Image by Tumisu from Pixabay Three writing mistakes that mark writing as that of an amateur seem to be breeding like flies in books written by unschooled or inadequately schooled authors. Clearly, these stylistic mistakes are little known, and it's time that changed. I read mostly independently published books, and unfortunately, though there is a great number of superbly written books in indie publishing, I also see a lot of writing marred by these blunders. If not checked, these 3 writing mistakes, will rapidly, all by themselves, diminish the power, beauty and precision of the written English language. How such writing mistakes diminish the power of the written language It works like this. One author writes a number of books all containing the following mistakes, but they market their books well and use a cut-price promotion to get one of their books onto a book bestseller list. Then they call themselves a best-selling author, and many readers and authors think their … [Read more...]
Search Results for: prose
The Elements of Active Prose: Writing Tips to Make Your Prose Shine
“Tahlia Newland has written a concise and valuable guide for authors who want to make their prose dynamic and engaging.” Mary Maddox, BA Hons Creative Writing, and recipient of a Writer’s Grant and two Literary Awards from the Illinois Arts Council. "If you only buy one writer's reference book this year, this pithy, full-of-good-information book on how to jumpstart your prose should be it." Charles Ray, journalist, writing tutor and reviewer. “Elements is a really useful 'go-to' book for writers wanting to self-edit their early drafts, and for editors themselves to use as a checklist or quick reference. Concise, punchy and clearly written, it's a goldmine for anyone working with words.” Kevin Berry, Editor. “I can definitely recommend this book to authors who are swimming in the void without anything in the way of concrete advice on how to beef up prose. This book is concise, well written, and laid out with reference in mind. It's easy to navigate as well, with clear examples … [Read more...]
What is active writing? Introducing ‘The Elements of Active Prose.’
When I first started writing, I searched for an answer to the question: what makes good prose? I gleaned information from various places: workshops I attended, courses I undertook, books and blogs I read, and mainstream publishers, authors and editors that I worked with and talked to. I searched for the answer over a period of five years while I wrote and refined my Diamond Peak Series. Even when the manuscript of the first book, Lethal Inheritance, was doing the query rounds of the big publishers with my agent, Debbie Golvan, I continued my study and line edited my book again. I found pearls in a variety of places, but never did I find all the vital information in one place. When I began writing reviews of both mainstream and indie published books, I discovered that many indie books lacked the quality of prose I saw in mainstream fiction. Though the level of copy editing was adequate in some—and not so adequate in others—few of them had been line edited, hence the problem. When I … [Read more...]
Fantasy Book Review: The High Priestess by Val Tobin
The High Priestess: Persephone’s Return is the third book in Val Tobin’s Tales from the Unmasqued World Series, and in it she deepens and expands the stories from the previous two book. The book has two central story arcs based around characters we’ve met before. One arc follows Kelsey (a human) who is with Josh and Phillip (both vampires), following on from their story as told in book one, and the other follows directly on from book two with the mages Jaycie and Chase. Through this story we become more invested in the established characters, learn more about the world Tobin has created and get to know previously secondary characters. Unsurprisingly, given the title, this is primarily a book about the female protagonists and their growing strength and acceptance of their power, both developed of necessity. Persephone’s identity is a surprising revelation, and we follow her into the underworld, a place of dark magic and jealous gods. Persephone, it seems, has plans for … [Read more...]
How to See Edits in Word Documents
When you work with an editor on your book, you'll need to know how to see edits in Word documents. You'll want to be able to read the comments they left for you, find the parts you need to look at quickly, and accept or reject edits. For that you need to be able to use the comments, bookmarks and track changes functions in Word. If you trust your editor such that you're happy to hand your manuscript over to them and accept whatever they do, then you can dispense with learning about track changes, but you will need to know how to use bookmarks and read comments. This article refers to Word 365. For older versions of Word, see this post on track changes and this one on comments and bookmarks. Comments Editors leave comments in a manuscript so they can relate their points to a specific part of the book. I leave comments for my authors for two reasons: To educate them by explaining why I've done something; To indicate where there is an issue we need to resolve or … [Read more...]
