Guest Blog by Janelle Parmer

In the spirit of guest blogs, Janelle Parmer kindly offered to write a guest post for me. Today’s post goes along with what Stephen King calls “murder your darlings” in writing. AKA- Don’t be afraid to delete what won’t work to the reader, even if the author loves it.

To catch her writing, check out her Amazon page on the book cover below.

Delete is Not Always a Bad Word by Janelle Parmer

Often times, us authors get so engrossed in our story that we may not realize we write ourselves into a corner. I have done this before myself and instead of deleting like I should have, I kept trying to make the stuff I wrote “fit in” with my story.

For example, in my first book, The Other Side of the Ledge, the first chapter had been written a very long time ago. I mostly write in chronological order of events, but in this book, I have chapters jump back and forth in between timelines. Once I was about halfway done with The Other Side of the Ledge, it felt the first chapter did not flow with the rest of the book anymore.

I tweaked it, deleted a few sentences, and replaced them with other non-sensical word choices in hopes of making it click with the rest of the book. Nope. It still did not work. I spent more time trying to “fix” my first chapter than I did writing multiple chapters combined. After pacing the floor a million times, and trying to come up with some fabulous idea to save chapter one, I finally came to the conclusion that I just needed to hit that dreaded “delete” button.

I had this ridiculous apprehension about deleting the entire chapter and starting over, but it ended up being a great decision and chapter one is actually one of my favorite chapters in the entire book. So my advice is, don’t think of the delete button as a bad word, sometimes it may just save your book, and your sanity, in the long run. 

About Janelle:

Janelle Parmer grew up in Southern California. She earned a paralegal certificate, a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, and an MBA. Janelle has spent most of her career working in private law firms and published her first book, The Other Side of the Ledge, in 2020. The Other Side of the Ledge won the bronze medal for Best Adult Fiction E-Book in the 2022 Independent Publisher Book Awards, and was a Finalist in the Women’s Fiction category of The Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards. Janelle’s debut novel was also a Finalist in the Chick Lit Fiction Category of the 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Her second book, Chasing Calla Lilies, was released in 2021.

Janelle will donate a percentage of her annual book earnings to institutions that promote/provide mental health services and organizations that assist victims of bullying.