Category: The Editor’s Hat

Advice for writing and editing, along with some thoughts about working with editors.

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Deciding between First Person and Third Person

If you’re anything like me, when you’re in writing mode, you’ll have a narrative style that you naturally gravitate towards. For me, my default style is third person, past tense, using deep point of view. But again, if you’re anything like me, you will encounter that one story that makes you question whether your default is the right choice.

Perhaps there is something within the narrative construction that makes you think you need to be a little bit closer to the characters. Or maybe there is something within the narrative that wants you to be more distant. Or maybe you just want to experiment and see what you’re capable of doing.

But there are some things about certain narrative constructions and certain stories that lend themselves more to one particular style of narrative as opposed to another. Making that decision as to which is most appropriate is not an easy thing to do.

In today’s post, I want to explore this idea of whether a narrative wants to be in first person or whether it should remain in third person. And I want to discuss what is similar about first-person and third-person, deep-point-of-view narratives and what is different.

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Does my story need to have a romance subplot?

For some time now, there has been this push to include a romance subplot in books. And I've heard an ill-informed push that says, "Sex sells."

But I've read far too many published stories where the romantic subplot failed to integrate properly into the overall plot. And the number of sex scenes that I've read (including in published works) where I questioned the need for the scene altogether is higher than it should be.

In my work as a developmental editor and writing coach, I'm watching new writers crumble as they try to tackle romance subplots and open-door sex scenes. And I am seeing their stories suffer as a consequence.

It's time to tackle this issue head on and highlight why romantic subplots and open-door sex scenes could be working against you, not for you.

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What type of series are you writing?

I've been thinking about the construction of series when it comes to fiction for some time. This is in part because I have several clients who are working on series, but I too am working on multiple different series myself within my own fiction writing.

How exactly one approaches a series will depend on the nature of the series itself. Each type of series comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. And there are some commonalities between the different types of series, but there are also some distinct differences.

In today's post, I want to break down the different types of series that might exist and point out some of the things that you will need to consider when working on a series of that type.

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The Mohr Story Structure Model

Regular consumers of story, either written or film, learn to recognize the patterns that come with the rise and fall of action. They develop this innate instinct about when things should happen. If something is off with the pacing of a story, the readers know. They can feel it. They may not be able to explain why the pacing is off, but they still know that it's off.

Story structure models help to provide reasoning and some mathematics to what the readers know by instinct. This is why story structure is more important than what some writers give it credit for.

However, in all my years of studying story structure, I've also noticed that emphasis is often given to the protagonist of the story, focusing on their actions and decisions. The antagonist is often treated as an afterthought or ignored completely. As such, the dynamic interplay between the protagonist and the antagonist is not leveraged to its full potential.

When I noticed this pattern, I started to develop my own story structure model that leans into the interplay between the protagonist and the antagonist. As I write this blog post, I'm currently writing a full book about the topic, defining the antagonist and looking at story structure in detail, incorporating the antagonist into the model. That book is slated for publication come February 2026, but it's time to start sharing with the world the base structure that I'm calling the Mohr Story Structure model.

The Mohr Story Structure model is an amalgamation of a lot of different models, but adds the antagonistic beats that are commonly missed or misunderstood. I employ a four-act structure.

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Write Realistic Dialogue with non-native English Speakers

Writing takes a community, sharing ideas and supporting one another. So, when we get approached with an article that shares hard-earned knowledge, we couldn't be happier to pass that information.

When Meredith Rankin reached out to me with an article about how to write dialogue with those who are still learning how to speak English, I was over the moon. While I am surrounded by those whose first language wasn't English (my own husband being one of them), it never occured to me how to treat this in the written form. But Meredith has some solid advice for writers.

Over to you, Meredith.

Write Realistic Dialogue between English Speakers and English-language Learners

Fiction often treats second language fluency as an all or nothing issue. Either the characters are completely fluent in the second language, or they’re completely ignorant of the language. That’s unrealistic. In my latest manuscript, I tried to convey the complexities of language learning.

Realistically, becoming totally fluent in another language takes years for most adults. Everyone learns at different speeds and the learning process is affected by myriad factors, including some outside the learner’s control. When I volunteer-taught English as a foreign language (EFL), I had students who were homebound because they had poor health or caring for loved ones; I had other students who were immersed daily in the language. Their progression differed accordingly.

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