Elizabeth Hunter teaches workshop October 25

October 25, Saturday, 10-1:00 p.m.

Elizabeth Hunter, writer, essayist, naturalist

Fee: $35

Second Draft Strategies: Taking the Terror Out of Revision

Congratulations! You’ve completed a first draft. You know it needs work, but where to begin? This three-hour workshop will supply you with a roadmap through revision that will improve your writing and calm your nerves. We’ll work our way through a structured set of questions, beginning with the big one: Have I said what I wanted to say? Others follow, concerning beginning and ending, voice, tone, tense, language, and flow. Students who wish to are invited to bring a first draft (maximum length 1,000 words) to read and critique.

Elizabeth Hunter began her professional writing career as a newspaper reporter before becoming a freelance writer. A columnist, contributing editor and writer for Blue Ridge Country Magazine, she was commissioned to write the text for two coffee table books on the Blue Ridge Parkway and one celebrating the 150-year anniversary of Mitchell County, NC, where she lives. She is a self-taught naturalist, and has taught nature writing at John C. Campbell Folk School for many years.

Congratulations, Pat Davis

I recommend that all writers read this post if you plan to submit a manuscript for publication. My friend, Pat Davis, has succeeded in finding a traditional publisher for her romantic mystery.

I met Pat at a NCWN Conference in 2007 while waiting for the elevator. I liked her immediately and when I found her home was Brevard, NC, we embraced her and welcomed her into the group of Netwest writers who had come to the conference. 

Pat lived in Pennsylvania at the time, but is now home again in Brevard. I hope to see her more often once she is settled in her new house.

Here is the link to her most recent post. http://novelistapproach.blogspot.com/2012/09/road-to-getting-published.html

You can find her blog link on the sidebar of this blog.

Take note of how many times she read her work and revised her work. Good writers are good re-writers.

Bad Writing Habits?

What are your bad writing habits?

Why is your manuscript still in your computer and not in the hands of an editor or publisher? What keeps you from submitting your work? What stops you from completing that book or story you want to see published?

Some of the bad habits many of us can’t seem to break include the following:

Self Editing – Do you read over each sentence before you write the next one? Do you have to correct any punctuation of spelling errors before you can go on? Break this habit now. Let your thoughts, your creative mind flow like a moving stream. Let it dictate the words you spill out on the page. After your story is on paper there will be plenty of time to go back and edit.

Don’t stop until the story is on the page. -- It has been said there are no great writers only great re-writers. We must revise and that takes time. But don’t revise your work until your authentic voice has disappeared. 1.Write. 2. Put away for a while. 3. Read. 4. Revise or rewrite. 5. Put it away again.
But you have to let your manuscript go, no matter how afraid you are that it is not perfect.

Second-guessing yourself about your story. – I’ve been there and I know. After the story is done, you become afraid that the story is all wrong and is not ready to go just yet. You think you have to change the main character in some way to make him better, or change the direction of the story. Suddenly the whole thing is just too much to fix and the manuscript ends up never seeing the light of day.


Fear of the consequences if you mail your manuscript. – You ask yourself these questions: What if my work is not good enough, if it is really terrible and is rejected and no one will ever want it? Can I stand the embarrassment, the personal rejection I will feel, and will I ever write again? What if I am a complete failure?
Remember, the rejection is only one person’s opinion. Don’t take it personally. The next time you submit your work it could hit on the desk of just the right editor, the one who loves it. But this will never happen if the manuscript stays hidden in a drawer or lost in a file on your computer. Don’t let fear of failure stifle your writing.


Do you have any bad habits that hinder your submitting your writing? Let me hear your thoughts on this subject.