Hemingway Editor + Ginger

Hemingway Editor + Ginger = Paradise (almost)

A few months ago, I published a blog about how to use the free Hemingway Editor and Grammarly’s free grammar checker together. Both are powerful tools for writers – the Hemingway app focuses on readability by highlighting unnecessary words and complex, overly long sentences even if they are grammatically correct. In contrast, Grammarly will identify many of the grammatical errors in your work.

Great news! There is another grammar checker you can now use with the Hemingway Editor if you are not fond of Grammarly. You can now use the free Ginger grammar checker with the Hemingway app. It is super easy.

See how it works here...

Star Wars's Rogue One and Lonely Hunter: Strange Coincidences

Rogue One and Lonely Hunter: Strange Coincidences

Rogue One: A Short Review

I took my four teenage daughters to see the sci fi movie “Rogue One” a few days ago. There were some really strange coincidences between the movie and my forthcoming novel, Lonely Hunter. But first, some thoughts on Rogue One.

None of my kids are particularly dialed into Star Wars, but a few have seen a prior movie or two. I’ve seen four of them (swore I’d never go to another one after Clone Wars). Three of my kids enjoy various Sci Fi-ish flicks from time to time such as Hunger Games, Inception, the Marvel franchise, Transformers, etc. We all thought the trailer looked interesting, so we gave it a shot.

The consensus coming out was that it was underwhelming at best. But what was really weird were the number of coincidences with my own novel.

Overall, we thought Rogue One just disappointingly predictable. In particular, the dialog often seemed stilted and expository. And their tactical sense as soldiers was nil (to be gentle), which is not just a nitpick; the extra stupid behavior was needed to perpetuate the plot.

I suppose the writers did what they could given that it had to feather into the follow on movie plots (which they did do effectively), but it was hard to get emotionally invested. I did think Jyn was more dynamic than most Star Wars characters, at least at first. Once she took up the cause and charged toward the final climactic fight, it felt too much like a rerun of another Marvel or Bruce Willis movie.

But what really caught my attention were the similarities to Lonely Hunter. After a long hiatus from creative writing, I started my novel in Dec of 2013 and completed it the first draft by February of 2014. I have revised it extensively over the last three years, to include sending it through the online writing workshop, CritiqueCircle twice. Here are the strange coincidences...

Descriptive Writing, Agency, Telling Details, and Adjectives

Descriptive Writing

As I continue to edit my work in progress and think about meeting readers’ expectations, especially when it comes to descriptive writing, I recently came across and interesting review of Peter Mendelsund’s What We See When We Read, “a book that explores how people imagine and remember the things they read.”

I’ve always been loath to write (and dislike reading) detailed descriptions of characters and settings. I’m OK with details that surface as the story progresses when they are relevant, but one of the fastest ways for me to lose interest in a book or story is a front-loaded block of description sentences which have no other purpose, and an abundance of adjectives and adverbs. She was tall and had green eyes. She stepped over the puddles with her long legs while smiling at Bob, showing off her perfect, white teeth… Ugh.

What happens next? Click here.

How to use ACX to make an Audible Audiobook

My Experience Using ACX to make an Audible Audiobook

Since I recently released my first audio book, I thought I’d provide a summary of my experience publishing an audiobook via Amazon’s ACX Audible to help anyone headed down the same path. The book has gotten strong reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, but I wanted to make it available so people could hear it as well as read it on their Kindle Fire.

None of us want to fail as writers or have to admit to our families and friends that after all our hours in seclusion banging out our manuscripts they failed to sell even 10 copies. That is the height of embarrassment that none of us want to experience. As an indie publisher, it is critical that we understand what we are getting ourselves into and how to be successful before we start. This is doubly true as I am writing a book, and I hope this second one is even more successful than my first.

Read the entire story here...

Cormac McCarthy and The Road -- A Review

The Road: A Review

The Road. Indeed. It is a road, a journey, a trek through hell, but is both more and less than that. Less than that meaning: Cormac McCarthy presents bleak as no other writer can. While I was reading it, several times I thought that I’ll never again believe a writer who uses the word “hopeless” to describe the plight of their character. In The Road, there is nothing but hopelessness. Almost. Which leads to where I struggled with this novel. 

Read more...

The New AutoCrit editing software: A Review

I have written about grammar checkers and style checkers before. I continue to believe they are a powerful tool in a writer’s tool bag. AutoCrit has revised their editing software product and has an active marketing campaign underway. I signed up for their trial membership for $1 for a week. Yesterday I spent about 3 hours working on my upcoming novel with their cloud-based app. In the end, I had two strong opinions about their updated writing software.

Before I go on, I want to emphasize that I do not have any affiliate relationship with anyone. So everything I say below is my own opinion without any influence from any third parties. 

Read more about the new and improved AutoCrit...

The Girl, The Girl, The Girl! How to write a Bestseller?

How to write a Bestseller? The Girl, The Girl, The Girl

A recent article argued that there is a formula to writing bestsellers. The article says the algorithm is “built to predict, with 80 percent accuracy, which novels will become mega-bestsellers. What does it like? “Young, strong heroines who are also misfits (the type found in The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). No sex, just ‘human closeness.’ Frequent use of the verb ‘need.’ Lots of contractions. Not a lot of exclamation marks. Dogs, yes; cats, meh.” So if you are writing a novel and want to trump your competition, you should abide what this book says, right? Let’s see how I’m doing with my upcoming science fiction novel:

* Young, strong, heroine — check.
* Misfit — check.
* No sex — this one is an in betweener…you’ll have to read the novel to understand.
* Human closeness — check.
* Frequent use of the verb “need” — hmm… 154 times in a novel of 116k words…I can work on this one.
* Lots of contractions — I probably need more, so this is fixable.
* Not a lot of exclamation marks — I’ve got too many. I can fix this.
* Dogs — Several of them.
* Cats — One. Dead.

I suppose if I put an image of a young woman on the cover… Bestseller, here I come!

Maybe…