Category: The Editor’s Hat

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

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Past Present vs Past Simple: It’s all in the past, right?

I don't think anyone would be surprised to learn that I take part in a decent number of online forums for writers and editors. It's about connecting with other writers and editors, building my network. And I will admit that many of my interactions on social media feed the ideas for the posts on this blog.

Today's blog post is no different.

In a recent post in one of my forums, I came across a writer who had said that they had been taught that when using past perfect tense, it was best to transition to past simple quickly afterward.

I don't know about anyone else, but even now, I look at that and my head hurts. You don't want to know the thoughts go through my mind with such statements. (I actually made a note in one of my manuscripts to maim and torture the grammar police.) But this is not the first time that I've encountered a writer who insisted on using such terminology. (Why they would even bother… Well, there's a reason I made a note to maim and torture the grammar police.)

Yes, these literary terms have specific meanings, and many English teachers will insist that you get them right. So, let's get to it and define what the different versions of past tense verbs are.

Here's hoping that we don't totally get confused along the way.

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The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne: The idea is good, but the book is confusing.

A few months back, I was part of a discussion on Facebook about books that are specific to developmental editing. Being a developmental editor, I watched the thread like a hawk. I wanted to know what books are out there and what was high on the recommended lists. Many of the books discussed I already had, but there was one that came highly recommended by several on the thread.

The book in question: The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne.

So, I ordered a copy of the book myself. It took approximately 6 weeks to arrive (shipping to New Zealand is always a long, drawn out wait), and when it got here, I sat down and started reading. And instantly regretted buying the paper version of the book.

Don't get me wrong: the technique presented in the book is gold. The book itself…

The editor NEEDED an editor.

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To US English or to UK English? Is that really the question?

Frequently, I find myself in the middle of a conversation talking about whether something should be written in US English or UK English. Sometimes, it's related to how something is punctuated (and yes, there is a difference between the two for some punctuation rules). Sometimes, it's in regards to whether a story would work better written in one versus the other—normally focused on whether a story set in the UK should be in UK English. And sometimes, it's connected to the frustrations that those around me have with Americans who don't understand that UK English is different to US English.

Within these conversations, I find myself becoming a bit of a broken record, asking the same questions over and over again. And it all comes down to one idea…

Who is your target audience?

So, let's break this down and really look at why understanding who your target audience is will determine which variant of English you use.

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Guilty

It’s a typo! They happen.

If there is one constant within the world of publishing, it would be that typos happen. It doesn't matter how many times you go through a piece of written work, there will always be something that's missed. You could have six different sets of eyes on it, and things still slip through. And the longer that piece of writing is, the more likely that errors get missed.

To complicate matters, you might have the cleanest copy on the planet, but errors creep in during typesetting too. At every stage of the writing/editing/publishing process, there is an opportunity for an error to be introduced—and for that error to get missed.

It happens.

I'll be the first to grant you that when a piece of writing is riddled with typos and grammatical errors, it's frustrating to read. However, I have said it time and time again: if a story is gripping, most readers will be willing to overlook the odd typo or grammatical error.

As writers, we need to accept that typos WILL happen.

As editors, we need to accept that we're NOT perfect.

However, there are some people out there who are Grammar Nazis from hell and will publicly shame you for making innocent typographical errors. It's because of these jerks (and that's what they are) that many writers and editors despise the idea of blogging. They're afraid that their writing might be torn to shreds because of those innocent mistakes. But what the Grammar Nazis forget is that mistakes happen.

The production schedules for a blog are tight. Certain steps within the editing process are sometimes missed. The thorough care that we give our novel writing is not given to this short piece that is going to go up on the web within hours. Newspaper articles are much the same in that respect. Mistakes creep in, it's the nature of the beast. But when the public shaming starts…

***Breathe… Just breathe…***

I think it's time to put reality back into the blogging world and remind a few editors that we're only human.

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Woman reading on a tablet

Is it literary, commercial, or upmarket? Publishing industry terms explained.

The publishing industry is filled with terms that seem to mean one thing to the industry but something entirely different to everyone else. For the writer who is just entering into the publishing scene, this barrage of new terminology can leave us confused, staring at the word forever trying to discern its meaning.

Three of those words for me were literary, commercial, and upmarket. There really isn't a simple definition for these three terms as they apply to the nature of the narrative used within a story. Here's hoping that today's post can clarify it for at least some writers.

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