Melissa Burnham

Beta Readers vs Developmental Editors Similarities, Differences, and When to Use Each By Melissa Burnham If you’re finishing up the first draft of your story, you may be wondering what the next step is and whether you need a beta reader or a developmental editor. The short answer—yes! Beta readers and structural/developmental editors provide two […]

What Type of Editing Does Your Manuscript Need? A Guide for Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Writers By Melissa Burnham Line editing, structural editing, developmental editing, copy editing, manuscript critique, proofreading… Trying to decide what type of editing you need from the barrage of terms Google will throw out is overwhelming. And it doesn’t help that

Four Tips for Creating Engaging Characters By Melissa Burnham Not liking the characters–not finding them interesting, relatable, or believable–is one of the main reasons people DNF (did not finish) a book. Whatever genre you’re writing–mystery, historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, etc.–your characters need to be engaging. Characters are often what people remember about a story. The

How to Find Time to Write  By Melissa Burnham Finding time to write can be hard, especially if it’s something that you consider a “hobby.” Things that we consider hobbies are always at the end of our to-do list. People always say that if you want to do something consistently, you have to make it

How to Avoid a Swiss Cheese Plot  Four Ways to Find and Fill Plot Holes By Melissa Burnham Fact check yourself We’ve all heard the phrase “fact check” a lot recently, but in this case, you want to fact check yourself. Even when you think you remember how long the drive between Boston and New

How to Format Your Manuscript Why Proper Formatting Matters and How to Get It Right By Melissa Burnham Do you need to format your manuscript? Yes! Even if you’re self-publishing? Also yes! What if it’s a short story for a contest? Still yes! Why Format Your Manuscript? If you’re submitting to an agent or publisher

Editing 101: What is a Line Edit? By Melissa Burnham If you read our blog post on structural editing, you know we like to use the analogy of building a house. Foundational edits and structural edits are the first step—the foundation and structure of the house. Line editing is like installing the plumbing and electrical

Embracing Imperfection: How to Silence Writer’s Imposter Syndrome By Melissa Burnham You sit at your computer, staring at a blank screen. There are no words—not on the page and not in your brain. How can you call yourself a writer when you have no words? You should probably just give up and get a boring

Editing 101: What is a Structural Edit? By Melissa Burnham In his book on developmental editing, Scott Norton compares fiction to a dream. The goal is to be able to read the whole book without waking up from the dream. A structural edit starts smoothing out those speedbumps that would wake your readers up. Another