Writing Tips Tuesday

One of the things I've noted over the last couple years is that every section of a MS. should be read out loud prior to presenting it to others -- in other words read it to an empty room. In a pinch, you could try reading it out loud in a public place holding your cell phone to your ear, but someone will probably catch on that nobody is on the other end. I'd stick with the empty room.

When I read a piece out loud for the first time at critique I usually find myself making mental corrections as the group jots down a lot of the same things. I might add, I'm talking MG novel chapters. For my rhyming PB I went as far as to record myself and listen to myself repeatedly.

On the things you might want to avoid: Unless you like wash ink off your hands (or have better luck than I did), do not purchase kits to refill printer ink cartridges yourself. On the plus side the ink did wash off, plenty made it into the cartridge in spite of the leaky container and after a few pages the printer worked fine.