Initially, I found it difficult to sit and listen to other people discuss my work—my book-baby—without immediately defending myself. There were times when I’d sit on my hands to remind myself to be patient and wait my turn. I also needed to develop a thicker skin. I’m much better about all this now but I occasionally still feel the need to interrupt someone’s critique of my work. The struggle is real.
Experience is the best teacher.
Think about how you can best contribute to the growth of others.
Be kind.
“As for literary criticism in general: I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or a play or a poem is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split.”
—Kurt Vonnegut
Few things bruise a writer faster than a harsh critique. Brutality and honesty are not the same thing. Critique partners must be able to hand out hard truths without being too soft and without being mean.
People who tend to be on the rude side can be good writers with valuable insights. However, when those folks express helpful insights in a snarky manner, the person on the receiving end won’t listen. For people to take in what you say, they must feel that the critique partner has their best interest in mind. A harsh critique doesn’t help, and can actually stunt a writer’s growth. Be kind.
Be honest and constructive.
Attend the critique with the goal of helping your fellow writers improve. Always criticize with good intentions. This does not mean being so nice that you don’t remark on anything, smile, and say it’s all great. Give your best suggestions, but don’t browbeat.
Refusing to give usable criticism does the writer a disservice. Be honest. It can be difficult to hear truths delivered by critique partners. But, the suggestions of those who hone their criticism with an interest in helping you write your best work are golden.
Always go at the task of criticism with a desire to be helpful. That way, your suggestions will be constructive regardless of your experience critiquing other’s work.
Be Brave.
Every writer likes to be to know what they’ve done well, especially by those who are not friends or family. But heaps of praise don’t help the writer in the long run. Writers need commentary on the work. For instance:
“The chapter was great, but I’d like to see more dialogue sprinkled in with the prose.”
“I really like the way you introduce your characters. I can see them clearly, but I don’t know what the scene looks like. Can you give some more visuals?”
Some critics may worry that their criticism might be too hard to take, but it’s all in the delivery. Listening to constructive criticism is the way writers develop a thicker “emotional” skin.
Writing is art.
When we critique, we need to remember that writing is an artform. Everyone is going to see different things in a work of art. Not all those opinions are going to be positive. A good critique group is a safe environment for discovering problem areas in our work.
Even highly acclaimed writers need critique. None of those books lining library shelves were perfect to start. Writing is a personal act for public consumption. Before it’s ready for that public it needs polishing, which takes many, many eyes-on.
Constructive criticism is honest criticism. If a work is so clean and crisp that there’s only a few grammatical issues, tell the writer that. Let them know how awesome the work is. Most of us need to hear when we’ve done well. Point out the positive first, that way the writer you are critiquing will be more receptive to your other suggestions. And remember to state that those are suggestions. No one must agree to all the critiques that are offered. Not all advice given in critique is useful.
A few helpful points to critique.
Passive voice. If the object of a sentence is used as the subject of the sentence, that’s passive voice. “The goal was made by Alice.” Instead, use an active sentence. “Alice made the goal.”
The following are suggestions you can offer a writer when you notice too much passive writing.
Will active or passive voice make the sentence more engaging?
Is the sentence clear?
Suggest rewriting with as few "to be" verbs as possible and use active verbs.
Overly used words. In some cases, words are repetitive and a good thesaurus can be your friend. Other times, there are too many instances of words like “it,” “here,” and “there.”
The word “it” was once one of my favorites until it (OOPS) was nearly drummed out of my writing habits. The question I frequently received from a fellow critique group partner was, “What are you talking about? What is it?”
Example:
Me: “It makes me mad.”
Partner: “What makes you mad?”
Me: “Willful ignorance.”
Partner: “Substitute those words for it and see how much clearer the sentence is.”
Me: “Willful ignorance makes me mad.”
For more information. Lori Freeland has a fantastic list of things to look for when critiquing other people’s work. The list is also helpful for editing your own work!
Final thoughts.
Keep in mind that we are all in this together. It takes a village to raise a book-baby.
The first time I walked into a room and sat down with a group of people I didn’t know to share the very first chapter of my first manuscript, I was terrified. Thankfully, they were thoughtful and kind. That first draft was terrible. However, the takeaway from my first critique group experience was positive, so I kept attending.
Be constructive, brave, kind, and that will come back to you more often than not. Happy writing!