Finding an Editor You Can Trust
Finding an editor you can trust is vital for a smooth relationship, particularly when you come to check your edits. But trusting your editor is also an important part of the relationship for both of you. Editors don't want clients who don't trust their judgement - it's a recipe for frustration. Your editor needs to be someone you can relate to well, someone who seems to be on the same wavelength as you. They need to be someone who always remembers that it's your book, who can work to your aims for the book, rather than what they think it should be, but they also need to be able to make the changes necessary to fix issues with your book and make it shine. Finding an editor Finding an editor is easy, but finding the right editor for you, once you can trust, can take time. Some authors write and have edited several books before they find an editor they feel they can trust implicitly, so be prepared to shop around. Here are my suggestions for finding an editor you can … [Read more...]
What Makes a Good Editor
An editor hard at work! What makes a good editor? Is it their knowlege of grammar, punctuation and spelling? That's an important part of it, for sure, but correcting grammar, punctuation and spelling is only one part of editing. That's what a copy editor does. But the developmental editing and line editing are just as important in the production of quality writing, and different skills are required for the different areas. A good editor in one area is not necessarily a good editor in all areas, and it takes more than a fancy piece of paper from a top university to make a good editor because in all but the copy editing and proofing, good editing relies on artistry and intuitive understanding of the author’s intentions as much as knowledge. So what makes a good editor? What makes a good structural/developmental editor? This is the person that does your manuscript appraisal and tells you how to improve the big story elements - the plot, characterisation, pacing, structure, … [Read more...]
Book Review – Dog Leap Stairs by Barbara Scott Emmett
Barbara Scott Emmett is one of those rare authors whose prose is so superb that I enjoy every sentence, and at the same time as I want to get to the end to find out what happens, I don't want it to end because the pleasure of reading her writing is just so good. In this book, Dog Leap Stairs, set in the fifties, Emmett writes in first person point of view as Monica. From the begining she is portrayed as a woman with two sides, one a normal woman of the times, the other, someone with a dark secret. At the begining it's not clear exactly what that secret is. Murders, we hear in passing conversation with her friend Jan, are taking place in the area of Dog Leap Stairs, a place known to be frequented by prostitutes. But is this Monica's secret? We discover that Monica does visit that area and get's a thrill from doing so, but that doesn't mean she's a prostitute or a murderer. Or does it? The mystery unravels as the story progresses and we find out about Monica's history, but her dark … [Read more...]
How to Use Present Participles Correctly at the Beginning of a Sentence
Grammar is not boring. It's fascinating. Sentences that begin with present participles (-ing ending verbs) are, as some of you know, one of my pet hates in writing. (Head hopping is the other one.) In my book The Elements of Active Prose: Writing Tips to Make Your Prose Shine, I recommend that authors use such a sentence construction no more than once every 10,000 words. One of the reasons why is because authors rarely use it correctly and often overuse it, at least in self-published books (unfortunately). Used badly and too often, it’s a mark of an unskilled writer and a lack of line editing—or a lack of education in the editor. So why am I talking about using it at all? Because when used occasionally and skilfully, it varies the sentence structure. Being too rigid in not using it at all limits your options. Sometimes it’s just right, but only if you don’t use it often. So let’s learn to use it well. Dangling participles The worst example of a sentence … [Read more...]
Watch for the Difference Between a Present Participle and a Gerund, also a Participle Adjective
The difference between a present participle and a gerund and also a participle adjective isn't immediately obvious and may seem unimportant, but when looking at sophistication in writing, it's helpful to know the difference. I've been making a bit of noise recently about the illadvised use of present participles to start sentences if we want our writing to look professional. See point one of my recent blog post and this video with 6 (+1) tips on writing better prose. However not every sentence starting with a word ending in 'ing' is problematic because not all words ending in 'ing' are present participles, some are gerunds and some, though they are still called participles, are participle adjectives not verbs. What's the difference? Both a gerund and a present participle come from a verb, and both end in 'ing'. However, each has a different function. A gerund acts like a noun while a present participle acts as a verb. A word ending in 'ing' can also act as an … [Read more...]
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