The importance of being edited
Originally posted at: http://meganthomason.com/?p=110
The editing process has been on my mind lately, both because I’ve been spending a lot of time editing … and reading things that maybe skipped a few (or all) steps in the editing process. I also have an AWESOME new professional editor who is helping me get up to speed on current standards (let’s just say I might have had a teacher and professor or two who drilled some incorrect concepts into me—but hey, I’m adaptable).
On the reading front… for fun or research or out of curiosity or whatever… I decided to read a bunch of the “top 100” Kindle books over the last couple weeks. Okay, maybe “reading” is a generous term, as I ended up skimming or skipping parts here and there that weren't my thing. There are definitely some gems in the top 100. But from an "editing perspective" my overall my first impression was “Wow. The bar has officially been lowered.” If you get exposed to something enough (eg. poor editing) does one become immune to it? Or for the right kind of “content” do people turn a blind eye?
What struck me is that there was a missed opportunity in a few cases to turn a good product into a great product.
I think of a book like a famous model--before and after makeup, styling and Photoshop... still pretty, but the transformation is quite amazing!
A big disclaimer: I do not claim to have perfected any of this. Quite the contrary! I have to continually remind myself to do all of this and often still fall short in execution.
Quantity over quality trap
In today’s market, I think we as authors have one major thing working against us … the most effective way to become profitable is to churn out as many books as quickly as possible. From a financial standpoint there’s no question … an author needs multiple books out to maximize their earning potential. The more books an author cranks out, the more books they are going to sell every day, and thus more money in the bank. No one’s going to get rich off of selling one book, even if that book is selling an average of 20 or 30 or 40 books a day. But have 5 or 10 books doing that … that becomes real money.
It’s really easy to get caught up in the desire to have multiple offerings … and to perhaps take some shortcuts to get the books out in a timely fashion. Maybe there are a few authors out there that can sit down and write the “perfect” book on the first try in two or three weeks. But for mere mortals I’d suggest taking what might be a decent “first draft” (or maybe the “skeleton” of what will be a masterpiece) and spending at least the same if not more time re-writing and editing as was spent writing in the first place. daynight took me a solid six months to write and probably double that time to do rewrites and edits. And it is *still* far from perfect. Granted I am pretty OCD about editing (and sloooooow … so it will not take everyone that long).
Content editing versus proofreading
There’s two sides of the virtual editing coin: content editing and copy editing (or proofreading). Both are critical. Typically a writer will write. Then re-write over and over again until the content is right, fixing any mistakes they see as they go along. But at the very end every book should be proofread. By someone other than the author. Preferably someone who is an actual proofreader. Trust me, I’ve been burned by this. The brain is a remarkable thing and can turn every misused “my” into a “me.” Most books will be run through a grammar and spellchecker (I say most because there are actually a surprising number of books that don’t appear to have even had this done to them). But that will not catch all the errors—not even close.
One CONTENT editing approach: “multi-pass”
Every author will have their own approach to editing, but I like to go through my book dozens to hundreds of times, each focusing on something different. I also do passes that look at the entire thing to make sure everything is consistent and flows well. For each book I make a list of passes I want to make, plus I’ll add make a list of things to go through and check. For instance I might note “progression of bruises.” If my character got injured did I play the whole story out or did the character have a “miraculous and instant” recovery because I forgot about it? Or I might make the note “What are [unnamed character’s] motivations for doing that?” if I feel like I didn’t adequately explain.
Note that I found as I adopted this process my writing got better. I’m constantly thinking about all these things as I write, so I have less work (far from no work) when I do my passes. I’ve listed some (but not all) of the passes I do on each book below. These are what came to my currently migraine-addled mind. I’ll update as my mind becomes less fuzzy :). Note that these can be done relatively quickly if you stay focused on the task at hand.
Dialogue
1. Is the dialogue necessary?
2. Is what you considered to be witty the first time around still witty? (I never published my first three books. When I go back and re-read I am amazed at how many pieces of dialogue I thought were hysterical are flat and not funny at all.)
3. Are the “says” or “saids” varied with other tags? This is one my editor pointed out to me. I had read that the reader’s brain just ignores the “says”, so to not try to “fancy them up.” But now that my editor pointed this out to me … it can make good dialogue flat when it turns into a back and forth “he says” “she says” thing.
