Thursday, June 18, 2009

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Funny thing happens when you're knee-deep in query edits and synopsis rewrites. Well that's not entirely true. Thing is, nothing funny happens. Nor anything exciting or worthy of a blog post. I've discovered some wonderful blogs in the past few days, but that doesn't seem like enough to fill an entire post.

One blog you MUST check out (if you're a writer) is The Intern. Editorial Anonymous linked to her the other day and she's quickly becoming one of my favorites.

I've known about QueryTracker for quite some time but have never explored the site. I can't remember who led me there, but yesterday they reprinted a post called Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do). You know that editing thing I'm in the middle of? Yeah, I need to do at least five things from this list (and I thought I was almost done, hah!) The ten things are: crutch words, flat writing, empty adverbs, phony dialogue, no-good suffixes, the "to be" words, lists, show don't tell, awkward phrasing, and (you guessed it) commas. Definitely worth the time.

Aside from reading even more blogs and working on my query/synopsis stuff, I have another freelance design project and I've started messing around with a new version of my own personal website. I haven't moved on the domain name because I have a source that's looking into it for me. Besides, the design end of things takes much longer than buying a name.

And that's all folks.

10 comments:

JLC said...

Ok, now I need to set up Reader and go through your links. You may get a lot of hits from me today as I go back and forth from site to link. (I really ought to be writing!! Thanks a lot!) ;)

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Ha! Now that I've started using Google Reader I'm able to keep track of a lot more blogs. I don't know why I didn't do this MONTHS ago!

JLC said...

Ok, I have about ten. This is enough to inspire me to restart my own blog again. I just need to come up with something worth blogging about! *stares at Melanie for being a literary crack dealer* ;)

Melanie Hooyenga said...

*passes out the goods*

Jon VanZile said...

I LOVE The Intern!

No pressure, btw, but you better sell your novel. I'm kinda dying to read it ...

Or if you need another beta. I'm just sayin'.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Aww, Lurker. *blush* I might gouge out my eye if I feel I need another beta reader, but I will consider you at the top of the list in case I do.

My query stirred up a bit of a ruckus at Absolute Write, so I'm hoping that means I've hit a controversial topic. :)

WendyCinNYC said...

Ruckus? Ooo, I love a good ruckus. Everytime a thread it locked, I just have to click on it to see what happened. I'm...what's the word? Nosy?

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Wendy, I do that too. :P

It seems to have died down. I responded to the issues and I guess we've scared everyone off. It's just as well.

Nadine said...

LOL - I love Turkey's comment about being a literary crack dealer!

Thanks for the tip about the ten mistakes writers don't see - I hadn't come across that before and it is definitely helpful!

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Nadine, that article helped me a lot!!