One of the hardest things about editing your book is keeping all of the information straight and in the right order. That’s one reason I advocate for outlining. A plain outline doesn’t suit everyone during the drafting process, but once we reach the editing phase, having a visual depiction of …
Tag: Edit Like A Pro
When to Reject Your Editor
Last time I mentioned that when working in Track Changes with an editor, you should accept most, if not all, of the editor’s changes. It should go without saying, but listen to what your editor has to say. Yes, there are bad editors who will try to impose their voice …
How to Know When You’re Done Editing
As I noted when talking about editing a novel, writers often fall into an endless editing trap. You could go over your manuscript an infinite number of times and still find things to improve—or at least change. A client and I once made two rounds of edits on his book. …
Identifying the Passive Voice
I’ve written before about When Passive Voice is Permissible. Strunk and White admit that “Use the active voice … does not, of course, mean that the writer should entirely discard the passive voice, which is frequently convenient and sometimes necessary.” But one of the biggest problems writers face in …
What Beta Readers Are and Why You Want Them
Once you have worked your way through the Elements of Nonfiction Editing Checklist, taking as many passes as needed to address the Personality, Presentation, Voice, Information, and Mechanics of your book, what next? The first thing many writers do is run their manuscript past some beta readers or critique partners. …
When To Outsource Your Grammar
When we talk about the mechanics of a manuscript, we are ultimately talking about details: grammar, spelling, punctuation, and the like. Style is also a component of mechanics, as is manuscript format. But remember that when I introduced the Elements of Nonfiction Editing Checklist I said it was in order of …
Using Words as Words
Often when we’re writing nonfiction we need to refer to words in such a way that the term being used is itself the subject of the discussion, rather than the concept the term describes. If I say “My Sunday school students have difficulty understanding the concept of propitiation,” it means …
What Semicolons Are For
An editor once excised the semicolons from my writing with the marginal note “Death to semicolons.” He changed every one of them to a period. Not every editor is so vehement about this much-maligned mark, but those who are may be provoked by the fact that so many writers don’t …
How to Use Quotation Marks
On my to-do list was a note to write you a post about the correct use of quotation marks. Then I discovered that Jonathon Owen over at Arrant Pedantry had already done so. His article is useful and thorough, so I’ll send you over there to learn How to Use …
What to Do with Hyphens
The guidelines for hyphenation are complex and inconsistent. At least copyeditors are kept in business, but it can be frustrating for a writer to understand when to hyphenate and when not. Hyphenation errors are among the most common spelling problems I see. Yes, spelling. Hyphens are often thought of as …