Welcome, writers, to my resource center!
If you are a writer of any content, you know there can be a lot to think about. So I wanted to make your journey easier by offering resources just for you. I hope you find enjoyable, valuable resources. I have posted the published topics as well as the upcoming topics so you can let me know if you would like any additional resources.
Categories
- Working with an Editor (8 topics published and 1 webinar)
- Self-Editing (2 topics published)
- Self-Publishing and Marketing Tips (2 topics published)
- Style Sheets (2 topics published)
- Fiction Writing Tips ( 9 topics published)
- Nonfiction Writing Tips ( 4 topics published)
- Grammar and Punctuation Help (2 topics plus a link to my punctuation help blog series)
- Essay Writing Help(4 topics posted)
- Resume Writing Help(3 topics posted and 1 course).
Request Resource
If my resource center doesn’t have a topic you need, please contact me requesting that topic.
I will add one–two resources a month to this center.
Webinars & Courses
1-hour Webinar: What to Expect from the Editing Process
If you are an author who has never worked with an editor and aren’t really sure what to expect from the process, this webinar will help you have a better understanding. The process can be a learning curve and can be a bit overwhelming, so it is best to take the time to learn now.
Topics covered in this presentation:
- The four levels of editing and the difference between them
- What you can expect from your editor
- Why editing costs what it does
- The basic structure of the editing process
Blog Posts
Why Are There Errors Remaining after I Paid an Editor?
Published January 2022. Editors are not robots, so while they strive to do their best, likely some errors will remain. Learn why there may actually be less remaining errors that you think, why some errors will remain, and what your options are.
Purpose of an Editor
Published February 2018. Some authors think an editor just fixes their errors. An editor certainly fixes your grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors, but an editor should do more than that. This article will help you see how an editor works with you to make your material the best it can be in the time available.
4 Levels of Editing and Their Pricing Explained
Published March 2018. Editing is a process involving various levels. While the editing terms can change from editor to editor, editing is essentially broken down into four levels. This article will help you make an informed decision on the levels of editing you need, regardless of the term being used, and what to budget for your project.
How to Use Word’s Track Changes
Published July 2018. You will want to know how to use Word’s Track Changes since it is the industry standard. Books have been published with mistakes that editors corrected, but the author missed accepting, so it is important to know how to use this tool. This tutorial will show you what it does, how to turn it on, how to accept and reject changes, how to know if you missed a change, and how to work with comments.
10 Realistic Expectations
Published January 2019. Before starting the editing process, it helps to know what to expect from your editor. Having realistic expectations sets you up for a great author-editor relationship.
How to Deal with a Heavily Edited Manuscript
Published April 2020. If you get your manuscript back with a lot of editorial markings, breathe, realize your editor is not out to get you, and know this doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. Often those tracked changes can look more intimidating and invasive than they really are. This article will walk you through various stress-free methods for dealing with a heavily edited manuscript.
The Cost of Editing & How to Stay in Your Budget
Published June 2019. Editing is expensive because it is a specialized skill, takes time, and editors have other expenses. But it helps if you understand why editors charge what they do. This blog explains why you aren’t being ripped off and why paying rock-bottom rates may not be a good idea. It also outlines various ways to work on a very limited budget.
Proofreading: Your Last Line of Defense
Published June 2019. Proofreading is a vital part of the production process; it is a separate service from editing. Learn why it’s important, what it entails—including cost and turnaround time—why your editor shouldn’t also be your proofreader, and how to get the most from your proofreader.
Booklets
Nonfiction Self-Editing Ebooklet
COMING SOON: This resource is an ebooklet available for instant download. The ebooklet walks you through the process of self-editing your nonfiction book.
Fiction Self-Editing Ebooklet
COMING SOON: This resource is an ebooklet available for instant download. The ebooklet walks you through the process of self-editing your fiction book.
Blog Posts
Strategies to Reduce Wordiness
Published March 2020. This blog explains words and phrases that often lead to unnecessary wordiness and methods you can use to reduce wordiness. Knowing this will help you as you self-edit your manuscript.
6 Self-Editing Tasks to Reduce Your Editing Costs
Published July 2019. If you can afford full editing services, you should do so. With that said, the more thoroughly you self-edit, the less your full service editing services will cost you. This blog outlines five self-editing tasks you can do to reduce your editing costs.
