Rob Bignell's Blog, page 278

Editing client publishes first paranormal novel

A recent editing client of mine has published his first paranormal novel. Ruben Avilla���s ���She Cries��� tells the story of Ivan Franco, who after a frightening and paralyzing experience searches for the truth behind recent haunting apparitions of a strange woman and two children.

Doctors dismiss these episodes as sleep paralysis. His continued encounters with the ghostly woman and children push him to the edge of sanity, and he seeks additional medical attention. During a routine test, an extraordinary event leaves a team of medical professionals baffled. The renowned sleep disorder specialist Dr. Noemi Ochoa, a highly educated woman with a particular interest in parapsychology and the possible link between the unconscious mind and paranormal activity, joins the group to further the team���s efforts.

Ivan and Dr. Ochoa together will uncover the bizarre connection between mysterious deaths along a corridor that stretches across over six thousand miles and his recent horrifying experiences. The book is available online.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Baltimore, Maryland, or if you come from a small town like Giants Neck, Connecticut, I can provide that second eye.

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Write end of chapter summary in nonfiction books

When writing a nonfiction book, novice authors often omit a key element: a summary at the end of each chapter.

Usually chapters come packed with information that prove more than a reader can remember. The summary helps jogs readers��� memories of what was read, and in doing so sets them up for the next chapter. The summary can appear either as a paragraph of text or as a set of bullet points. Usually these bullet points are the headings of chapter subsections or the opening sentences of each subsection.

Writing a summary also can benefit authors during the early drafts by keeping them on track. Before writing the summary, jot down what the table of contents and the opening paragraph says will be in the chapter. Next, read the chapter, taking notes of the key points. These notes then serve as a summary. Compare the notes to what was jotted down earlier from the table of contents/opening paragraph. Do they jive? If not, then something needs to be rewritten ��� the table of contents, the chapter���s opening paragraph, or the chapter text itself.

Also consider adding links with the summary, especially for ebooks. These links might go to other articles or even books that elaborate on the bullet point. By including these links, your title becomes a reference book for its field and even can lead to sales of other books you���ve written.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Portland, Oregon, or a small town like Papa, Hawaii, I can provide that second eye.

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Let's look again: Recheck vs. re-check

Here���s one confusing pair of words that often has writers doing double takes.

Most language arts textbooks will tell you there are two situations when a hyphen should appear between the suffix re and the second part of the word:
���Re is added so that the word is the equivalent of doing something again: In the old days, writers had to re-type each draft of their manuscript.
���Re would result in a confusion with another word: The company decided to re-create its image. Using recreate, as in recreation, would confuse readers.

So re-elect would be correct.

But hold on! Some stylebooks disagree. The Chicago Manual of Style specifically states that no hyphen appears in reelect. The Associated Press Stylebook says a hyphen should appear (re-elect) but not for the grammar reason given above; AP���s reason is that a hyphen should appear between a suffix and the syllable that follows if the suffix ends with the same letter that the second part begins (so re-enlist and recheck are correct).

The best rule to follow is one of consistency. Simply choose a style and stick with it throughout your manuscript.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Norfolk, Virginia, or a small town like Crappo, Maryland, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Prompt: Observe and write

Suffering from writer���s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine.

To that end, try this tip: Place yourself in a situation where you can see or overhear what needs to be written in a passage. For example, if you���re uncertain how to describe the way people react when their favorite team scores, go to a sports bar during a big game. If you need to describe two people talking in hushed whispers to one another, go somewhere where people do that, such as a coffee shop.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Hampton Roads, Virginia, or a small town like Crappo, Maryland, I can provide that second eye.

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Keep freeze-frame in story brief, relevant

Sometimes the littlest detail, when mishandled, can significantly slow a story. Such is the case with a freeze-frame when writing fiction.

A freeze-frame occurs when the writer briefly pauses the action to describe a new character, object or setting that appears in the story. For example, her hair pinned up is a freeze-frame in Margie, her hair pinned up, entered the room. The term, borrowed from the movies, was coined by CSFW���s David Smith.

Often a freeze-frame is necessary in a story to help orient the reader. The challenge facing writers is to not overdo it. For example, the following freeze frame provides too much information:

Margie entered the room, a rectangular 11��� x 17��� with drape-covered windows on the wall opposite of the door, a twin-sized bed with a flower-print spread, and a television across from it.

The hotel room description takes up several ���frames��� in the story and so is akin to a camera shot lasting too long on a setting. It unnecessarily slows the story, as there���s no suspense in the description.

