Hey all! I'm about 2/3 of the way through the story-level edit of my manuscript ... and I'm going WAY too slowly and still not making very many meaningful changes. Every time I sit down to write with an objective for that scene, I get caught up in the words that are already there, and before you know it, an hour has gone by and I haven't axed a thing. I know I'm getting too attached to the existing prose, and I keep trying to fit big plot changes into writing that's already there ... which (shocker) isn't working. Any advice on how to approach this phase of editing, and how to avoid getting too married to your existing draft?

I don't know about you, but I really struggle to sit for longer than 2 hours and write. I will do pushups, pull-ups, and go on short walks to break it up. Just moving helps me reclaim my focus. What about you? What is your best non-writing, writing advice?

I'm Angela, an on-again-off-again writer with a fantasy/magical realism bent. I also work as a book editor and memoir ghostwriter, so recently I've been focused more on other people's words than my own (I know—excuses, excuses). When I'm not absorbed in Merriam-Webster or Chicago Manual of Style, my other office is a boat on the river, where I'm either coaching a rowing team or rowing myself. I've published a bit in poetry and shortform narrative nonfiction, but I'm still hoping to finish one of the novel-length WIPs in my folder someday soon, even if it never sees a bookshelf! Looking forward to learning and writing with all of you. Always happy to nerd out about books, focaccia, and anything linguistics 😎

Hey all! Happy to be here and to introduce myself. I've been zeroed in on a writing career for the past 13 years, learning my craft and creating a hoard of pre-published (read pre-famous) manuscripts. I write Kidlit, mainly Picture Books, but I have recently published my debut Middle Grade fantasy adventure novel, MAGIC MURAL! I write as JC Youngstrom and am getting into the nitty gritties of illustrating a picture book so I can get more of my work out into the world. I'm learning so much, which is why I write. Thanks for being here! Anyone else out there a Kidlit author?

A lot of writer's I've talked to say they're worried about pushing their book on social media because they don't want to come across as annoying. I'm gonna drop a little truth bomb here—whatever content you make is going to be a drop in the bucket of the content people are consuming. Seriously, people see hundreds (if not thousands) of posts every day as they're scrolling mindlessly. Your daily post about your book is just going to be one of those. Even if you're posting every day, there's so much content out there that there's no way you can actually be annoying. So share your book often! Make your posts fun and show your personality, but don't worry about being annoying! It's nearly impossible!