Self-Publishing Tips for Success
COMING SOON: Guest blog post from a successful self-publishing author.
How to Build and Grow Your Author Newsletter
Published April 2019. Guest Blog. You can increase your book sales by creating a newsletter to share with your email list. This blog walks you through six steps to building your newsletter and growing your audience. By following this step-by-step guide, you too can build your newsletter, grow your audience quickly, and sell your subscribers your backlist and new releases.
Creating a Book Marketing Plan
COMING SOON: Guest blog post from a book marketing expert.
What’s Next: Marketing Your Book Post-Publication
Published January 2021. Marketing your book happens before, during, and after publication. Many hit marketing hard during launch, but then just let it sit. Learn eight strategies you can use to continue to market your book after publication.
All About Style Sheets
Published April 2019. Copy editors create style sheets to ensure consistency. Learn what one is, what to include on it, and why an author may actually want to create one to give the copy editor. You don’t have to create your own, but you will want to know what one is.
11 Steps to Creating Your Own Style Sheet
Published April 2019. This tutorial walks authors through the process of creating their own style sheets. At the end, I have included some free downloadable style sheet templates.
Showing and Telling Part 2: When It’s Okay to Tell
Published August 2023. The first blog in this series explained how to identify your told prose. Now that you have identified it, decide if you need to change it to showing or keep it as is. It isn’t wrong to tell. The importance is balance. Learn when it is okay and even preferable to tell.
Narrative Distance: What It Is and How to Use it Effectively
Published July 2023. Narrative distance is another tool in a writers’ toolkit. Learn what is it, how to create various levels of narrative distance, and when you may want to go wide.
5 Unnecessary Explanations to Avoid
Published May 2019. Authors often include unnecessary explanations, which can annoy and frustrate readers. Trust your readers to follow your plot and your characters’ development without explanations. This blog discusses five types of unnecessary explanations and gives examples so you can avoid overexplaining your novel’s plot and characters.
Action Beats: It’s All about Dem Beats
Published September 2019. Action beats reveal a character’s movement, emotions, and motivations; affect the rhythm and tension of the scene; and can establish the setting. Learn how to write effective action beats and use them purposefully.
How to Write Effective Direct and Internal Dialogue
Published May 2018. Dialogue reveals character and moves the action along, but poorly written dialogue can have the opposite effect. This article explains how to avoid common dialogue mistakes, when to use internal dialogue, and gives examples of good and bad dialogue.
3 Common Dialogue Tag Pitfalls
Published April 2018. When writing dialogue tags, authors often fall into these common pitfalls. Avoiding these pitfalls will strengthen your dialogue tags, improving the pacing and characterization.
How to Spot and Avoid Head-Hopping
Published October 2018. Head-hopping is an easy trap to fall into. If you head-hop, it can pull your reader out of the scene and leave them feeling disoriented. So learn what it is, how it differs from an omniscient narrator, how to avoid it, and how to correct it if you do spot it.
How to Fix Info Dumping
Published November 2018. Info dumping can cause readers to lose interest in your story and be pulled out of the moment. Learn what it is and how to fix it.
Showing and Telling Part 1: Finding Your Told Prose
Published May 2020. The advice “show, don’t tell” can frustrate authors. Telling isn’t bad, but it can ruin a novel if overdone or done at the wrong moment. Learn how to spot your told prose so you can edit it to shown prose, if the scene calls for it.
5 Ways to Create Characters that Don’t Suck
COMING SOON:
Effective Transitions that Aid Your Reader’s Comprehension
Published February 2018. In each chapter, you often have several subtopics. In order to help your readers follow your train of thought and avoid mental whiplash, you will want to add an effective transitions between those subtopics. This article explains how to to do that in easy to follow steps and provides examples from both essays and nonfiction books.
8 Strategies to Eliminate “Be” Verbs
Published May 2018. Many writers tend to overuse the state-of-being verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been. While we need these words, strong writers can often reword sentences to eliminate them, choosing powerful verbs instead. This article provides specific methods to eliminate them. However, this isn’t an exercise in getting rid of every one—though when I taught English, I had students rise to the occasion.
Varying Sentence Beginnings
Published October 2018. If too many of your sentences start the same way, your writing can begin to sound choppy, disjointed, or monotonous. This article explains how to vary them and how to know when to do so versus when to leave it alone.
