Tutorial - Meg Silver

It’s Bigger Than It Looks

February 9, 2015February 9, 2015megsilver

Tools Developmental editing requires good decision making. What do you base those decisions on? Let’s make some tools to help inform those decisions. TOOL 1: Reminder The first weapon is a simple reminder. On the first index card, write the following: Writers write. Facebook can’t edit this book for me. The audience is watching. TOOL 2: Focus Take out another index card and prepare to write small so that everything fits on one side. In 20 words or less, describe how this story idea came to be: In 20 words or less, describe what excited you most about this idea: In 20 words or less, explain what this story is… Read More

Self-Editing Attitude-Checklist

February 6, 2015megsilver

More from the Self-Editing-For-Indies webseries… This checklist is a hybrid from two sources: A self-editing guide that never came to pass The editing checklist that spawned Monday’s More Lore post For me, getting my head in the right place to self edit has been (and apparently always will be) a major chore. This checklist is the “stern talking to” I need to hear every time. 1 ) Writing and publishing are not the same. Writing is about creating. Publishing is about making money. Writers who find the subject of money gauche, embarrassing or distasteful should not seek publication. At all. Ever. They will never achieve the satisfaction they seek. For… Read More

More Lore

February 2, 2015February 6, 2015megsilver

I spent part of my Saturday helping someone prepare to “flip” the first draft of their novel. In the process, we tapped this sort of quasi-checklist I bust out when stressed a/o distracted and need to self-edit. The list got built back in my editing days as an actual process I would follow through the developmental stages all the way through to line editing. Parts of the checklist hit writer-friend right in the brainpan. She said “You should do a web series about this”, and since I had no idea what to blog about this morning, guess what? I’ll pluck one topic from the checklist and post about it. (I’m… Read More

Heads Up

January 25, 2015megsilver

E-book formatting tutorial users: I am a dork. Several corrections were made to the CSS file provided for the tutorial, and guess who forgot to upload the updated files? If you’re using the tutorial, please re-download the updated version. Feel free to facepalm me as often (and virulently) as desired. Changes made to the ebookstyle.css file: Corrected an error in the p.author class. Trimmed some unnecessary units.

How To Make EPUB & MOBI Tutorial

February 26, 2014megsilver

Okay, I’ve made as many updates as I can, for now. The rest depends on further input from beta-users. So go forth and test this thing. Break it, ask questions, do your worst. The still-very-beta “How To Build EPUB & MOBI Files That Don’t Suck” Tutorial (PDF version).

Tutorial Beta Post Dos

February 24, 2014megsilver

Yeah, instead of getting that boatload of writing done today, tutorial edits had to happen. Some very significant changes were made, so if you’ve been playing along, you might want to switch over to this STILL VERY BETA tutorial version. As ever, direct any issues or questions to:

Tutorial Beta

February 21, 2014February 22, 2014megsilver

Happy Friday! I don’t know how many people would be interested in this, but hey, the more the merrier. The EPUB/MOBI tutorial that began on the forums forever ago is now officially in beta stage. Anyone interested in testing this sucker out can now access the VERY BETA PDF version. Be advised that the checklists are not yet complete, and there are still ##revise tags here and there. (Someone pointed out some random numbers in the middle of a line of text earlier; Thanks a lot, cat #sendhelp) I’m working my way toward finalizing content and at this point, without input from users about what else should be included, any… Read More