Rachelle M.N. Shaw's Blog: From Mind to Paper: On Writing and Editing, page 4

The Editing Agenda: Making Your Sentences Stronger

If there’s one thing that makes writing weaker than anything else, it’s those blasted filter words and passive sentences. They work their way into multiple paragraphs, sucking them dry, and before you know it, your manuscript has withered away into nothingness! Okay, not really. But they are a nuisance, and they do tend to sprout in unwanted places, making your writing less than awesome. So how do you identify filter words and passive lines, and how do you improve them?

Identifying Weak vs. St...

10 Things 2015 Taught Me About Writing

A new year is now upon us, and with that comes the tradition of setting new goals and facing new challenges and achieving new victories. But I’m not quite done with 2015 yet. In fact, I’d like to think that my new year really began back in November—and it started with Nanowrimo. For those of you who haven’t heard of it yet, Nanowrimo gets a pretty mixed reputation. It’s an event where writers around the world pledge to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. While some say tha...

The Editing Agenda: Capitalization

Capitalization is one of those pain-in-the-butt rules of punctuation that I loathe. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I hated the thought of writing a post on it, but this is one of those topics that I knew needed to be tackled. So rather than give you laundry list of a billion different types of instances that require capitalization, for the sake of your sanity and my own, I’m going to stick with the main ones that pop up in fiction (and some nonfiction). And throw in some examples of course...

The Editing Agenda: Tackling Tags

While I’ve made several posts in the past about dialogue, today it’s time to tackle tags. During my experience as an editor, I’ve corrected a ridiculous number of tags. In fact, they’re probably the biggest issue I run into—apart from maybe commas. What makes them such a struggle for writers? Honestly, I think the methodology has a lot to do with it. When many of us write, my included, we tend to get the story down on paper as quickly as possible and worry about the structure later. And ther...

The Editing Agenda: One Space or Two?

It's a common question posed quite often in the grammar community: How many spaces should be used after a period? Some will argue that it's always been two and that people simply got lazy with word processing, and others will insist that two spaces are no longer needed. So which is correct? The issue is actually more about formatting than it is a grammar or punctuation one, and it has everything to do with the evolution of word processing and the printing industry. So let’s start at the begi...

October Newsletter

My next newsletter will be arriving soon! The plan is to get it sent out at the end of next week, about the middle of the month. I’ll be including some new writing tips in it, one of my own struggles as a writer (and how I dealt with it), a sneak peek at some of my current works in progress, and, of course, some more freebies. ^_^ Oh, and you guys will get to meet my awesome editor. I certainly never could have made my books half of what they are—even the ones in progress—without her exper...

The Editing Agenda: Adding Layers

Once you’ve finished your first draft and you’re ready to delve into the editing process, one of the first things you should tackle is adding layers. Layers make every great story come to life. They make a well-rounded character realistic, a plot and its details that much juicier, and they have a way of making the final pieces of the puzzle fall into place. And while there is definitely a time and a place for punctuation, grammar, and all things syntax, without layers, your story will always...

The Editing Agenda: Those Darn Dashes

When it comes to formatting and punctuation issues, hyphens and dashes take the cake. Their use in books is incredibly inconsistent, which leads to a lot of confusing for anyone trying to learn them. This article will give a thorough breakdown of each kind and their uses as they pertain to fiction. Keep in mind that the rules I’m covering are the ones that are the most beneficial for fiction writing—there are some that won’t be addressed in this post. And all rules mentioned are based on The...

The Editing Agenda: Expressing Thoughts

A huge challenge every fiction writer faces is finding a way to express characters’ thoughts. Many writers use italics or quotation marks; in fact, a lot of authors do. But too many italics are overwhelming, and quotation marks can be confused for those of dialogue. So which is the best method? In my opinion, neither is. So how do you effectively convey a thought without relying on italics or quotation marks?

Option 1: Tags

When using tags to indicate thoughts, structure the sentence just as y...

The Editing Agenda: Why You Should Edit Your Book

The hardest thing for any writer to do is actually finish writing the first draft. It’s one thing to have a great idea and write a few scenes or a good portion of a manuscript, but it is a HUGE feat to actually finish writing an entire book. So if you’ve taken the time to sit down and scribble out that idea in your head and somehow combine all your words into a complete book, congrats! You are already far ahead of the game and definitely deserve praise for your accomplishment.

So you have a c...