Editing your novel manuscript can be a painful, embarrassing process. For me, one of the many humbling things I find in a stack of freshly drafted pages is how often I’ve been entirely unoriginal. During the first pass of anything,…
I’m sure you’ve all heard the advice to put your manuscript in a drawer for a few months before tackling the next revision. Getting some distance allows you to see things you otherwise can’t because you’re too close to it….
Earlier this week, I yelled out loud to my empty living room, “I hate everything that I’ve written!” Yesterday, I broke out some junior high dance moves to celebrate the completion of another first (shitty) draft. Such is the up-down life of…
I have difficulty sitting, a condition I treat with an ever-present pillow and an unusual form of therapy — one I find instructive as a writer. I practice doing nothing. I was turned onto this ‘nothing’ therapy by Dr. David…
It’s the end of another calendar year, the time before Christmas, when people scramble to buy gifts. It’s the time when book lists appear, summarizing the best and brightest, the funniest, the biggest breakthrough titles published during the same year….
It has come to the attention of the Dead Darlings Editorial team that our website is a source for writers wanting to know what to wear to a Writers’ Cocktail Party. While we normally prefer to confine our content to…