After I’ve finished an editing job using Word’s Track Changes and sent it back to the author, the question I am asked most often is “So, how do I review this thing?” My first suggestion is always to go through the document first and reject the suggested changes you do not want to accept so that you can accept all the ones you do with one click. (more…)
One of the first things that you have to decide when writing a story is the narrative point of view. If you’re unfamiliar with this concept, you can think of point of view as the narrator’s relationship to the story. (more…)
We all have our pet peeves when it comes to grammar, and mine, ladies and gentlemen, is known as the Oxford comma. If you’re a grammar nerd like me, you’ve probably heard of the great Oxford comma debate. But if you’re not, then you might just know that grammarians argue about it. So, what exactly is the Oxford comma? The Oxford comma is just another name for the serial comma, the comma that comes before the final “and” in a series.
Greetings, writers! Today, we’re deciphering perhaps the most enigmatic, intimidating punctuation mark: the semicolon. This part-comma, part-colon freak of punctuational nature has gotten a bum rap by contemporary English speakers, and, as such, it has been largely relegated to use in winking emoticons. (more…)
You let out a sigh of relief. You’ve written that last word to complete your book. You’ve self-edited and maybe had friends or family review. You are ready for the next step in self-publishing. The next step may be a professional editor or you may be ready for the interior design process. Either way, these tips will help you make a few final tweaks to your manuscript to get it ready for editing and/or design. (more…)
Commas, colons, and parentheses—these are common tools of the scribe. In fact, we are so familiar with them that oftentimes we incorporate them in our writing without a single conscious thought. Unfortunately, however, the same can’t be said for em dashes—many of us writers just aren’t that familiar with them, so we balk at incorporating them into our work. (more…)