Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Your revised is much improved. Alice Towne has walked away from what seemed a perfectly rational life. She is eager to leave behind her unfaithful lover, I would omit "perfectly" and move "behind" ahead to the end of the clause. and hoping to avoid the so called wisdom of Josephi...

He used to make his wife lock him in a room with his typewriter with orders not to let him out until he had passed a certain number of pages under the door. He would then yell to be let out, cry, pretend to get sick, all before eventually writing the pages and passing them under the door. That's no...

For starters what is a TA? And where does the ghost get the pebble?

Everything I have ever read by Donald Maass has changed the way I thought about writing, so much so that I have spent the cash to do the Intensive and the High Tension workshop he teaches. That is awesome. In my opinion, his best two are the Workbook and his latest, Fire In Fiction. Worth every pen...

I like it best out of all of his books, but I don't recommend starting with it until you have a complete novel as polished as you can make it. I'm surprised to hear you say this, because "Writing the Breakout Novel" seemed to me appropriate reading at the ground level of writing (both in ...

I don't consider "said" to be a tag. Said is neutral. Even Mr Stingy Elmore Leonard approves of "said." He just says never use any other tag besides said. That said, I think it is okay to sprinkle in a few others here and there as needed. Sometimes it is simpler to put one in rat...

Thanks, guys! I like both revisions better than my original. And I've been looking at it for a long time.

Man, I've got to get me a beta to start getting some feedback on this project.

Okay, heck, I'll give this a spin. For Quill's line above, I'd say 7 or 7.5 only because of the punctuation. I dislike the fragmentation. With different punctuation, I'd say 8 easily, possibly 9. I like the immediate indication of trouble ahead. I like the tone, so I'd continue. My first line, adul...

I don't know what "friending" someone does.

As for "foe-ing" I'm pretty sure the foe would not know you have set them on ignore.



@ Colonel Travis LOL

I don't think it is wise to assume that everyone assumes there is an average of 250 words per page. Depends on font, font size, chapter breaks, amount of dialog, etc. I would go with Microsoft Word's count.

I was checking to see if I had any messages, because, you know, if Nathan sends me a note saying "Yo dude, when are you sending me your manuscript?" I want to reply promptly. While I was there I kind of noticed for the first time that you can mark messages as being from a friend or foe, w...

Thanks for the great comments Emily J. I have taken it to heart and shredded 100 words from the query. Please let me know how this new one sounds. Thanks. Dear Great Agent: Hidden away Omit. "Hidden away" adds nothing and sounds childish. in another dimension lies a spiritual realm entrus...

I read "Writing the Breakout Novel" three months ago, and put it near the top of my list of books about the craft. And just last week I was looking at the Handbook, wondering if it, too, might help me. So I am also curious to know if anyone here has tried working with it.

Below is the query for my YA fantasy novel. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, be honest, be brutal! Dear Agent: Eighteen-year-old Erica Ann Dawson falls asleep in her bed in Batesfield, Connecticut and awakens to find herself driving down a four-lane highway. Good start. Plagued by inexpli...

I get the opposite freaky feeling when I scan the bookshelves and see nothing like my WIP.

Either I am delusional thinking I'm writing something coherent and worthwhile, or I'm blind.