Do you have a critique partner or belong to a critique group? How did you find your partner/group? What are your experiences with critique?
* * * * * *
About Ellen
Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents, and The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon chapter book series with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works in Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and The Crystal Key, MG Magical Realism/ Sci-Fi, a glaze of time travel.
Writers are told to use the five senses to create vivid scenes. But without further information, they struggle to follow that advice. Their use of the five senses is often basic. But our senses are complex, with many descriptive components for each. With judicious use, these descriptive components can immerse the reader in the world and characters you created.
Let’s take the senses one at a time and get some ideas on how to train yourself to use your five senses to their fullest.
Take Advantage of Your Assets
What are your assets? Most people think their assets are their talent and their experiences. But there’s more. Your thoughts, emotions, your energy and your inborn senses are an author’s most important assets. But learning to use those things in a story isn’t always easy. How can you use them better? Train yourself to be aware of the world around you as it really is. Learn to truly see, to listen intently, to experience touch, identify smell and taste in all their complexities.
Training
Train yourselves to understand the complexities of our perceptions of sensory input, seek experts who can help you, understanding the complexities of our perceptions of things we sense, and to choose to make some of your sensory details layered and specific to immerse your readers in your story world..
There may be people near you who have extraordinary senses. For example, miners spend their day in the dark underground caves, but when they emerge, they have a keen sense of color and sound. Artists not only see colors as varied and layered, they notice how shadow and light affect what our eyes perceive. Bird watchers can identify the unique qualities of each species’ song. Naturalists know which animals live in which environments, and psychologists and criminologist know that certain human behaviors result in certain events.
Understand the complexities of our senses. Remember, your character’s physical and emotional health affects what they sense and how intensely they feel that. Core beliefs, experiences, and our environment are key to figuring out how your characters experience the world.
Use the complexity of our senses in your stories. Sprinkle in sensory descriptions that are layered and specific by using a mix of the items listed below.
The Sense of Sight
Color:
Use the full-spectrum of colors both natural and man-made .
Shapes:
There are some shapes that are in nature and some shapes that are man-made.
Motion:
We can perceive motion with our eyes, such as a stalking panther, a fly buzzing around a room, or a leaf that flutters in the wind.
Patterns:
Look for patterns around you. Find both natural, like zebra or tiger stripes and man-made patterns, like how neighborhood houses all look the same.
Brightness:
Include the differences between bright sunny day, the glare of a spotlight, and the glow of the moon in your writing.
Light and Shadow:
Shadows change with movement, outside vs inside, evoke emotion and mood. Our personal experiences, our gender, or the expectations we have influence our perceptions of shadows.
Depth:
When we experience depth, we are perceiving the distance between two objects.
Contrast:
The difference between light and dark or colors he sees can reveal things about your characters.
Clarity:
The acuity and detail of what our characters see. Not all characters will have 20/20 vision.
Size:
We make judgments of how big or small an object is by sight alone. The reality can sometimes surprise us.
Visual Texture:
Science has determined there’s no difference between visual and touch perceptions of rough or coarse objects, but touch is superior to vision for finer surface textures. So go ahead. Have your characters recognize textures.
Facial Expressions:
Learn about micro expressions. Use them to deepen the connection your characters have.
Reflections:
Yes, people overuse this one, but reflections often draw our attention in real life. Have a specific reason (other than description) for using reflections.
Distance:
This one most of us are familiar with. We judgement of how far or close something is based on sight.
Visual Illusions:
Illusions are images that differ from reality. They can occur in various states of physical and emotional health and in certain environmental conditions (think beyond desert illusions).
The Sense of Smell
We take our sense of smell for granted. It’s not like we can turn our sense of smell off and on. But we often ignore input from our noses. Remember to have your character experience the world through their nose.
Floral:
These scents range from light to heavy, from pleasant to unpleasant. Think about which scents your character knows and ones she doesn't know.
Fruity:
There are fruity scents that are pleasing and ones that are overpowering and some are unpleasant.
Spicy:
Keep in mind that your character’s cultural foods and past experiences will influence what smells spicy.
Earthy:
This is more than the scent of freshly turned soil or rain on dry ground. Think about what smells earthy to you.
Sweet:
Candy isn’t the only thing that smells sweet.
Savory:
Savory smells are rich and complex. This scent includes things like roasted meat or simmering soup.
Woody:
This includes the scent of cedar trees, a pine forest, or freshly sawn wood.
