Welcome to Tips and Treats!
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Have a tip/resource to contribute or an upcoming release/book deal? Email me at mary@kitnkabookle.com
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My Tip
For my first trick…tip (only time I’ll make that joke, promise), I’d like to share a book that really helped me step up my plotting game.~Save the Cat! By Blake Snyder
Yes, this is technically a screenwriting book, but the advice holds true for novels. Snyder’s three-act structure can help even the biggest of pantsers (hi) form an outline. Also check out the official Save the Cat! Website for additional resources.
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Guest Tip
Please welcome the inaugural guest of Tips ‘N Treats, Melissa Crockett Mesk, founder of Melissa Meske Publications and an independent writer/author/editor/coach. Melissa’s here to impart some wisdom about when to seek out an editor, as well as some tips for self-editing before you reach that point. Let’s give her a warm welcome, and onto the post!
One handy tip I have found as a writer is to just write what you need to and don’t get bogged down with concerns for proper grammar, punctuation, spelling and so on. If you confine your writing to the rules from the start gate, it will be much harder for your words to run onto the pages. Just let the words flow out of you first, and completely. When the story is on the page or on the screen in its entirety, then the editing process can begin.
That is also the point where every writer is best served by having a professional editor come in and tweak, to clean up, a writer’s masterpiece. In my heart and in my experience, I have come to know most assuredly that a writer and an editor cannot create the best storylines possible if they are the same person. The writer is too close to the story to pick up every correction that needs made, and a grammar and spell check tool will miss things as well.
A writer can go back through and catch some things first, before their editor, by reading their piece backward – from end back to the beginning. This can help the writer in several ways. Misspellings, formatting and grammar issues will be more likely to jump out at you. Furthermore, foundational story flow should still happen freely and easily whether reading it from start to finish, or from finish to start.
As an editor, I have worked primarily within nonfiction, business and mass media genres. From my early beginnings as the student editor of my college newspaper for two years, to time spent more recently as regional editor for three county-based weekly newspapers back in my hometown, I have been employed as a professional editor for a good part of my vocational years. I also have extensive experience as a freelance editor with private clients from a wide variety of markets and audiences.
In the more creative realm, I enjoyed editing a book series that consists of three books in the young adult fiction genre for one author, as well as one of his nonfiction books. He was my first author to work with in the more creative world. Unfortunately, he passed away a little while back. He had the next in his book series underway but did not get to finish that piece. I looked forward to working with him each step of the way, and I still miss him greatly.
West Virginia author George I. Kidwiler, Jr. was the first author to place his trust in my abilities when my husband and I had just moved out East, and I will never forget his impact on me as well as on the audience he was building. More recently, I also edited and helped publish a fantasy book for an emerging young adult author from Missouri, P. Crockett. Along with my own book of poetry, these books can all be found on Amazon if anyone is interested in learning more about them.
With my roots firmly sprouted in the heart of the St. Louis, Missouri Metro East region, my husband Kevin and I spent a few years residing in the Washington, DC Metro region as well, in our very interesting hometown out East which was located in Charles Town, West Virginia. We moved back to our Midwest hometown in 2016 to take in and help care for my mother.
And while I am now employed during the week in a field that pulls much more from the left side of my brain, I am still using my writing and editing skills in the position as well. I continue to write and edit from my home-based studio on nights and weekends, so if anyone needs some help along the way to their next book or other writing project, please just let me know!
To learn more about me and my writing/editing endeavors, I encourage you to follow me on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, by searching for “macmeske.” I have a professionally recorded set of lyrics, “At the End of the Wind and the Rain,” that can be found through ReverbNation and Amazon. My website, with a complete overhaul pending, is currently hosted on WordPress at macmeske.com.
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