Writers claim to dramatically increase their writing speed by speaking instead of typing In listening to podcasts and reading blogs, I’ve heard a lot about writers using dictation. This intrigued me. There are two reasons why I wanted to try dictation instead of typing when composing my first drafts. Why Diction? Increased Speed: The most […]
The Hemingway Editor Guides Authors in Improving Readability A friend recently turned me on to the Hemingway Editor, a nifty online tool to assist writers in improving our work. The website says, “Hemingway makes your writing bold and clear. It’s like a spellchecker, but for style. It makes sure that your reader will focus on […]
Do you know how many words you typically write per hour? Do you know how long you can sustain that rate? This is a critical number to know when estimating how long a project will take. We need this for meeting deadlines and for quoting projects. Without having a firm grasp of our typical writing […]
Avoid using “it was,” “that was,” and “this was”—among other things I hired a developmental editor to give me big-picture feedback on my novel. Though her comments overall encouraged me, I have several things to work on and fix. One was that I used the innocuous phrase “it was” too often. How often? It popped […]
Some authors write too much and need to delete; others don’t write enough and must add Do you write long or short? Some writers produce long first drafts and then shorten them—sometimes a great deal—as they edit. Others write shorter first drafts and then add to them—sometimes a lot—as they work on revisions. Which camp […]
There are three basic types of editors (and they each have various names). Each type of editor requires a different skill set. Developmental Editor A developmental editor, sometimes called a comprehensive editor, looks at big picture issues. For fiction this includes items such as story arc, character development, writing voice, and plot issues. Nonfiction looks […]
Some writers say they can’t afford an editor, but I say you can’t afford to. No one can. But if you want options, here are three ideas come to mind: Barter First, look for an editor who will barter. They edit, and you perform a service of equal value. It might be writing-related or it […]
I once signed up for a trial of grammarly.com. It’s a most impressive grammar checker. The problem was that it was too sophisticated for me. It flagged many things to check, but I lacked the needed background to comprehend the issues. Many of their suggestions were beyond me. However, I recently took a fresh look […]
Things Writers Do That Irk Me Here are my editing pet peeves: I’m more than willing to overlook a few of these mistakes and be extra tolerant of new writers, but when these things occur too often, it’s often easier to just reject the submission. I hope this helps. Whew, I feel better having gotten […]
Authors must be aware of words they overuse and that will irritate readers Every writer has words they use a lot, too often in fact. They’re called go-to words. In my fiction writing, I use a smile, nod, and sigh a lot. Too much, way too much. But I never realized this until my editor […]