Hello Christian writers! I hope all is well with you, and you are both enjoying your writing and/or persevering through that tough bit in the middle where you’re not sure whether it’s all worth it . . . (yes, that’s common!)
But on to this week’s writing tip – do any of you write for competitions? Or have you got a manuscript nearly ready to send to a publisher?
Before you put your precious story into the envelope, have you:
- Been through your story/proposal over and over again until you are certain you can not make it any better?
- Read it out loud?
- Printed it out and checked for any errors? (It’s amazing what you see in black and white that you don’t see on the screen!)
- Then left the manuscript alone for a week or two before reading again?
- Given your story to a teacher/youth worker for their comments?
Going through all these steps is time-consuming, but rushing the process might mean it’s not the very best you can do . . . and that would be a shame.
If you are self-publishing, there are several more steps you will need to go through, but we’ll look at these another time.
For now, was that helpful? If so, please leave a comment below and share with your friends – be a good neighbour – one of these steps might make all 
the difference to their manuscript!
Janet
P.S. Registration for the new Write for a Reason course (online writing course for Christians who write for children and young adults) will be opening next Monday (course starts 11th Jan 2016) – if you would like to go on an early-bird list to make sure you get the information as soon as it comes out, let me know.