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Delaware, United States
Deborah Hawkins, penned Debra Renée Byrd, began writing after a blank book project in elementary school and never stopped, fashioning stories based on her favorite TV shows and movies before creating more original works. She studied at the University of the Arts and Florida State University before settling down and graduating from Temple University. She now resides in her hometown of Dover, DE, where she spends most of her time at work or at church. She loves fantasies, superheroes, is a trekkie and a brown coat. She loves television and lives for Final Fantasy video games, having collected most of them. She has read a myriad of authors, and her favorite authors change whenever she finds a new book that changes her life... "When you can't run, you crawl. When you can't crawl...well, you know the rest." -Tracey, Firefly, "The Message"

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Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Express Yourself: Writerly Tips


Happy Express Yourself Day!


This meme is brought to us by Dani @ Entertaining Interests and Jackie @ Bouquet of Books.
This week they ask: What are some writerly tips you've found helpful?

The best one I've seen is to walk away from your writing when you're done, then come back some time later so you have a fresh eye.

I don't have the best luck with getting beta readers or CP's, and I have a love for editing/proofreading, so I'm often my own fresh eyes. lol I don't look at my projects for weeks (sometimes months) once I'm done, and then I see all manner of mistakes when I come back. Geez, I saw the BIGGEST continuity errors in my last revision.

On that same note, some other good advice was to find objective strangers to look at your work. Family sometimes gets tired of looking at it.

4 comments:

Heather R. Holden said...

I completely agree. Fresh eyes are so important to have! I "walk away" from my comic strips all the time for the very same reason. I'll catch some of the stupidest mistakes after staying away for even just a couple days, LOL.

Chrys Fey said...

That's the best thing to do. I do it and I'm always surprised at the silly mistakes I find.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I usually start back in soon after finishing just because by the time I'm done, I've forgotten the beginning!
Read out loud, especially the dialogue - that's been the best advice I've heard.

Sarah Foster said...

It's hard for me to walk away for a long time since I can't really stop thinking about the story I've written, even if I'm not actually writing it anymore. I just want to get back into it right away.