Herbaceous:
Things like basil, mint, rosemary have an herbaceous aroma.
Burnt:
Different substances have specific odors when they are burnt. It's okay to start with an awareness of that burnt smell but be specific when it's pertinent to your character or story.
Musty:
Damp and earthy are often used to describe a musty odor. You don’t have to describe it. You can inject a memory, a simile, or a metaphor to make your description specific.
Clean:
We all know what this smells like, but it’s not the same for all of us. How is it unique to your character?
Chemical:
There is a wide variety of chemical smells. Some are organic, many are man-made.
Metallic:
Each metal has a distinct smell. Think about the differences between iron and aluminum and copper.
Oceanic:
The ocean air is not always salty, briny, or fishy. Check your assumptions and find out what conditions exist to create those odors.
Personal:
We each have a unique scent. It’s based on the soaps and perfumes we use, but it’s also based on our personal chemistry, what we’ve eaten, and how often we wash our clothes and our bodies, and what soaps and perfumes we use.
The Sense of Hearing
Sounds are all around us all day, every day. But there are unique groupings of sound.
Music:
Melodies, harmonies, instrumental, and musical genres have unique sounds. Remember, the music your character hears doesn’t need to be instrumental or vocal.
Voices:
Timber, inflection, pitch, quality, volume and rate of speech can be helpful in reducing a sing-song he said-she said.
Nature Sounds:
There are sounds of nature even in cities, but they differ from the sounds on a farm or in a jungle.
City Noises:
There are tons of city noises. Consider the hum of traffic, the chatter of crowds, the thundering footsteps of people moving, the sounds of machinery. Some cities have a sound unique to that location.
Animal Calls:
Use more than the birdsong or the howl of a lone wolf. Research animals native and invasive to the location of your story (or create them).
Footsteps:
Think about the surface walked upon, the type of footwear, the speed, rhythm, and weight of footsteps.
Mechanical and Electronic Sounds:
These sounds depend upon locations and level of technology and the materials used to make the mechanical devices.
Water Sounds:
Think about all the sources of water around your characters and what sorts of water sounds those things might make.
Impact Sounds:
These sounds can come from multiple sources at different loudnesses and pitch. They include things like the sigh or slam of a door or glass breaking or a ball bouncing, an open-hand slap.
Wind:
The location of your scene, the weather, a fan, an open window or a vent all could mean your character hears a wind sound. Consider how loud or soft it is. Is it sustained or sporatic?
Silence:
Total silence is rare, but depending upon your character’s location, experience and expectations, silence can be disorienting. In silence, your characters will automatically strain to hear something. They might hear their own heart beat, oceanic-like sounds, or imagined sounds.
Ambient Sounds:
Think about what sorts of background noises surround your character. These will change if your character changes location.
Speech Patterns:
Accents tones, inflection rhythm, and word choices are part of what makes your characters’ voices different from one another.
Animals Sounds:
The animal sounds your character notices and their reaction to those noises can be key to your reader connecting with your character.
The Sense of Taste
Taste is one of the most underutilized senses in stories. What we can taste depends on our physical makeup and our experiences. Taste isn't limited to the places on your tongue (in the illustration above.) Remember, taste doesn’t just come from food and drink. Certain smells can have tastes as well.
Sweet:
Fruits or candy or sweetbreads
Salty:
Remember many things beyond the ocean’s breeze and potato chips can taste salty including some minerals.
Bitter:
Some people enjoy the taste of bitter things. Some people definitely do not. There are some people who cannot taste bitter things and certain medications create a constant bitter taste.
Umami:
This is the savory flavor of soy sauce, or mushrooms or aged cheese.
Spicy:
We often describe the heat from chili peppers, hot sauce or spicy foods spicy Indian foods as spicy. Is your character accustom to high heat foods or do they cause pain and profuse sweating?
Savory:
This is a dish taste similar to roasted meats, broth, some cheeses, or certain breads.
Sweet and Sour:
This exists in more than just the sauce. How well does your character discern the difference between sweet and sour?
Earthy:
Root vegetables and certain mushrooms have an earthy taste. To me, Brazil nuts have an earthy taste. Maybe your character considers a food to have an earthy taste that isn’t usually described that way.
Creamy:
This is the smooth, rich taste of cream or cheese or yogurt.
