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Hazardous Material Ahead: Avoiding Common Manuscript Mistakes

Marley Gibson is a seasoned contest judge with countless critiquing hours over the last six years. As such, she’s seen many of the same mistakes writers make over and over again. In this workshop, she will try to help writers identify common pitfalls in their own work, with the goal of making new and interesting manuscripts. She’ll help you avoid the most common manuscript mistakes that might just be keeping your story from snagging the attention of an editor or agent.

1. Don’t hold your heroine at arm’s length.
2. Over-explaining and going into too much detail about meaningless things – also known as “The Back Story Dump.”
3. Tense, tense, tense — keep it consistent.
4. Avoid long, drawn out prologues.
5. Starting the story in the right place.
6. Misspelled words.
7. Fully describing the story from start to finish in the synopsis.
8. Putting too much of your personal life into a story – also known as “Mary Sue-ing.”
9. Watch your dialogue tags.
10. Don’t summarize. Let the reader “hear” what’s happening.
11. Formatting problems.
12. Proper targeting of the manuscript.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR...

Marley Gibson can recite the Greek alphabet a full three time before a match burns out. She had to in order to pass initiation. In college, she was the quintessential sorority girl, winning Outstanding Pledge in her pledge class and serving as an officer of the chapter. An avid reader, travel enthusiast, and a closet gourmet chef, Marley is a member of the New England Romance Writers of America (RWA), the Creator and Founder of Chick Lit Writers of the World RWA, a member of the Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators and was twice named to “Outstanding Young Women of America.” She lives in the Boston area with her best friend and husband (a fraternity guy she was pinned to in college) Mike.

Website:
http://www.marleygibson.com

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