Friday, July 22, 2011

Common Mistakes

There's a few things that tend to crop up over and over again and they don't mean that people are bad writers, but that we all miss a little something when we try to transfer the image we have in our heads to the printed word.

Dialogue attribution. I see lots of different types of attributions at the end of these sentences. Remember that he or she said should be good enough. Anything else like 'he said sadly' just wont do. Make sure the character demonstrates their emotional state. As a fiction editor, that's one of the things I see a lot of. More later.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Choices A Fiction Editor Needs To Make

I recently spoke with a woman in Toronto who had written a book and was looking to publish it. She was caught up in the old Catch22 that the fiction editor and the writer face together--how much should be changed to make the manuscript commercial enough for sale? I've heard stories about publishers wanting major rewrites ( 10,000 words or better) and people getting caught up in that machine.

So here's a little advice. Keep an open mind and look at all the suggestions an editor makes but make the final decisions yourself. Remember the best fiction editor will always be looking to make your book the best it can be and that should mean listening to your vision as well as having an eye to commercial value.