297 Words and Phrases that Rob Your Writing of All Its Power
Linked February 2018. I planned on writing an article on this subject, but a few months back, I stumbled across this blog. Since the author nailed it and had a more extensive list than I, I decided to just link to his blog.Strategies to Reduce Wordiness
Published March 2020. Using these strategies, you can learn to write more concise, powerful sentences. Learn how to get rid of unnecessary wordiness through a variety of strategies.
Bite-Sized Punctuation Series
Published and continually updated. In January 2019 I started a bite-sized punctuation series. Once or twice a month, I post a quick tutorial on one punctuation concept. Check out the link here to see all the bite-sized punctuation posts.
Commas with Coordinating Conjunctions
Published August 2015. Knowing and using correct punctuation is useful, especially in your self-editing phase. This blog posts teaches a basic grammar principle: using commas with coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS). Learn when to put a comma and when you don’t need a comma before “and,” “for,” “nor,” “but,” “or,” “yet,” and “so.”
Learn the Difference between “Good” and “Well”
Published November 2017. Seriously, guys! This is both my pet peeve and my legacy. Before I die, I want to see more people using these terms correctly. Now I am not one of those crazy people who goes around correcting people—unless you’re my mom, husband, or child—but I mentally correct people all the time. Forget world peace, let’s focus on “good” and “well.” Just kidding!
How to Write Effective Claim Statements
Published March 2018. When writing an argumentative essay, you need to have a strong claim statement. Learn what a claim statement is, how to write an effective one, and the various types of claims.
3 Components to Writing an Effective Thesis Statement
Published January 2018. All essays need a strong central message. To write an effective thesis statement, you will want to follow the three components explained in this article.
How to Write Winning Introductory Paragraphs
Published October 2017. While I don’t necessarily advocate for formulaic writing, generally introductory paragraphs contain three parts. This article explains how to write each part of the introduction well.
Webinars & Courses
2-Hour Course: Resume Writing—Get Your Foot in the Door
Your Resume is a powerful career marketing tool; thus, your resume should be a persuasive marketing piece and not a dull career biography. Don’t let your resume go unnoticed: take charge, and follow this course to learn how to get your foot in the door and market your greatest commodity: yourself. I have heard many say, “I have applied for several jobs, but I don’t have any interviews lined up.” It all begins with your cover letter and resume. While I do not always get the job, I have always gotten the interview, even over those more skilled than I. Why? Because resume writing is an art, and I have learned that art.
In 28 short videos, you will learn how to revise, write, design, and format your resume in the best way possible to sell yourself. Selling yourself is what you need to do daily: you sell yourself to your date, your boss, your child, your prospective employee, your friend, and even to yourself!
Student Review: I previously purchased another Udemy resume writing course a couple of years ago, but Katie’s course is so much better. It’s like night and day. Katie is VERY thorough, by explaining her topics, then showing examples of exactly what she means. She also shows several before and after examples, which I loved. It’s nice to have an instructor that knows how to teach a subject in detail. In addition, she actually answers your questions on the Q and A board. Thank you Katie, great course.
Blog Posts
5 Strategies for Effective Job Bullet Statements
Published September 2018. The job bullets are the second most important part of your resume, and too many people just list generic job duties. These bullets should reveal your accomplishments, not describe your job. Learn how to write effective job bullets and stand out from the crowd.
How to Show, Don’t Tell Your Marketable Skills
Published October 2017. The number one mistake that people make on their resumes is stating they posses a certain quality. This is telling. Saying you possess a specific ideal characteristic is meaningless. So stop telling your prospective employers how awesome you are and learn how to show through your words intstead.
How to Write an Effective Career Summary
Published December 2017. Your career summary is the most important part of your resume. So learn how to tailor your summary for each job, write an effective one, and various ways to format it.
Bonus Resource
Guide for Authors and Writers
Jess Martin, a young reader and writer, found this resource and thought it would be a great addition on my site. Her mom emailed me and shared with me Jess’s passion and enthusiasm for reading and writing. It was inspiring.
This page that Jess found is a collection of curated resources on the following topics: education and skill development for writers, college scholarships for writers, career options for writers, manuscript formatting and preparation resources, editing your book with an editor, how to get a literary agent, how to write a book proposal, self-publishing information, poetry writing resources, writer conferences and conventions, and organizations for writers.