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Darling Axe Editing

1 month

🌳Rainforest Writing Retreat 🖊️ • Linwood House on the Sunshine Coast • Pitch Fest: “Speed dating” style workshopping • Intimate Cohort: No more than a dozen participants • February 10 – 14, 2025 🐦Early-bird discount is in effect🦜

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.” ― Khaled Hosseini #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet.” —Unknown #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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@DarlingAxe

3 years

“People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Our next writing contest is now live! The First Page Challenge Hook us in a single page for a chance to win a growing prize pool, plus publication on the Chopping Blog.

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.” ―J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye #writingcommunity #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

Treat your readers like detectives: drop hints about context, backstory, motivation, emotion, but otherwise let them come to their own conclusions. This gives readers a stake in the story. #writingcommunity #writingtip

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” ― George Orwell #writingcommunity #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

Treat your readers like detectives: drop hints about context, backstory, motivation, emotion, but otherwise let them come to their own conclusions. This gives readers a stake in the story. #writingcommunity #writingtip

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Work with fiction editors who are also award-winning writers. Take your manuscript to the next level.

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” ― Terry Pratchett #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

"Show, don't tell." But of course you can't show all the time. So when is telling effective, and when does it fall flat? #writingcommunity #askaneditor #amediting #amwriting #writerscommunity

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Hey #WritingCommunity , do you have any tips for how to make characters come to life? What's your secret? 🙂🙃🧐 #writerslife #amwriting #amediting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Hey #WritingCommunity – how much scene-setting is too much or too little? Are you more likely to get pulled out of a story by a dearth of description or an excess?

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

Who is your audience? Keep in mind that women account for 80% of fiction readership! And across all book sales, women read 4 more books per year than men. #writingcommunity #amediting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

11 months

Who is your audience? Keep in mind that women account for 80% of fiction readership! And across all book sales, women read 4 more books per year than men. #writingcommunity #amediting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

How did the idea for your current #WIP occur to you? Was it a flash of insight? A slow reveal? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife #amwriting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.” ― Robert Cormier #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

Can you summarize your #WIP in one sentence? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife #amwriting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

In a close or limited third-person POV, the metaphors that appear in a narrator's exposition should reflect their personality, their history, their hobbies and interests. #writingcommunity #writingtip

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Book Broker – An Interview with Literary Agent Jennifer March Soloway "I see potential in almost every submission, but most projects I receive are at too early a stage for me to offer representation." #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #amquerying

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Best-laid plans: how to outline a novel 🥳 Workshop giveaway 😍 Retweet this post for a chance to win a free spot in our outlining course, Sept 30-Oct 25. $200 value! Just in time for #NaNoWriMo #WritingCommunity #amwriting #writerslife #NaNoWriMo2019

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

First place in the Axe to Grind flash-fiction contest goes to S. P. Robin for her story "Weed". Read her story on the Chopping Blog!

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

If you could change one thing about the publishing industry, what would it be? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

2 years

"You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it." --Octavia E. Butler #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

I once asked a writing professor, "did you do a degree in creative writing?" She said, "hell no, I just read a ton of books." #WritingCommunity – do you write more than you read, or read more than you write? And what novel has brought you the most inspiration so far in 2019?

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.” ― Lloyd Alexander #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

#NaNoWriMo2020 is coming! 🧐🥳 Get started ahead of time—our self-paced novel outlining course will help you hit the ground running. #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #amoutlining #nanowrimo

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

"Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand." --George Orwell #writingcommunity #amwriting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

How will you celebrate when you finish your #WIP ? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

If you are going to use multiple points of view, make sure the alternate POV characters are given depth, their own voice, their own distinct motivations, as well as meaningful relationships and an arc (however subtle). #writingcommunity #writingtip

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

6 years

“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.” ― Frank Herbert (A post off the Chopping #Blog by David Brown)

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

‘If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.’ --Edgar Rice Burroughs #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.” ― Ernest Hemingway #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

How will you celebrate when you finish your #WIP ? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

"The first draft of anything is shit." --Ernest Hemingway #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Don't miss the First Page Challenge – a writing contest for novelists. Every entry ($5) goes toward the prize ($200 minimum). Deadline Sept 30. 🙃🙂 #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writingcontest

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” —W. Somerset Maugham #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

In your journey as a writer, what is the most significant lesson you've learned about craft fundamentals, and how has it strengthened your work? 🧐 #writingcommunity #writerslife #writingtip #writingtips

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

Unpublished authors: how many people have read your manuscript and given you feedback? #writingcommunity #askaneditor #amediting #amwriting #writerscommunity

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“A writer is a world trapped in a person.” ― Victor Hugo #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

2 years

“There's a point, around the age of twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

"The Hero's Journey during lockdown." (From Mythic Systems on FB) #writingcommunity #writerslife

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Hey #WritingCommunity – is writer's block real? Have you ever been in a creative funk? If you have, how did you get out of it? (I usually go for a long walk, or re-read a book I love.) #writerscommunity #writerslife #amwriting #amediting #writersblock

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.” ― Ann Patchett #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

Best-laid plans: the first in our series of self-paced writing courses By the end of the seminar, you'll have a solid novel outline, broken into chapters or major scenes. Use code "2020" for 50% off 🙂🙃🧐 #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting

Best-laid plans: the first in our series of self-paced writing courses

This course will lead you through the steps of drafting a solid outline, broken into either chapters or major scenes. Work at your own pace in our user-friendly Moodle site.

darlingaxe.com

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

You get to send a helpful text message to your young writer self. What advice would you give? #writingcommunity #askaneditor #amediting #amwriting #writerscommunity

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

The Darling Axe is hiring 🧐 We are looking for a fiction editor who is an award-winning author with dev editing and #OwnVoices experience. The candidate also ideally has an MFA and a background in Chinese, Indian, Indigenous, or African history. #writingcommunity #amediting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.” ― Neil Gaiman #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." --Toni Morrison #writingcommunity #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.” ― Franz Kafka #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

Hey #WritingCommunity , care to share a bit about your #WIP ? Who's your #protagonist ? What are they after? What's in their way? #writerscommunity #writerslife

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

#WritingCommunity – what was the last book that made you cry?

