradise Lost by John Milton
Keep going, friends!
"I hope, or I could not live." —H. G. Wells
A strong plot has both :) :)
haha that's awesome
😄😄 Anything can be done well... and badly.
"Maverick" is named after Samuel Maverick, who didn't brand his cattle. Unbranded cattle soon became known as "mavericks." #etymology
Ha. Well theatre is quite different, since monologues are still accompanied by action. In fact, dev editors will often encourage their clients to reconceptualize scenes as if they were taking place on a stage.
Photo by Eberhard Gross via Pexels
#writingcommunity #booksky
the struggle is real 🙈
"Sarcasm" comes from Greek "sarkazein" meaning "to tear flesh, bite the lip in rage." #etymology
"Admiral" comes from the Arabic "amir al-bahr," meaning "commander of the sea." #etymology
Indie Insight with Aleatha Romig "Do what you're doing. Don't listen to people who want to pigeon hole your work, and above all, believe in yourself." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/i... #writingcommunity
Something like a tablet, I assume.
"Tabloid" comes from a brand of compressed medicine. The term later applied to condensed news stories and sensational journalism. #etymology
Inside Job: The Functional Power of an Internal Conflict "Internal conflict is the buried vein of gold." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/i... #writingcommunity
What famous novel's ending would you rewrite, and what would you change? #writingcommunity
The Importance of Heading Styles in Microsoft Word: A Guide for Novelists Spend some time getting familiar with these tools. It will save you a lot of tedium down the road! darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/w... #writingcommunity
"Can I query agents while my manuscript is being edited?" It's best to wait until your manuscript is fully polished before querying, as agents have their pick of hundreds or thousands of other submissions. #writingcommunity
People posting about how they’ve never seen em dashes used before the rise of ChatGPT are really great at telling folks they’ve never read a book before.
“We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, the efficiency of public schools, and the number of people who can and do read worthwhile books.” -W.E.B. Du Bois
Every quest needs a hero. This one gets Glimm: a bonsai frost dragon stuck managing a band of blowhards on a doomed diplomatic mission. ARC now available 🐉 www.septimusbrown.com/arc
The word "salary" comes from the Latin word "salarium," which was a payment made to Roman soldiers in salt. #etymology
"Sofa" comes from the Arabic "ṣuffa," meaning "raised platform" or "cushion." #etymology
Story Skeleton: The Alchemist Paulo Coelho dared to prioritize narrative context—in this case his personal philosophy—over traditional story elements like subplots and character development. darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/t... #writingcommunity
Photo by Donald Tong via Pexels! ❤️😎
#writingcommunity #booksky
A multi-POV novel can be fantastic, but it needs to be purposeful—the story needs to call for it. Without clear intent, extra POVs can feel like clutter rather than essential threads in the narrative tapestry. Here’s a 🧵 on the craft of multi-POV storytelling 👇 #writingcommunity
Book Broker: an interview with literary agent Lisa Grubka "For non-fiction, make a strong, concise case why you're the best person to write about the topic." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b... #amquerying #mswl
What's your favourite "inciting incident" in a novel? Mine is a pigeon wandering into the stairwell outside a man's apartment, in Patrick Süskind's "The Pigeon".
can't... ...stop ......editing
Book Broker—an interview with Rachel Altemose "For me, it's all about the voice." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b... #amwriting #amquerying #mswl
Why Today? The Importance of an Inciting Incident "Once you decide on an inciting incident, you set in motion a chain of plot events that will culminate in the novel's climax." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/i... #writingcommunity
"What I realized over the course of my debut author journey was that the best marketing hack lay not in my own knowledge of how to write a press release ... but collaborating with others in the writing and publishing world." —@Julie Liddell Whitehead
"Renegade" comes from the Spanish "renegado," meaning "turned back." #etymology
"Robot" comes from the Czech word "robota," meaning "forced labor." #etymology
Writers in the Vancouver area! Come check out our presentation on narrative structure next month at WriteOnBowen.com 😎 (With @michellebark.bsky.social !)
Thanks for sharing :)
🧐 #writingcommunity #bcwriters #vancouverwriters #booksky
In that case, hold off on reading the link at the end. Massive spoilers!!
New post up on the Chopping Blog 🪓🪓
POV: Who’s Holding the Camera? Intentionality is how you earn readers’ trust. darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/p... #writingcommunity #booksky
Some resources: darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/h... darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/s... darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/n... darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/v...
