As a developmental editor, I do the same stuff all editors do. I challenge word choice and track continuity and check for consistency in voice and clarity of meaning and errant punctuation. But my main task—and my true love—is to help you tell a good story. Since this is where any thorough edit should start, one might think it is also where a writer’s education begins. This is not necessarily so. I learned an awful lot about stringing words and paragraphs together for maximum punch before I learned anything about storytelling. In fact, I had to seek out my teachers in this regard, and I am humbled to now step up to the plate and pass along what I've learned to other storytellers. While the projects I assess vary greatly, I find myself recommending certain storytelling resources again and again. Since some of my favorite authors write about this topic, I thought I’d bust them here today. A summer spent studying these techniques would boost your storytelling skills. And if you ha...

Ah, it's conference season again. Writers everywhere are crawling from their winter writing spaces, blinking a few times, and sniffing the air: Time to meet with others of my kind. I admire these writers, who will plunk their money down to invest in a career that may still be one of their imagination. They will don their best "business casual" (clean and pressed—yes; over-eager—no; professional yet confidently relaxed and "I too could be on Oprah" is the image they seek) and stride through the hotel ballroom doors with a game face on because this is what they've been working for, what they can find nowhere else: the chance to sit down with an agent, editor or publisher, face to face, and advocate for their work. Are you one of them? If you too are gearing up to pitch to an agent or editor this conference season, and you write fiction or memoir, here are a few tips on how to put together your pitch. By now your manuscript may have swelled to 100,000 words...