Today on my Doorway Between Worlds blog, I have posted a review of writing resource Description and Setting by Ron Rozelle. If you’re looking for help with description in your writing, you may want to come on by!
I have a confession to make: I’m one of those readers who has been known to skip over passages full of description to get to the “good stuff.” I love the story of The Lord of the Rings, for example, but my attention wanes during those meandering sections sandwiched between poignant character moments and violent epic battles. With my avoidance of excessive elaboration (and my admittedly poor visual observation skills), I sometimes find it challenging to imbue my own writing with the right level of descriptive pizzazz.
And I know I’m not the only one. So I thought it was time to read through the book Description & Setting by author and creative writing teacher Ron Rozelle. His book is part of the Write Great Fiction series by Writer’s Digest, which features some helpful books on a variety of writing topics. I hadn’t read this one yet, and I…
Today I have a guest post on Andrew Knighton’s wonderful writing blog. I am sharing some tips on how to minimize the costs of professional editing. If you’re thinking about publishing a book but have been daunted by the thought of overwhelming editing expenses, I encourage you to take a look!
Picture by Joanna Penn via Flickr Creative Commons
Today I am being interviewed by the wonderful Celine Jeanjean at her blog Down the Rabbit Hole. Please come visit to find out more about the different types of editing, how to choose the right editor/editing service, and how to save on editing costs.
On my blog Doorway Between Worlds I regularly review writing resources that I believe would be helpful for my readers. I’m sharing this one here since it’s focused on the art of self-editing.
I picked up Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by editors Renni Browne and Dave King because several of my editing colleagues recommended it as a solid resource for authors. There are many books on how to write and comparatively few on how to edit your own writing. Yet this is such a critical task for writers if they want to submit a solid manuscript for further editing or publishing. I was really looking forward to reading through this book, and I’m glad to say it was a winner.
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is focused on the details of stylistic editing. The authors assume that you have already dealt with the larger structural concerns of plot, character arc, and theme. The book covers a broad range of topics relating to the mechanics of editing: showing vs. telling, characterization and exposition, point of view, proportion, dialogue, interior monologue, sound and voice, repetition, and…
A style sheet is a critical tool that an editor uses to maintain consistency throughout a manuscript. Style sheets are not just for editors, though — writers also benefit from using them, both during the self-editing stage and when collaborating with a professional editor.
What exactly is a style sheet?
A style sheet is a place for capturing stylistic decisions on items such as spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. A style sheet is used by an editor to confirm that the appropriate style is being applied consistently throughout the entire work. The editor refers to it constantly, checking for accurate spelling and capitalization on all key terms and validating all stylistic decisions.
A style sheet is typically in the form of a simple text document. It consists of three main pieces:
An overview, which describes the work being edited and any style guides or dictionaries that will be used while editing.
Details on decisions relating to capitalization, punctuation, and other stylistic concerns (such as the use of abbreviations and italics).
A list of important words, including all proper names and unusual terms.
Why should I use a style sheet?
Supporting Quality and Consistency
By using a style sheet as part of your self-editing process, you can catch errors in the names of characters and places and smooth out any consistency issues that may jar your readers.
Style sheets are particularly valuable for authors who are writing a series. Once a style sheet is established for the first book, it can then be applied to future works.
Maintaining Control
With a traditionally published book, it’s the publisher who decides what style should be used in the manuscript, and the resulting rules are applied to the style sheet. Self-publishing authors, in contrast, have the freedom to decide how they want their writing to look. That’s not to say that their editors can’t provide stylistic advice — they definitely should — but the author has the final say.
When you provide your work to an editor without a style sheet and don’t make your preferences clear from the beginning, it will be harder for you to maintain stylistic control. Your editor has to guess at your stylistic preferences based on what he or she finds in the manuscript.
Preventing Issues
Your editor may have different ideas about style than you do. When you get your manuscript back, you don’t want to find out that some of your carefully capitalized words have been painstakingly lower-cased or that American spelling has been applied when most of your readers are in the UK. This will mean extra work for both you and your editor, which could result in higher fees. It pays to think up front about any preferences you may have, and call them out.
A style sheet is like a quilt pattern — it pulls everything together into a coherent whole.
So how do I get started?
You may not have specific preferences about all the stylistic elements that an editor deals with. However, there are some common elements that you should probably think about (and write down on that style sheet). Please feel free to use my Style Sheet Template to capture your thoughts.
Overall Style Preference
Do you want your editor to use a specific style guide? The Chicago Manual of Style, for example, is a popular style guide for trade books.
Should American, British, Canadian, or another spelling style be applied?
Style Details
Are there words that need to be capitalized even though they are usually in lower case?
When should italics be used?
Do you have any preferences for the use of commas in certain situations (such as whether to use the serial comma)?
Do you have any preferences about the formatting of other punctuation marks, such as dashes or ellipses?
Word List
Have you noted all the following in an alphabetical word list?
People / character names
Place names
Words that have unusual treatment (such as capitalization or abbreviation)
Rare or difficult words
Invented words
With these questions answered, you have the makings of a good style sheet. Now it’s time to chat with your editor and make sure you are both on the same page.
I love learning, and the Editing Goes Global conference was a great opportunity to pick up all sorts of useful knowledge. Last week, I shared some tips from editor Arlene Prunkl on how to write good comments. Today, I want to pass along some nuggets of wisdom I learned from Beth Kallman Werner in her session “The Many Ps of Book Marketing.”
Ms. Werner has worked as the Director of Sales and Marketing at Kirkus and is the founder of Author Connections. She has over twenty years of experience in editing and marketing, and it definitely showed in her presentation. I was scribbling notes like mad. I couldn’t possibly include all of her thoughts here, but I thought I’d share some of the highlights.
Her session focused on the four Ps of marketing (product, position, price, and promotion) and how they relate specifically to book marketing.
I have a confession to make: I’m one of those readers who has been known to skip over passages full of description to get to the “good stuff.” I love the story of The Lord of the Rings, for example, but my attention wanes during those meandering sections sandwiched between poignant character moments and violent epic battles. With my avoidance of excessive elaboration (and my admittedly poor visual observation skills), I sometimes find it challenging to imbue my own writing with the right level of descriptive pizzazz.
Sue Archer 