Alex Slater

"You are the CEO of your book." I heard this on a podcast yesterday and it stood out to me. Meaning: you know your book best, you have the most at stake, you know the audience and you've got to 'take the reins.' just a #pubtip

This is why I like to tell writers to read their work aloud to themselves. Hear the rhythm of the narration, the speech, etc, and find the shape to the voice. #pubtip

Agents find clients all kinds of ways! If you're a journalist like Keah, make sure your contact info is easy to find within your online presence...you never know if an agent is reading your material and thinking: there's a book here. #pubtip

How you craft your chapters will affect everything about your book. Look at them individually. Could, say, ch. 12 stand on its own? Does it have a beg/mid/end? A rhythm? Most importantly: does it make your reader want to know more? #Pubtip

This video about GONE GIRL in particular highlights the work that goes into pacing and tension. Think of scenes the way you think of your chapters - end them with that jewel box click that drives home the point and progresses the story. #Pubtip

#Pubtip: Thinking a lot lately about the 2+2 theory. The best characterization happens off-the-page, in your reader's own imagination. For your main character, don't just tell us "4"...show us what adds up to it. We will determine what is says about them.

#pubtip from an author you need to know...

"Readers are having problems thinking into the future when the immediate present is so f---ing daunting."-@paulbogaards with today's #pubtip

Must watch if you're drafting a novel & contemplating structure. Supports my theory that some 1st drafts actually begin in Chapter 2 #pubtip

Spent some good time in @BooksofWonder this afternoon. If you're an aspiring writer, PLEASE make time to haunt your bookstore. #pubtip #READ

In #YA, your third person narrator has a much higher mountain to climb than others with a first person. #pubtip

Your narrator's voice becomes 100% more convincing when you cut out, "Yeah," from your prose. e.g. "Yeah, mom's mad." < "Mom's mad." #pubtip

The best books are not written with any specific age group in mind. #pubtip

Everybody says they want a manuscript with strong "voice." What does that actually mean? Credibility. Originality. Heart. #pubtip

Avoid overusing images, e.g. "The rain fell in sheets, and waking up, I pulled my own sheets over my head." This weakens your prose. #pubtip

Read. Your work. Out loud. Find a rhythm. Find the distinctions in the voices. Where you trip up reading, we trip up reading. #pubtip

Avoid redundancies. If a character recaps an entire scene that the reader has already witnessed, you lose the sense of urgency. #pubtip

There's no need for your narrator to add "at that" to describe reactions "I frowned at that...I smirked at that" #OmitNeedlessWords #pubtip