Category: The Editor’s Hat

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

Open post

The Rush-The-Process Dish: Volume 2

Over a year ago, I jokingly reported about some of the flavours of the Rush-The-Process dish. I'm talking about those scenarios where writers are in such a hurry to submit their work for publications that they skip vital steps in the editing or publication process.

In that post, I spoke about the ones who only have family and friends looking at their work, not other writers or editors. I spoke about the ones who take editorial reports and stick to the most basic of rewrites. Then there are those who submit to agents and publishers unfinished works, only to go into full panic mode when they get the request for fulls. And my personal favourite: upload to Amazon without editing at all, because they supposedly can't afford it.

But there are some other flavours to this Rush-The-Process dish that also requires some attention.

Read More

Open post

There’s a reason for the standard manuscript format

In this day and age, many submissions are handled through email. Agents and acquisition editors will often look at the submissions sent to them on an electronic device, commonly a computer or tablet screen. For many submissions, the initial contact is contained in the body of an email (no attachments). If additional materials are asked for, agents and editors expect things to be in the standard manuscript format. Yet, agents and editors will still look at those added materials using electronic devices.

So, if everything is now electronic, why must we format our manuscripts using a format that was devised back in the day when everything was printed? Well, believe it or not, the standard manuscript format is very specific for a reason.

Read More

Open post

Cooking with Commas

There are many things that can (and will) drive an editor batty. Punctuation just happens to among them. There is much confusion about punctuation. Often writers get them confused. Hell, even editors get muddled at times.

Today, I wanted to address the importance of the comma.

I will grant you that there is a significant amount of debate over the usage of commas, particularly the Oxford comma or serial comma (whether we should or shouldn't use it). It probably doesn't help that the Oxford comma has won a legal court case.

However, many editors will agree that commas seem to be disappearing from text, partly because of the increasing usage of smartphones and social media. This, folks, is not a good thing. I will grant you that when writing a hurried tweet, the comma can consume precious character counts. However, one little comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence. It can mean the difference between being a cannibal or a time traveller.

Read More

Open post

Length matters, but story matters more

Every writer that is serious about publishing, particularly those attempting the traditional publication path, will know that agents and editors put a lot of weight on word counts. The acceptable limits vary depending on the age category and genre of the book.

(By the way, Young Adult is NOT a genre. It's an age category. And Fiction is NOT a genre either. You can find more information about the various age categories here. More information about the main genre classifications can be found here.)

It's incredibly important to have a good understanding of the average word counts for the type of story that you are writing, but it's just as important to understand word counts are not an excuse for poor storytelling.

Read More

Open post

Finding value in a critique…

Every writer who puts their work out there will have to face critiques of all flavors: the good, the bad, and the outright mean.

For the new writer, one just starting down the journey, sending that baby out for review can actually be a terrifying experience. "What if they don't like it? What if I'm doing it all wrong? What if they tell me my writing is shit?"

Yeah, these are all fears that I had when I was first starting out. Even today, I have those fears. But there is one truth that helps me send my writing out the door anyway.

Not everyone is going to like what you write. Writing is like art, filled with subjective opinions.

If you're determined to have everyone in the world like your writing, then you might as well give up now. It's never going to happen. The best you can ever hope for is that the fans of your books like what you wrote, and hopefully, they'll help you spread the word of your book's existence.

But let's take a look at how to find value in every critique, including the outright-mean kind.

Read More

Posts navigation

1 2 3 … 11 12 13 14 15 16
Scroll to top