Is it just me, or is the year flying by? This week is mainly focused on the writing side. Maybe it’s a sign, or more likely that I had very little time to search things out, and coincidentally, I’m knee deep in a massive edit.

Editing

Here is a nice list of four common problems manuscripts have, along with examples and resources to explore them in more depth:
http://joanyedwards.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/look-for-four-writing-errors-when-you-revise/

Life

This is about a scientific study, but the use of swear words to aid communication seems to me to be a life issue. Here’s the article that caught my attention:
http://www.livescience.com/health/doctors-hospital-swearing-patient-trust-100928.html

And here’s a related blog post I wrote years ago (warning it’s long) about the purpose of “bad language” and the potential for consequences if the use is suppressed:
http://margaretfisk.mmfcf.com/blog/?p=365

Publishing

Not sure where I stand on the questions raised in this blog post, but I think the questions need asking all the same, whatever the answers are or should be:
http://utahchildrenswriters.blogspot.com/2010/09/too-close-to-edge.html

Submitting

An analysis of the commonalities between “how I got my agent stories” that offers some good tips for the submission process:
http://transplantportation.com/2010/09/28/breaking-by-the-rules/

Writing

How deeply you feel what your characters are experiencing influences how deeply your readers will dive in with you, but that very emotion can work against you. Here’s a look at why and how to make it work:
http://writeforyourlife.net/distress-focus-writing