Tangy:
Consider the sharpness of food like yogurt or certain dressings, sauces, or fruits.
Complex Flavors:
Complex flavors usually include multiple foods or spices, such as beef stew or sauced dishes and certain wines.
Herbal:
These are often subtle flavors herbal like basil or thyme.
Fruity:
Think of all the fruit flavors, certain wines or sauces or marmalades.
Nutty:
Be specific. Not all nuts or nut butters taste the same.
The Sense of Touch
Our sense of touch is as complex as any of our other senses.
Texture:
The range of textures in our daily lives runs from rough versus smooth, coarse versus fine, and everything in between.
Temperature:
Temperature perceptions can be quite complex. We can experience temperature with our skin, by our fingers, and in our mouths. Extreme temperatures can affect our vital organs.
Temperature Gradient: Most indoor and outdoor locations have temperature gradients. These are the places where the temperature change is gradual or only slight.
Temperature Changes: This references those quick temperature changes, such as walking out of the blazing sun into an air-conditioned space.
Pressure:
Touch often includes sensations of pressure from gentle and soft, to bear hugs, to painful crushing pressure.
Pain:
The variety of ways we can express pain is nearly endless. Explore the world of descriptions like sharp, dull, cramps, achy, needle-like, and chronic pain. (No, I’m not saying experience the pain. I’m saying read about it)
Vibrations:
From earthquakes to wind, to a heavy bas beat, many things can cause vibrations your characters experience.
Softness:
Think of plush fabrics, silk, or the softness of a mattress, or a mat on the gymnasium floor.
Firmness:
Consider more than how firm a mattress is. Notice the firmness of wood versus concrete, muddy earth versus solid rock, and so on.
Moisture:
This can range from the damp of high humidity to the dryness of a desert or a fire to an immersion in water.
Movement:
his seems self-explanatory, but it is not about moving your body. Remember the feel of movement when someone or something approaches and the feel of mechanical or assisted movement versus the feel of your own movement.
Ticklishness:
Not everyone is ticklish and those who are may not experience being tickled as a fun or positive thing.
Weight:
This is another one that seems self-explanatory, but there is more to it than how much something weighs. Include the sense of how difficult or easy lifting it is and the feel when something is heavier or lighter than expected.Elasticity: For this, think about how rubber bands are very stretchy, but iron is pretty rigid and inflexible.
Consistency:
This can be a very subtle part of touch. Consider things like how the feel of a creamy lotion differs from the grittiness of sand.
Kinesthesis and Proprioception
No, kinesthesis and proprioception are not technically senses, but they are sensations we perceive in relation to our own bodies.
Proprioception is the awareness we have of the location and position of our body parts without looking. This awareness allows us to stand, walk, sit, touch and picking up objects.
Kinesthesis is an awareness of the position of our body parts in movement without visual aid.
Link Sensory Details
People don’t experience sight, smell, taste, touch, or sound in isolation. We experience our senses linked to each other and linked to our memories and experiences. Link specific sensory details with your character’s emotional reactions or memories and you have a greater chance of engaging your readers.
Brain science has shown that when a reader is engaged in a story, their brain processes the story as if they were experiencing the story in real life. Help them experience your story with layers of sensory details.
Ways to Train Your Senses
With a little thought, you can train your writer's brain to be more aware of the sensory details of your story.
Experience is the most impactful way to train your senses. There are many places one can find sensory experiences. Watch documentaries, go to the zoo, a botanical garden, audit a university or community college class.
For my Fellowship Dystopia series, I visited the local railroad terminal and spent hours inside a limestone cave. The locations near you may not be exactly the same as the place you are writing about, but you can use elements that are the same.
Most people love to talk about themselves and their work. Find experts in your area or even online. Be upfront and honest about why you want to interview them. Have a set of general and specific questions to ask. Often you’ll get your most interesting details from open-ended questions.
Collect descriptions you admire. Go through your favorite reads and find those phrases that rang true to you. Create a file to keep those phrases and descriptions. Set up a system so you can refer back to these examples.
This is not to encourage you to use those exact words in your own fiction, but to be a source of inspiration.
Need help to get started? Check out the examples in these WITS posts by Ellen Buikema: Sight, Smell, Sound, Touch, and Taste. Many of Margie Lawson’s posts also include stellar examples of sensory details. Check out her post on “What’s the Visual?”
