As you’re probably aware, there is growing consensus within the writing and publishing spheres that it is critical to do representation well. There’s a growing awareness that our stories need to do a good job of depicting diverse characters, especially...
Can good editors ever make mistakes? Our whole job is to spot and correct errors. So, if someone spots a mistake we’ve made, does that mean we’re not good editors? Perhaps you’re reading this not as an editor but as a writer. If you, as a writer, are trying to find...
Tick tock, tick tock. Your characters are moving and doing things—the big things and the little things that change their lives and their world, all under a ticking clock. For your story to click together and your plot to work, you can’t just keep track of what your...
When it comes to descriptions in fiction, consistency is key. Your book should describe its characters and places consistently throughout. Inconsistencies can pull the reader out of the story, reminding them that these people and places aren’t real. Yet full-length...
In fiction, you can use repetition to create rhythm, to create emphasis, to create a feeling. But repetition only works well when you wield it with purpose. Accidental repetition tends to read as clunky and irritating. If it’s bad enough, readers can consciously...
Fiction manuscripts tend to be huge documents. When you’re editing such a large text, it can be helpful to get an overview of how that text is currently structured. You can do that with a list of your chapter word counts. Among other things, this list of chapter...
Novels are big beautiful things, but the Word documents that hold them can be a nightmare to navigate. Fiction manuscripts are typically between 70,000 and 100,000 words long. That’s a lot of words to wade through as you edit your story. The mere act of searching...
I am very excited this week to share a blog post on the ALLi blog! The post is all about what authors can learn from professional editors in their own self-editing practice. Some of the information in that article is so important for authors to know that I’d also...
As writers, we don’t just use words to state facts but to make our readers feel our characters’ experiences. We want our writing to be evocative and immersive. In other words, we want our prose to sound pretty. How exactly, though, do we achieve well-crafted prose?...