After I finished writing my first novel, I stared at the pages, not knowing what revising entailed.
It’s perfect I thought. Exactly the way I wanted it.
But then I started to research the process of revising and it dawned on me that I had to completely slash away and polish every sentence, analyze every word, make sure every punctuation was just as I wanted it before querying.
I found some fantastic books and websites, but none helped me more than Caro Clarke’s in-depth advice.
If she taught a class, I’d take it. The way she explains everything and the topics she thought to include, astounds me. I read each and every one of her writing articles and if you have a little time I would check them out. How could you not, with unique article titles such as:
Just to name a few.
Caro truly knows her stuff and I promise you that you will come away a better writer after you have read through them all. I took her advice so seriously that I felt the need to thank her in my first novel. Best of all, the advice is free!
(Although it would be nice to purchase her novel in thanks if you find her advice as helpful as I do).
Just writing this blog has made me realize I should reread all these articles again before I revise the next book in my series. I’m sure I’m in need of a refresher course.
Thank you, Caro, for taking the time to write these extremely helpful articles and for sharing them so graciously.
Have any of Caro’s tips helped you? Whose writing advice has made the biggest impact on your writing?
laurenwaters 
I’m glad her advice has helped you so much! Thanks for sharing – I will be sure to check her out. 🙂
Wow, I just perused three of the articles on her site. She is awesome! I am totally not going to get any sleep tonight because I’m going to be up reading all of these.
Thanks for sharing such an awesome resource with us, Lauren. I think I’ll have to reblog this my dear, just to share the love. 🙂
You’re welcome, Erin. I lost many hours of sleep to her website as well. I especially love how she demonstrates all her points with writing samples. Seeing how the rules apply truly makes a difference. She really should write a book on writing, I haven’t found any better advice. Enjoy 🙂
Reblogged this on Writerlious and commented:
How have I never heard of Caro Clarke? A big thanks to Lauren Waters for calling my attention to a great resource for novelists. Clarke’s advice is spot-on, and free, on the website linked in Lauren’s post. Go check it out!
Thank you for sharing such great information. I’m going to make sure to read all the articles you attached. 🙂
Awesome, Lauren! Thanks for the links, I’ll have to read them right away. 🙂
I know you will love them!
Thanks for pointing us to this awesome resource, Lauren! Your books have actually helped me become a better writer so I guess Caro has also helped me 🙂
That is the ultimate compliment! Thanks so much, Yesenia, but I think you already have such talent! I would get in a shark cage off Seal Island before I would ever show anyone what my first draft looked like! Truly frightening 😮
Now that I think about it, so would I! @_@ Thanks!
Thanks for the tip.
Thanks for the articles, I’ve read a few of them and they are quite interesting. I especially liked “I am your editor: submitting your novel.”
I’ve tagged you for The Lucky Seven Challenge on my blog. It’s a fun meme I hope you’ll like well enough to participate.
So glad you stopped by Delia, (I love your name btw). I would love to play along with your Challenge and thank you so much for thinking of me!
Full of useful content
Thanks, Countingducks. I’ve fallen under the spell of your blog immediately. You write such wonderful things!
Yeah I felt the exact same after finishing my first draft but then when I came back to it a few months later I thought it was god awful crap and slashed pretty much the whole thing and completely rewrote it … going through the exact same process with the sequel now … dang if only writing was easy …
It never seems to end! At least my latest novel is running long, that gives me lots of slashing room 🙂