This is K.M. Island and you are listening to the 365 episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors

Podcast.

My first-round beta readers returned my historical superhero work-in- progress wayfarer to me a few weeks ago, which means I get to start my second round of edits.

I love this story and I've been excited about getting to return to its world for quite a while now.

Happily my ved is approved the first draft pretty much as is,

which means I have only a few tweaks to make throughout

before sending it on to the second round of critiquers.

I'm hoping to finish this round of edits by the first of the year, which is probably

pushing it, what with holiday obligations coming up and all that. But I'm trying to get in at least two chapters of editing a day in addition to my continuing

work on my outline for my other work in progress Dreambreaker.

So it's going to be a busy month, but this is definitely my favorite

way to be busy. The latest post on my blog is 20 gifts that should be on every writer's list this Christmas.

So are you not sure what to ask Santa for this year?

Check out this list of top Christmas gifts for writers that will make sure loved ones get you exactly what you want.

To read the post visit my site at helping writers become authors.com.

And now I hope you enjoy this week's podcast, entitled Most Common Writing Mistakes Part 54, Story Events

That Don't Move The Plot.

One of your chief jobs as a writer is to come up with story events,

stuff that happens in your story.

Coming up with these exciting elements is likely why you started writing in the first place.

Like CS Lewis, you were zapped with the electrifying image of a fawn carrying packages and

an umbrella through the snow. And you thought, that's interesting let's see what's happening here and a story is born

...