Posts Tagged ‘revising’
What Counts as Correct English?
The Conspiracy
Editors get a bad rap. When I meet someone new and mention that I’m an editor, I’m likely to get a suspicious look, as though I’m part of a conspiracy to make English too difficult to leave to amateurs. Read more »
Subscribe to the comments for this postAvoid Passive Voice
Why was the road crossed by the chicken?
When a sentence starts with the thing being acted upon rather than the thing doing the acting, that sentence is in “passive voice.” For example, if you ask me where the hat is that you lent me, and I reply, “It got lost,” I have used the passive voice. A more honest and direct answer, using the active voice, would have been “I lost it.” Read more »
Samurai Editing
It’s said that a good editor is like a samurai. Proficient with both the pen and the sword, he—can’t really call a samurai “she,” can I?—slices with precision, but without hesitation. And slicing is the first step in editing your manuscript. Read more »
Show, Don’t Tell
An exasperated author I know once wrote back to me saying, “Yeah, everybody says that: ’show, don’t tell.’ But I can’t figure out what they mean! How do I know which is which?” Read more »
The First Five Pages, by Noah Lukeman
When I’m looking over a manuscript that’s been submitted to me for publication, the first thing I do is read the first five pages. At that point, I might toss it, or I might decide to read more. Apparently I’m not the only editor to take this approach.
Noah Lukeman is a successful literary agent, with plenty of experience rejecting manuscripts. In The First Five Pages he shares that experience with the reader, giving good advice about how a manuscript can be improved in the revision process to make it more likely to be accepted. If you’re thinking of doing your own editing, read this first.
