18 Comments
User's avatar
Camille Pagán's avatar

You know I love this!! :)

Hadley Leggett's avatar

As always, your suggestions are brilliant!! And this one really unlocked something for me that I've been struggling with for a long time, so thank you 💖

Liza Pincsak's avatar

I love this idea so much! I’m nearing the end of working on my manuscript before I query, and now I want to do a pass to highlight something I love on each page before I submit. What was the craft class on sentence structure you took?

Hadley Leggett's avatar

Yay!! I love that you're going to try this with your manuscript, too, and I hope you find it as empowering as I did. Best wishes for your querying!!

Hadley Leggett's avatar

Oh, and I forgot to answer your question about the class I took, sorry! It was called The Art of the Sentence and I took it through Hugo House, Seattle's local writing workshop hub. The teacher, Priscilla Long, has a fantastic book called The Writer's Portable Mentor, if you're interested!

Liza Pincsak's avatar

Oh cool! Thanks for sharing! I have a friend who's taken classes there. I wish I lived in the area, but I'll check out her book.

Tracey Buchanan's avatar

Great ideas here. Thanks. And now I must start bedazzling…

Hadley Leggett's avatar

Yes, you absolutely should! It's so satisfying... and applying all the little gems is rather meditative. My 11 yo even does it with her friends!

Marta Lane's avatar

My mantra is: I write with calm delight. I’ve never thought about reading that way! And one whole pass just to highlight what I love. I imagine that it makes you slow down and appreciate your work. Thanks for the tip, Hadley!

Congratulations on wrapping up your final polish. Book 2 is in the books!

Hadley Leggett's avatar

Such a great mantra, Marta, I might have to borrow that one! And thanks for the congrats. You know I couldn't do it without my writing community 💖

Marta Lane's avatar

I know you’ve worked hard for this. And like you, Camille gave me that mantra.

Beth Morris's avatar

Love this permission to celebrate what we love and reconnect with the joy!

Hadley Leggett's avatar

For sure! Keeping the joy alive is what sustains us over time, I think ❤️

Alyssa Jarrett's avatar

Interesting topic! I'd be curious to hear the differences in perspective between trad and indie authors. I'm currently editing my fifth novel, and I'm always reminding myself to not be so precious about it. I appreciate the business-oriented mindset of self-publishing. Is my book a gift to the world? I don't really care. Sure, I had fun writing it and I'm proud of my work, but a single book is a drop in the ocean of all the content that's published. My mind is already focused on the next project. I know I'm done when I'm just screaming to myself: "Who cares? Just ship it!" lol

Hadley Leggett's avatar

Such a good point, Alyssa. There's definitely wisdom in becoming less precious about our work, and I agree there's a lot to learn from the indie author mindset. Having multiple books also helps take some of the pressure off, because each book is simply an addition to your body of work. Thanks for sharing, and good luck with your fifth novel! Amazing!

Kate Underwood's avatar

I love this so much! What a good reminder to appreciate the good in our work while still spending the time needed to polish it as best we can.

Hadley Leggett's avatar

Thanks so much for reading, Kate! 💕