As writers, we all know wordiness is something to avoid: never say in ten words what you can say in four. But while we get that in theory, it’s often hard, in practice, to produce tight writing. We look at the sentences on the page, suspecting they are verbose, but don’t know what to change or to eliminate. Let’s look at two common writing flaws that clutter the manuscripts of many aspiring authors. I call these culprits “hedge words” and “inflation words” …
Read More‘Begs the Question’ or ‘Raises the Question’?
No, esteemed author friends. "Begs the question" does not mean "raises the question." What is our language coming to? I sound like a pedant, but honestly ... the rash of "begging the questions" we're now seeing everywhere, even on news shows and in presumably "edited" books, is enough to drive an editor around the bend. People think it sounds cool ... Read More
‘What’s Wrong with My Query Letter?’
Something is amiss. You’ve written a great novel. You’ve sent your query letter to over sixty agents, and still you’ve had no requests to see the entire manuscript. Why isn’t your query letter working? As a book editor and writing doctor, I get emails from first-time novelists telling me this common tale of woe. When they send me their query ... Read More
Writing Children’s Dialog: How to Get It Right
This article by Jessi Rita Hoffman was first published on Jane Friedman's blog at www.JaneFriedman.com. Ms. Friedman is the former publisher of Writer's Digest. Are you struggling with the task of writing children's dialog? Some of the worst dialog ever written, in both film and fiction, has been dialog for kids. We all know children are not just miniature grownups—they ... Read More
Think Twice Before Writing a Novel
Are you working on writing a novel, perhaps your first? Do you plan to finish it, then bring in an editor for help with the final polish? My experience editing dozens of books by first-time novelists suggests you might be making a mistake. Most of the novels I critique are full of serious problems the author had no idea existed. That’s because it’s hard to see the weaknesses in your own writing. Each time I get a manuscript of this sort, I lament the fact that the author didn’t approach an editor early on in the writing, instead of after investing hundreds of hours in something that now must essentially be reconstructed, often from the ground up …
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