Don’t miss this tool for finding your mistakes.
Want to submit an error-free manuscript? Remember one keyboard shortcut.
Seriously. A few days ago, this simple command enabled me to catch multiple problems I’d missed in my first two editing passes through a book-length manuscript.
The novel told a great story. But the author struggled, as many of us do, with a few fine points of English.
He … Continue reading
Fill your mind with effective examples.
The past two weeks I’ve been spending six hours a day editing someone’s novel.
The author’s a solid storyteller, but his mechanics are weak. So I’m taking pains to fix the punctuation on nearly every sentence. And the dialogue attribution. And much of the spelling. Plus some of the verb tenses. I can work no more than an hour at a … Continue reading
A few goofs can make readers doubt.
The review gave a glowing recommendation, underscoring the meticulous research behind The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies.
The author’s note speaks of using the subject’s “letters and papers, declassified U.S. and British government files, Freedom of Information Act requests, and my own interviews.”
The book devotes … Continue reading