So, you’ve written your masterpiece and think you’re ready to start your search for an editor? Great! But there’s a little prep work you can do ahead of time to make that process a little smoother.
When you contact your potential new editor, there are a few things they’ll need to know to get an idea of how best to serve you. You can save yourself and your editor a lot of time and trouble by thinking through and having answers ready for the following questions.
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I’m sure there was some point in your elementary school English classes when your teacher went over the absolute rules for what words you capitalize and what words you don’t.
If you’ve been reading my blog for long, I doubt you’ll be surprised by what I have to say to that. The rules aren’t as cut and dried as your English teacher told you. To be fair, the rules they taught you are generally true. For example, the names of people, cities, states, and countries are usually considered proper nouns and capitalized, even when used as an adjective. However, there are exceptions to every rule, and that’s where style comes in. I’ve noticed a trend lately in some of the books I’ve been reading: authors choosing unusual layout and designs for parts of their books.
I’m not saying that everything out of the ordinary is bad. Uncommon design elements and devices can make your work stand out or even enhance the reader’s experience. But unique doesn’t necessarily equal improvement. If you read my earlier post on the grammar police, you know I don’t believe in the stark right and wrong of English grammar. I prefer to think in terms of standard and nonstandard, reflecting whether or not a bit of grammar or punctuation conforms to the generally agreed-upon norms.
But what does that mean for you, the writer? Last week I wrote about dialogue tags. They’re a pretty simple device used to keep straight who’s saying what.
But what about punctuation? Is there a comma? No comma? Where does the comma go? Punctuation can be a sticking point for many writers because it feels too technical, like science to an artistic mind. So, here are a few simple guidelines for punctuating your dialogue tags. Every writer has at least one aspect of writing that just doesn’t come naturally to them. For me, that’s dialogue. I can recognize unnatural or awkward dialogue and even correct it when I’m reading (a handy skill for an editor), but when it comes to creating it, I’m at a loss.
And a big part of creating great dialogue is the dialogue tag. One year ago this week, I stepped way out of my comfort zone and put out my very first blog post!
Even though I never saw myself as a writer, I somehow became one. I’ll probably never publish a book (though never is a dangerous word to say because God seems to take that as a challenge), but through the simple act of putting words down and sending them out into the world each week, I am, indeed, now a writer. If you’ve been with me on this journey since the beginning, you might remember that, in that first post, I talked about all of the benefits of journaling. If you missed it, go back and take a look. (Also, no judgment from me if you want to refresh your memory because you read it but have forgotten everything I said. It’s still there and worth a read.) So, how’ve you done this last year? If you’re going the traditional-publishing route, this question probably won’t come up. The publisher arranges all of the steps of the publishing process, and your book will go through the proofreading process.
However, if you’re self-publishing, you’re probably looking for ways to cut out any unnecessary costs. A professional copyeditor has already done a thorough cleanup of your manuscript, and the book may have even gone through a designer. So, is another step really necessary? Writing can often be a solitary practice. Even if you’re collaborating with another author, it’s probably just the two of you who see the manuscript until you finish with the first or second draft.
Eventually, though, you’ll need to get others involved in the process, from editors and proofreaders to beta readers and peer reviewers. Feedback from readers is essential to making your manuscript into something that will appeal to readers. However, not all feedback is useful. Have you ever handed a friend or family member something you wrote, only to receive “Looks good!” or “It could use a little work” in return? That is not helpful feedback. But often nonprofessional reviewers don’t know how to provide you with useful criticism and suggestions. So, the task of guiding them falls to you. Here are a few suggestions for getting the most from reviewers and readers. If I asked you to make a list of the qualities of clear writing, what would go on that list? What qualities make something readable and easy to understand?
At the top of that list are probably attributes like vocabulary and tone. Maybe you included good grammar and punctuation. But for many writers, there’s one way to improve readability that doesn’t involve changing a word: paragraph length. Perhaps your high school teacher or college professor gave you a rule for how many paragraphs should be on each page. Perhaps you’ve never even given it a thought. It’s a bit more complicated than X number of paragraphs per page, though, and it’s more important than you might think. |
AuthorRebecca has a passion for helping you fill the world with great literature and making sure said literature doesn't get passed over for the lack of a little editing. Archives
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