When writing a freeze-frame, follow a couple of simple guidelines. First, it should never last more than a sentence, and a phrase often is enough. It simply needs to point the reader in a certain direction by telling what a character���s key emotional trait is or what is the mood of a setting. Secondly, any freeze-frame needs to be relevant to the story. Simply describing someone as tall or a city as large usually is overgeneralized and insignificant (as is the case with the details in the above hotel room example). Instead, the character might tower over the others in the room or the city might span to the farthest mountain range on the horizon if the hero needs to quickly get from side of town to the other.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Charlotte, North Carolina, or a small town like Butts, Georgia, I can provide that second eye.

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Five Great Quotations about Why We Write

���Writing it seemed to have higher quality than not writing it, that was all.��� - Robert M. Pirsig

���We write to rekindle the inner spirit.��� - Lailah Gifty Akita

���We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.��� - Kelly Marcel & Sue Smith

���A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.��� - Roald Dahl

���Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.��� - Tennessee Williams

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, or a small town like Cluttsville, Alabama, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Writing Inspiration: Establish milestones

Establishing milestones is another way to make progress on your book. For example, if you write an average of 1000 words a day, and a chapter in your book is about 5000 words long, in five days you should complete a chapter. Add some leeway ��� say a couple of days ��� to cover holidays, personal illnesses and emergencies.

Your first milestone, reachable one week from today, will be the completion of a chapter. Two weeks from today, you will reach the milestone of completing the second chapter. If you miss a milestone, you must write for a longer period of time during the following week to reach it and to make the next one.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Indianapolis, Indiana, or a small town like Monkey's Eyebrow, Kentucky, I can provide that second eye.

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12 tips for revising your own manuscript

During the process of writing your novel or nonfiction book, you���ll probably spend a lot of time revising the manuscript. Catching every error in one reading is unlikely, but you can reduce the number of drafts you eventually write simply by following some editing tricks. Here are some common ones used by writers and editors alike.

Before you read
��� Set aside the draft ��� Let a couple of days pass between the writing and the editing. This helps ���distance��� you from the writing process so that you can look at the piece more objectively.
��� Reacquaint yourself with writing craftsmanship ��� While waiting to edit, read a book about the craft of writing. Doing so will give you some ideas of what to look for when editing as well as some solutions for how to solve the issue.
��� Turn off the distractions ��� Turn off the television, email and music with lyrics then read the manuscript in a place where no one will interrupt you.

Editing strategies
��� Switch to paper ��� People read words on a computer screen slightly differently than they do words on paper. Editing a printout of your manuscript can help you spot errors you might have missed by editing onscreen.
��� Read the manuscript aloud ��� When you have difficulty saying a sentence aloud, others likely will have difficulty reading it. Reading aloud also forces you to go slower, increasing your chances of catching errors.
��� Look up from the manuscript ��� Every page or so, take your eyes off the screen or printout, otherwise you run the risk of glazing over what you���re reading.
��� Use spell and grammar check ��� While you never should rely solely on spell check to proofread your piece, don���t disregard the tool either. It can find typos that will have you slapping your head wondering how they got past you.

What to look for
��� Watch for words used too many times ��� Any time a word is repeated within a sentence and in consecutive sentences, you probably need to rework the passage.
��� Seek and destroy adverbs ��� Words ending in ���ly��� usually can be dumped. Use a stronger verb to get your idea across.
��� Use active voice ��� While not every sentence needs to be in active voice, passive voice generally is overused in early drafts.
��� Ask ���What is ���it���?��� ��� Do you know what ���it��� refers to (its antecedent) in a sentence? Often writers unconsciously use ���it��� to quick write a sentence so they can keep up with their own thoughts of what the next sentences should say.
��� Identify point of view shifts ��� This mainly applies to fiction. Like passive voice, jarring point of view shifts are common in early drafts. Fix them early in the process to save a lot of rewriting later.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Denver, Colorado, or a small town like Dewey Beach, Delaware, I can provide that second eye.

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What on Earth? Maddenly vs. maddeningly

Here are two works that drive writers crazy: maddenly vs. maddeningly.

Maddeningly means extremely annoying or exasperating, as in The traffic in downtown Los Angeles was maddeningly slow.

Maddenly is not a word. It likely appears in manuscripts because the writer is mishearing the word, which is easy to do in this case. The situation is confounded (infuriatingly so) because madden, meaning to make or become mad, is a word.

So just take a deep breath, count to 10, and if using an adverb don���t forget to also add ���ing��� to madden.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Baltimore, Maryland, or if you come from a small town like Giants Neck, Connecticut, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Prompt: Out-of-place character

Suffering from writer���s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine.

To that end, try this tip: Place a person you know in a different setting. For example, relocate an urbanite on a Southern farm or a school janitor in a corner office of a high-tech firm. How does their lifestyle and view on life change? You now have a character and a setting. Next, imagine that a problem occurs, upsetting their routine. You now have a plot.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Houston, Texas, or a small town like Chicken, Alaska, I can provide that second eye.

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