9/ Multi-POV novels work best when the structure itself enhances emotional draw and immersion. POVs should: • Add unique stakes, conflicts, and insights • Contribute to the story’s thematic depth • Feel indispensable to the reader Use them wisely, and your story will sing 🎵
8/ One common trap? Explanatory POVs. For instance, an amateur sleuth mystery might shoehorn in a cop’s POV to show the official investigation. But this can reduce tension if both POVs glide toward the same conclusion. Conflict is key! Let your POVs create obstacles for each other.
7/ What makes Cloud Cuckoo Land shine is its purposeful structure. Each POV builds on the novel’s themes of storytelling, resilience, and human connection. Despite vastly different worlds and stakes, the characters’ arcs echo and enrich one another.
6/ Take Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. Each protagonist—Anna, Omeir, Zeno, Seymour, Konstance—has their own narrative arc. Though they exist in different timelines, their lives are bound by a shared thread: the mysterious Cloud Cuckoo Land manuscript. (See link at the end for more info)
5/ Ever read a book where you’re eager to return to one character’s POV but dread the others? That’s a problem you don't want your readers to face. We need to care about each POV. To do that, you need to create emotional draw, and that requires a goal, trajectory, and stakes.
4/ How do you know if a POV is necessary? Ask yourself: 1️⃣ Does this character’s perspective reveal unique stakes or insights? 2️⃣ Does this POV build tension or conflict with others? 3️⃣ Would the story collapse without their inclusion? If not, that POV might need reconsidering.
3/ Ideally, each POV character will have their own complete arc. In other words, they will be the hero of their own story within the story, with a beginning (inciting incident), middle (rising action), and end (climax and resolution).
2/ As dev editors, we often see multi-POV drafts where some perspectives feel unnecessary—characters who exist for the writer’s convenience, not the reader’s experience. Every POV should deepen the story, create tension, or reveal something no other POV can.
A multi-POV novel can be fantastic, but it needs to be purposeful—the story needs to call for it. Without clear intent, extra POVs can feel like clutter rather than essential threads in the narrative tapestry. Here’s a 🧵 on the craft of multi-POV storytelling 👇 #writingcommunity
#writingcommunity #booksky
Get back to work!! 😁
See! See how important your writing is? #writingcommunity #amwriting
Thanks for sharing ❤️
Writers- if you’ve not read this, you need to.
😄
Photo by Blaque X - Pexels ✌️
Get back to work!!
#writingcommunity #booksky
Not every manuscript requires a nuke. But some do. So it's best to be open to it. As developmental editors, we recommend foundational revisions on at least 70% of the manuscripts we see. Chances are, yours might need one too. A thread 🧵🪓 #writingcommunity
Thanks for sharing :)
Here’s a wonderful example of the creative use of tension and anticipation in Still Life by Sarah Winman: Ulysses and Evelyn keep missing each other - tension. But Winman lets us know they will at some point meet again - yes this dissipates the tension, but it is replaced by delicious anticipation.
I am. Oh, I am.
Thanks :)
The Two Pillars of Storytelling "Tension and anticipation are closely related, and both are essential for keeping readers invested in the story." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/t... #writingcommunity
"Skunk" comes from the Algonquin word "segankw," meaning "urine fox." #etymology
😄
"Rendezvous" is from the French "rendez-vous," meaning "present yourselves." #etymology
Don't Stress Over Comp Titles "If you've sent out twenty or thirty query submissions and received only rejections, chances are the issue isn't just your comparable titles." darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/c... #amquerying
Writers are often told (by people like me) that a newsletter is an important tool to build their audience. But what do you put in a newsletter if you don’t have a book out yet? @writerfagan.bsky.social discusses how she surprised herself with ideas & enjoying the task of writing her newsletter.
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” -Maya Angelou
🌟 Word of the day: winsome 📚 Part of Speech: adjective 🔊 Pronunciation: ˈwin(t)-səm 📖 Definition: generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence
“What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits.” —Carl Jung
Mino Malone is an honorary cat 🐾 #Caturday
A couple small changes left to do, but my map is almost done! This is for a re-release of WHEN THEY SKY BREAKS. (At first I didn't think it needed a map, but some reviewers have asked for it, so why not?!) mybook.to/whentheskybr...
"Kamikaze" is from the Japanese "kami," meaning "god," and "kaze," meaning "wind." #etymology
Photo by Blaque via Pexels ❤️
:) :)