Nathan Bransford - The Forums

That sounds like a really good piece of advice.

You're right in that once you get familiar with a piece of work you get lazy when you read it and start to skim and assume sentences read in certain ways.

A computer reading it back to you will make not make such a human error.

Phil

Maybe you were hungry when you wrote it! :)

So the first fifth of my manuscirpt has been sent to my editors to go over while I continue getting the other 20 or so chapters in some kind of half finished state at least. So I got an email from Allison on Firday that points out that I have written the following line in my book: He fought the urge...

I write from instinct not from instruction which means I'd never even thought of reading a gramar manual before reading this much less heard of Strunk & White. My writing must be hell for my editors!! Now, however, I am intrigued and I'm either going to check this out of the library or buy a cop...

lexcade wrote:eh, a little late to the party (not even fashionably!)... i'll play.

here's my one liner:

A genetically-altered woman seeks her lost memories and vengeance, preferably without dying in the process.

In all honesty that sounds too much like the The Long Kiss Goodnight to me.

Phil

Jav Holson is one of the Viscain Empire's elite soldiers, given immense power by the Emperor's gift of an Artifact. But his Artifact, the Ritual Mask, was never meant to last, and when it fails, Jav is a dead man. Unless, that is, he can win a new, permanent Artifact in a competition to be held in ...

Going Postal and lately Making Money.

Both by Pratchet.

I've also read Monstrous Regiment more times than I care to remember.

However, I don't have enough time to re-read many books I prefer to be reading something new.

Phil

I'd put my money more on some kind of cross-over sci-fi theme.

Personally I'd like a Shadowrun based cyberpunk style to be big at some point. It would combine to of my favourite genres.

Phil

Thanks I hope people will like it when it comes time to find me an agent.

I'd rather YA moved away from Vampires etc but then not being a YA I don't have much say on the matter.

You need a genre that is going to connect to a lot of ideals and emotions that YAs experience in every day life.

What other genre's can do that as well as Vamps, Werewolves, Fairies etc.

Phil

Thank you that's really encouraging.

I think my second book if my first ever gets published will see the lead character roll switched from one person to another because the story at that point focuses more on the second character.

However, they are pretty much of equal importance to the story.

You can paste your whole manuscript into Wordle and it'll create a word cloud based on it.

It can also provide you with word frequency details etc.

Here's one I just created.

Here's mine for a book I currently have being edited: A boy and a dragon are thrown together by destiny at the beginning of the blitz and embark on a desperate adventure to save England from certain defeat by the Luftwaffe. It's too wordy for me at the moment so it needs work, but then I did just wr...