Tips from the Editor
COMMON ERRORS AND MISTAKES
THAT I GENERALLY FIND
IN THE MANUSCRIPTS I EDIT
*If you have a tip to add, please comment below or e-mail it to youreditinglounge@gmail.com
BASICS YOU SHOULD KNOW BUT MIGHT NOT
- Dialogue is most commonly written inside quotation marks
- 'Justified' text formatting is a thing. Never in a novel will you find text that is wonky and staggered at the binding.
- Don't use the same adjective or noun repetitively within the same page. Use a thesaurus.
- Use minimal adverbs
- Stick to one voice per character (in 1st person pov), or one voice throughout (3rd person pov)
- Be careful not to be redundant
- NEVER use "start to".
- Try not to use "thing", "very", or "really"
- Eliminate cheesy cliches
- Eliminate unnecessary "thats" and "hads"
PUNCTUATION TIPS
- Ellipses and dashes are completely acceptable in the right context.
- Hyphenate modifers
- Use your commas wisely and sparingly
STRUCTURAL TIPS
- Cut long sentences in two
THINGS EDITORS THINK BUT WON'T SAY
- The first draft of your ms is not what we want to edit. Sometimes we will bite the bullet, but take the time to do a review yourself for glaring errors first
- Using several pages to describe a tree or house or minor character's physical description is generally boring, unless you have a very unique technique
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