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

2 years

Should you find a literary agent or self publish your novel? (Pssst—there’s a third option) "The small press is on the rise, both in terms of proliferation and prestige." #writingcommunity #amwriting #amquerying #selfpublishing #indieauthors #amediting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

2 years

Building a Fictional World: A Novelist's Guide "Repeat this to yourself: the world is merely the backdrop. It is not the story. It will want to be the story. It will try. But you can’t let it." #writingcommunity #amwriting #amworldbuilding #sff #sffh

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

"You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it." --Octavia E. Butler #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of moonlight on broken glass." --Anton Chekhov #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” ― Anton Chekhov #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write.” ― Elie Wiesel #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

"Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet." --Unknown #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Hey #WritingCommunity – who reads your first draft? After that, how many beta readers do you line up? Are they friends, family, or strangers? Are they eager volunteers, or do you arrange feedback swaps with other writers? #writerscommunity #writerslife #amediting #amwriting #wip

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

Unfiltered Narrative: Strengthen Your Fiction by Minimizing Filter Words "Removing filter words from your writing can greatly enhance your readers' immersion in your story and connection to your characters." #writingcommunity #amediting #amwriting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Hey #WritingCommunity , what classic novel do you secretly (or not so secretly) hate? Why?? Mine is Alice in Wonderland for its stream of consciousness randomness without an actual plot. Couldn't get into it! #writerslife #writerscommunity #nanowrimo2019 #NaNoWriMo

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Good fiction creates its own reality.” ― Nora Roberts #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

When writing from multiple perspectives, it’s always important to establish POV within the first few sentences of a new section or chapter, to make it clear to the reader who the story is filtering through. This is your POV contract. #writingcommunity #writingtip

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

"You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write." --Annie Proulx #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

Where do you fall on the spectrum from die-hard pantser to diabolical plotter? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife #outlining

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” ― Pablo Picasso #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” ― Jodi Picoult #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

"Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money." --Virginia Woolf #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

How do you handle writer's jealousy or comparing yourself to other writers? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife #amwriting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

Which character in your current #WIP do you have the most in common with? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

How do you balance staying true to your story with the expectations of reader and industry? #writingcommunity #askaneditor #amediting #amwriting #writerscommunity

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

When a narrator explains who a character is, how they feel, what they want, and what they think, readers are not able to observe and come to their own conclusions. This means a lost opportunity for readers to bond with the character. #writingcommunity #writingtip

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

Care to share any tips about writing a multi-POV novel? 🙂🙃🧐 If your #WIP is multi-POV, how many perspectives are you weaving in? Does each POV have its own narrator or voice? Does each POV character have their own complete plot line and arc? #writingcommunity #writerslife

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

“I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” ― Shannon Hale, @haleshannon #amwriting #writingcommunity #writinglife

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't.” ― Iain M. Banks #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.” ― Octavia Butler #writingcommunity #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Every writer I know has trouble writing.” —Joseph Heller #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

What was the most memorable thing you wrote as a child? #writerscommunity #writingcommunity #writerslife

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Thanks to everyone who shared their *least* favourite classic. Let's flip it. What classic novel grabbed you by the heart and wouldn't let go?? Mine's a toss-up between Plath's Bell Jar and Maugham's Razor's Edge. Hmmm... is A Wizard of Earthsea a classic yet? #writingcommunity

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Most writers have a core theme underlying all of their work (usually unconscious). For me, my main characters are often at odds with their setting—they are somehow out of place. What's your underlying theme? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife #amwriting #amediting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

"You have to have the three D’s: drive, discipline and desire. If you’re missing any one of those three, you can have all the talent in the world, but it’s going to be really hard to get anything done.” —Nora Roberts #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." --Ernest Hemingway #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“The best stories don't come from "good vs. bad" but "good vs. good.” ― Leo Tolstoy #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

"Try to leave out all the parts readers skip.” ― Elmore Leonard #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

How did the idea occur to your for your current #WIP ? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife #amwriting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“The first draft of anything is shit.” ― Ernest Hemingway #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

Book Broker – An Interview with Literary Agent Juliet Mushens "A good cover letter should be 90% about the novel, 10% about the writer." #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #amwriting #amquerying #WIP @mushenska @CaskieMushens @TaranMatharu1

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.” ― Jules Renard #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” ― Orson Welles #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.” ― Frank Herbert #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

Who's your favourite anti-hero? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

"A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." --Thomas Mann #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

4 years

If you could change one thing about the publishing industry, what would it be? #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerslife

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

1 year

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it." --J.D. Salinger #writingcommunity #amwriting

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any. —Orson Scott #writingcommunity #writerslife #amwriting #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

3 years

"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect." --Anaïs Nin #writingcommunity #writingquote

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Darling Axe Editing

@DarlingAxe

5 years

The writer's mantra: show, don't tell We come to love people in our lives after we've observed them acting, interacting, and taking risks, and we thereby interpret who they are and what motivates them. The same is true in fiction. #writingcommunity #writingadvice #amwriting

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