If you haven’t heard, Heather McCorkle’s book, The Secrets of Spruce Knoll, is now available. I love love love the cover and can’t wait to read the book (it’s on my iPod).
I asked Heather to share with us some of her favorite writing tips.
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Thank you for having me over Stina! As you know, I love helping writers in any way I can and I'm thrilled to share my writing tips in hopes that they may help others. I'll jump right in.
#1. In the beginning set small daily goals for as many days a week as you feel you can handle. Do your best to stick to them, whether they are a sentence a day, a paragraph, or a few pages. Small accomplishments help keep me motivated and moving forward.
#2. Give yourself permission to write a first draft that is truly rough. No one but you should ever see the first draft anyway so go for it, let it all out and don't be afraid of how good or bad it is. You can fix it later, that's what editing is for!
#3. This is a big one because it is what stops a lot of people from ever finishing: Write straight through the first draft. You will change so much once it's written that who knows what you'll keep or cut. This advice has helped propel me forward when I would have stalled out and quit writing a book altogether.
#4. When it's time to edit try to read through it as though you're an acquiring editor or an agent who is looking for a reason to reject it. Look for character arcs, story arcs, plot twists, plot holes, grammar, sentence structure, voice, and flow. Break it down into a few different editing passes over the entire manuscript. Yes you'll end up reading it until you can almost recite it, but it will be better for it if you can focus on one issue per read through.
#5. Share you work with others! Join a critique group and/or find a beta reader or two. If this makes you nervous think of it this way, the critiques you get will help develop the tough skin you're going to need to be able to approach agents, and it will make your novel better. A secret tip I'll throw in with this one: Read your novel aloud. It will shock you how much more you'll catch by doing this!
~Heather
Book blurb: It’s hard enough being a teenager under normal circumstances; imagine being orphaned, sent to live with an unfamiliar aunt—and learning that there really is magic in the world. Following the tragic death of her parents, Eren Donovan moves to Spruce Knoll to live with her aunt. Little does Eren know the entire town of Spruce Knoll is filled with “channelers”—a magical group of people who immigrated to the small Colorado town when they were driven out of their own lands.
Channelers are tied to the fate of the world. As the world slowly dies, so do they—and they alone have the power to stop the destruction of Earth. Now, Eren learns she not only lives among them, but she is one. When she meets local boy Aiden, his charm convinces her that being a channeler may not be all bad.
As Eren and Aiden’s relationship blooms, so too does a mystery in Spruce Knoll. The town holds many secrets—and many enemies. It soon becomes apparent that the untimely death of Eren’s parents-and Aidens-was no accident and that her life might be in danger, too. Only time will tell if Eren has the power to protect the people she has come to love.