Things to Avoid
Generic Details
Non-specific details paint only a vague image in your reader’s imagination. It may be necessary to use generic descriptions for pacing or other story reasons, but without sprinkling very specific details throughout your story, your reader is less likely to feel that real life connection.
Clichès
The lone wolf howling or the train whistling in the distance are clichès. They are tired and unmemorable. If you must use a clichè, twist it with an unexpected element.
Over-description
Too many details slow the pace of your story and overwhelm your reader. Save detailed descriptions for those times in the story where noticing those details is important to the character, plot, or situation. Also, stick to the kinds of things that would be natural for your character to notice as they relate to their circumstances.
Delete Telling Words
Telling words like he smelled, she felt, and they saw are too generic and create distance between your reader and the story.
Too Many Adverbs or Adjectives
Verbs are stronger than adverbs. Specific nouns are stronger than adjectives. Both adverbs and adjectives are sometimes necessary in your writing, but during your editing phase, look to delete as many of them as possible.
Sticking to the Literal
A literal description of something can be effective, but not if all the descriptions are literal. Effective similes and metaphors scattered throughout your descriptions will ring true-to-life with your reader.
Details in the Wrong Place
In the wrong place, even stellar details can bother the reader. In times of high stress, our vision tunnels in on the object, creating that stress. If your character sees things that aren’t related, you may confuse your reader.
Favor One or Two of the Senses
We all have habits when we write. If you think you’ve avoided a specific sense or you don’t know how much sensory detail you use, try highlighting the sensory words in your manuscript. Using a specific color for each sense will help you see patterns and absences. Then, go back through your manuscript looking for opportunities to add those other senses in.
Practice, Practice, Practice
None of us are experts at all aspects of this craft we love. Not only that, but every project offers unique challenges. Read. Read outside of your genre and in your genre. Read best-sellers and books languishing on the shelf. With increased awareness and practice, we can create vivid worlds and characters that live in the hearts and minds of our readers.
Let's help one another. Please share examples of stellar sensory details from your own or other author’s stories.
About Lynette
Lynette M. Burrows is an author, blogger, creativity advocate, and Yorkie wrangler. She survived moving seventeen times between kindergarten and her high school graduation. This alone makes her uniquely qualified to write an adventure or two.
Her Fellowship series is a “chillingly realistic” dystopian alternate history. The story follows Miranda, one of the elite who dared to break the rules but in 1961 Fellowship America following the rules isn’t optional. Even the elite can be judged an unbeliever and hunted by the Angels of Death. Books one and two, My Soul to Keep, and If I Should Die, are available everywhere books are sold online. Book three, And When I Wake, is scheduled to be published in late 2024.
Lynette lives in the land of OZ. She is a certifiable chocoholic and coffee lover. When she’s not blogging or writing or researching her next book, she avoids housework and plays with her two Yorkshire terriers. You can find Lynette online on Facebook or on her website.
Image Credits:
All images within the post were purchased from depositphoto.com. The photo of Lynette is a self-portrait.
I worry about many things as a writer. Will characters land in my reader’s imagination the way I intended? Have I successfully suspended disbelief? Have I been sensitive to issues and identities explored in my pages? Was my story worth the investment of the reader’s money and time?
Lately, I’ve been preoccupied with a new concern. At first, it might seem distant and nuanced, but it’s deeply connected to the nature of books. Their legacy, lasting years beyond their creation, raises valid and thought-provoking questions about their long-term impact on audiences.
Will this story be relevant as society continues to evolve?
I’ve been thinking about one of my favorite childhood books, The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein.
For those who never read or don’t remember, the story follows the relationship between a boy and a tree (she/her) that starts playfully innocent and evolves as the boy ages. Each time, the boy stays away for longer periods of time, living his life, and each time he returns, as a young man, then middle-aged, then as an older man, he asks something of the tree. The tree offers what she can (leaves, apples, wood) and says it makes her happy. In the end, when she has nothing left to give, she offers his tired old body a stump to sit and rest.
For some reason, I had two copies of The Giving Tree.
One contained a handwritten note from my godmother: Laura, may you forever be like the tree. As a young elementary school teacher, that same book occupied my classroom library. I’d look at it with a fondness of familiarity and share it with my students occasionally.
As a woman who has raised her adult daughter to go out into the world and set boundaries that she often could not, I am rethinking my entire relationship with this story.
