Ilona Andrews is one half of the mastermind duo behind the Kate Daniels books and the upcoming The Edge series.
Responding to frustration on her Live Journal friends list from eager, unpublished writers, Ilona began a paragraph editing project. For one day, writers were invited to submit a single paragraph, and Ilona would pull it apart for them. In response, Ilona received 44 paragraphs.
Each paragraph dissection is a mini-lesson for both the writer who produced it and other writers who visit Ilona’s journal. While a paragraph doesn’t seem like a lot, Ilona suggests, “Sometimes a single paragraph can indicate wider issues. For example, point of view shifts from sentence to sentence or a tendency to over-explain. These kinds of problems affect the entire narrative.”
The paragraph project reveals Ilona to be a skilled editor and a patient teacher. Ilona is too busy producing new books and stories to apply her skills to more than the paragraphs already in hand.
As a college professor, I recognize a good lesson when I see it. With Ilona’s permission, this post links you to the current 21 posts in the paragraph project. There will be updates.
