Tag: editing

  • The art of knowing when to stop

    I am in the thick of final, final, FINAL proofing for my next novel, The Last Dreamseer. Somehow, I thought it would be quicker than this. I’ll explain my editing process: I’ve written the book, had writer friends look at it, revised and revised again. It’s then been to a professional editor for substantive edits…

  • Please Release Me

    My blog this week is in support of the hugely talented Rhoda Baxter, whose new novel, Please Release Me, is on sale RIGHT NOW! Please Release Me features characters who are all ‘stuck’ in some way, so I’m taking that as my theme for today. What I’m stuck on right now is the dreaded edits for…

  • A Life Well-Edited

    Social media is often lamented for providing a stream-of-narrative, unexpurgated account of what’s going on in people’s heads (for some reason, people Tweeting what they had for breakfast is the most-often quoted evidence of this). I won’t argue that social media does allow for a sizeable degree of over-sharing, but I would take issue with the…

  • Who are you writing for?

    A meme popped into my Twitter feed the other day: A good writer always thinks about their reader. At first glance that looks like sage wisdom that’s hard to argue with, but my hackles immediately rose. Always? No, I really don’t think so. Maybe at the editing/polishing stage, but at the writing stage I think…

  • So long as you know what you need to say, the words don’t matter (yet)

    I’m in the middle of revising. I enjoy revising. And I hate it. Other writers may feel the same – or differently. *For clarity – revising is what I call the editing done by myself. Editing editing is done in consultation with a real, live editor who hasn’t lived through the development of the book…

  • The Fussy Reader

    If you’re a writer, you must read. That’s the one piece of advice that’s universal – every writer you meet will tell you that reading widely is key to developing your writing skills. And I completely agree. What you aren’t warned, though, is that reading to improve your writing can make you an incredibly fussy…

  • A whole new world

    I love writing fantasy because in that genre you get to make it all up as you go along – don’t you? You absolutely do make up a new world, but “as you go along” might be problematic – whatever you create has to be internally consistent and make logical sense to the reader. I…

  • Call in the Professionals

    The thing is, until someone who does know points it out to you, you often don’t know what it is you don’t know. Using experts – and/or the perils of not doing so – is a common theme in self-publishing discussions. Most people agree that not paying for professional help in editing and cover design…