Maya Rock's Blog

I was thinking over my day, and remembered when I used to write in this blog more frequently, often about days like this. Seemingly uneventful but full of rich moments.

I woke up, went to Starbucks and got a turkey bacon, egg white, and low-fat cheese sandwich. Someone held the door open for me there. At the corner was a woman in a large kimono-like jacket. Then, I went to the plaza at Fordham that’s in the air and ate it. I got coffee from the bodega. The man ahead of me was older with brigh...

In my decade-plus in publishing, I’ve noticed some common first draft problems. It’s only natural—in the explosive ecstasy of first draft writing, when your commitment is just to getting your story all out on paper, you’re bound to make some mistakes. That’s what a first draft is for. No worries–you’ll rectify them in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. drafts.

In the freedom of a first draft, authors may end up creating a new character every time new informati...

Switchingfrom writing a lengthy manuscript to formulating the couple of punchy sentences that constitute a hook can be tricky. Thisblog post,“How to Write a Hook for a Book,” will help you write the perfect hook.

A hook…not for a book!

I use hooks all the time as part of my query letter and synopsis services, but they’re not required. If you don’t feel comfortable with a hook, don’t use one.

Guide to Writing a Hook for a Book

1. Throw Away Your Principles

2. State Who the Main Character Is an...

(For the purposes of this post, I discuss developmental editing as it applies to trade fiction books.)

What Is Developmental Editing?

Developmental editing refers to editing that aims to improve the overall content and structure of a manuscript. Developmental editing is very different from its cousins, proofreading and

Copyeditor Bible

copyediting, types of editing that ensure that a manuscript’s grammar, punctuation, and spelling are in accordance with rules codified in reference books such...

I’ve recently become a Scrivener convert. What is Scrivener? Scrivener is writing software. If you’re like me, it might never even have crossed your mind that you needed anything else but that old stalwart Word for your words. That is until you heard rumblings from writers that you should give Scrivener a shot.

Scrivener Logo

I first tried Scrivener a couple of years ago, and was underwhelmed. I kept toggling between what looked like a blank page and index cards tacked to a bulletin board, un...

1. Many, if not most, nonfiction books are sold to publishers as book proposals.

Juliet, a development coordinator at a major nonprofit, has a nonfiction book idea. After years of being resigned to flats, she has trained herself to glide in heels across the roughest terrain: cracked sidewalks, dirty subway steps, and lawns formerly occupied by Canadian geese. She has insights that she wants to share to what she’s sure is a vast audience of flat-wearers desperate to prowl the world on heels. R...

I listened to “Feel So Close” by Calvin Harris today,for the first time in ages. I know that it’s technically a pretty cheesy song, but I like it a lot, partially because it is very simple and clear.

Anyway, I’m trying to go to bed early still. I’ve eaten a lot of lentils over the past week and each meal has tasted slightly worse than the last. Tomorrow, I’m just going to have to figure something else out :).

What else . . . (I put on another downer/cheesy slow song . . . “About Today” by The N...

Today was my day off! It was glorious. The highlights were:

Finishing Tampa by Alissa Nutting–book with strange, disturbing content.

Reading The Trouble with Brunch–I don’t have the author’s name in front of me.

Writing a postcard and an (overdue) letter to friends overseas.

Going to American Table Cafe.

Not doing any chores or work :).

The post Day off! appeared first on Maya Rock.

I saw a play with Shayla tonight, Grand Concourse. I enjoyed it a lot. It was about four people associated with a soup kitchen, their various motivations for being there, their relationships with one another. Shelley, the nun who runs the place is losing her faith, and Emma, a troubled nineteen year old causes chaos in the place. It’s at Playwrights Horizons.

Per Maya’s recommendation, I’ve been listening to Tinashe. I think I mentioned her before. Her big hit is “2 On,” she used to be a dance...

I just missed seeing Beyonce–I was meeting someone for drinks, and while I was rushing to the bar, Beyonce and Blue Ivy were apparently stepping out of the building adjacent.

Today was a really fun day. I did so much stuff–mailing, buying, voting. On my way out of the voting location, a guy asked me where Times Square was. He was very friendly, and I learned that he was a sailor, whose ship was docked nearby! He’s from Uruguay and has been sailing for fifteen years. Because of my Dad, I think...