My Thoughts on The Giving Tree Today
Nearly forty-five years exist between the girl who wanted so very much to be like that tree and the woman who, many days, feels like the stump at the end who has nothing left to give.
Certainly, it is a lesson in servitude, generosity, and selflessness as a form of unconditional love. But it’s also a sad little problematic story that portrays a deeply unhealthy relationship with no boundaries or reciprocity.
The realization that my godmother wished me to be forever like the tree adds a layer of complexity to my relationship with the story.
Is this fair? Probably not. It’s akin to looking at history through a modern lens and passing judgment on all we did not know or believe in our less-enlightened form. But it gives me pause to consider how the stories I’ve put into the world will fare with future readers.
Have I tackled the content as evergreen portrayals of deeply human conflict?
Have I leaned into my conditioning, biases, and belief system that may be perceived as unhealthy someday?
Have the ideals and attitudes I injected into my characters doomed them to antiquity, incapable of connecting with ideal readers forty-five years from now?
Is our writing today meant to be a snapshot or timeless?
Let’s examine some stories.
In the early 20th century…
The Great Gatsby was very much a product of its time. Yet, the idea of challenging class, wealth, and the emptiness of materialism are concepts that resonate with today’s readers. Only eleven years apart, Gone With the Wind leaned heavily into romanticizing an era without much objectivity or sensitivity.
In the mid-20th century…
In the era of The Catcher in the Rye and Lolita, J.D. Salinger’s work tapped into an angst-ridden teenager and the trials of youth with a strong message for mental health. Four years apart, Vladimir Nabokov’s critique on obsession and perversion does not always find sympathetic readers in the modern age.
More recently…
Andy Weir’s The Martian ages well with themes of optimism and ingenuity. As humankind overcomes challenges with space exploration, the setup and context may seem old-fashioned, but science and survival narratives will always transcend any specific moment in society. Six years apart, modern readers are increasingly critical of the wildly popular Twilight books.
Should Stephenie Meyer’s massive hit series be appreciated as a snapshot of society’s attitudes toward feminism and healthy relationships, or does it merit a stronger look at how the narrative could still be problematic to modern readers?
Modern Thoughts on The Giving Tree
If I were to rewrite The Giving Tree today, it would likely be a parable about balance and mutual respect over self-sacrifice and martyrdom. But those themes betray the lessons Shel Silverstein intended.
Perhaps I should shift my perception to one of celebration—to recognize how far the dialogue regarding mental health and evolving societal roles has come—instead of remaining sad about the brokenness I feel toward a once cherished story.
Shel Silverstein never fancied himself a children’s writer.
The Giving Tree, ranked 85th in the School Library Journal’s Top 100 picture books of all time, wasn’t even his favorite. To the day of his death, the author insisted there was no greater meaning, no weightier interpretation.
“It’s just a relationship between two people. One gives, and the other takes.”
Even at its simplest, the way the author intended it, the fact that it was aimed at children is the most problematic.
Over the years, many have injected their interpretations into the 600-word story, calling it:
a study of the ego and the self
a metaphor for a capitalist society
a parable about technology taking advantage of the tree’s labor to create inferior products that never quench the boy’s needs
a cautionary environmental tale
Religious, psychological, sociological, satirical—nearly all facets of thought have weighed in since the book’s publication in 1964.
Final Thought
Art will always beg for alternative thoughts. Is the provocation of societal narratives, the spark of conversation to decide where we collectively wish to be, the greatest legacy our writing can have? Or is it more desirable to aim for touchpoints of our collective humanity so that future generations will look upon our books with favor?
What are your thoughts? As writers, do we carry the burden for the present and future audiences? Should legacy be considered at any point in a project’s creation? We'd love to hear your thoughts down in the comments!
About Laura
L.A. (Laura) Mitchell is a seasoned ghostwriter with 39 published works behind her. Her expertise spans genres, from heartwarming romances to thought-provoking non-fiction. Her YA fantasy, Farthermost, originally a ghostwritten novel for which she purchased the rights back, was an April 2023 feature of Amazon's Kindle Vella program. Beyond writing, Laura is a coach, editor, and publishing assistant, helping authors refine their craft and achieve a successful book launch. In her downtime, she’s also learning Korean to move away from subtitles while binging the latest Kdramas. She loves meeting writers at all stages, so reach out to her through her socials or website and subscribe to her biweekly newsletter for writers.