Character development (one character at a time).
1. Consistent voice. This can be tough. Example: my upcoming novella features a girl who dropped out of school at sixteen and has been living in a van. I had to do a full pass to dumb down the language. The character isn’t dumb. But I had some (well ok … many) words in there or phrases that she would never use. It took a full day to do this, but it now reads true to her character. Time well spent.
2. Backstory. I think every character, even the most minor, deserve an interesting backstory. That doesn’t mean every detail needs to be revealed to the readers, but touches here and there will give characters dimension.
3. Flaws. Everyone has flaws. Characters need flaws to be interesting and realistic.
4. Growth. In real life experiences mold people. Trials help people grow. Thus characters should also grow and develop throughout a story.
5. Physical characteristics. Is each character described adequately (both physically and mannerisms/quirks/memorable qualities)?
Action
Action scenes should have a different feel and tone to them. Sentences should be shorter. Here’s a blog post on writing action scenes: http://bryanthomasschmidt.net/2011/07... .
Romance
If you’d like to remove a few things from my personal pet peeve list (you know… so that when I read your book I will sing its praises and not be pounding my head against the wall and causing further brain damage &/or warped thoughts to occur):
1) If there’s a love triangle, each “candidate” should be equally interesting and a viable option. One option should not be an afterthought to the other.
2) Avoid insta-love. Insta-attraction is ok, but does the relationship build? Do they have obstacles to overcome? Build up some tension!
3) If two characters start out disliking each other (this can be an effective plot device, but…) … why do they dislike each other? What’s the backstory? How do they overcome it? Again, make this gradual and not instantaneous.
4) How does the relationship progress? Does it make sense? Is it realistic?
Setting
Is every scene well described (without being overly described)? Will readers be able to picture where things are happening?
Pacing
Pacing is one of the trickiest things to get right. The story has to move. It has to keep people hooked and wanting to turn pages. Here’s a decent post about pacing: http://www.writersdigest.com/tip-of-t....
Twists
I’m a big fan of having twists … both ones that readers can and should see coming, and ones they may not see coming. There’s a lot of twists in daynight. For each one there is foreshadowing—some rather blatant, some very subtle. Foreshadowing is important. It rewards readers who are paying close attention. Think of how much time has been spent analyzing the ending in the movie Inception. There was a *ton* of foreshadowing, much of it very subtle.
Some twists may be plotted out from the beginning, while others will arise organically while writing. If I add a twist while writing, I go back to add foreshadowing and do a full pass to make sure I get the level of subtlety correct.
Show vs. Tell
Wherever possible, unveil things to readers while they are “showing” vs. elaborating through extended prose. In fact, there’s a whole section in daynight where I’m unveiling Thera that I’d like to go back and do differently. “Telling” will halt forward momentum and can bore readers. It’s important to keep things moving and having the characters doing something at all times. Here’s a post on this: http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-b... and a great post by Maria Snyder (author of Poison Study, a fantastic book): http://www.mariavsnyder.com/advice/sh....
World-building
Every book is in essence building a world. This becomes even more important when the author is building an actual new world (in my case I had to build the new world of Thera and the dystopia who controlled it). Avoid information dumps. Gradual reveals are better. Here’s wikipedia’s take on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldbui... .
Humor/comic-relief
I believe that well placed humor can make an enormous difference in a book. Think of how much Effie and Haymitch added to The Hunger Games. Particularly when dark material is involved, humor can lighten things up a little and give readers a break from all the gloom and doom. I added two full characters to daynight to up the comic relief factor.
Consistent tone
- Each character should have a unique voice that stays consistent
- The overall tone of the book should stay consistent
Continuity & removing loose ends
I always do full run throughs to look for problems in continuity or loose ends that need to be wrapped up. Sometimes I’ll find things while doing other passes and will make a list and address in a later pass.
*Note that if a change is made to do a full pass to make sure that the “butterfly effect” is addressed. Every change will impact things that happen later in the book, so make sure to adjust accordingly.
“Clever” commentary on life
Are the characters making observations about their situation or life that will connect with readers? You know … the kinds of things that readers highlight.
Chapter & story arcs
1. Is something interesting happening in every chapter? Does the tension build? Does the situation resolve?
2. On a global level, is the story building to the climax? Do all the loose ends get tied up and does it have a clean resolution at the end (without ending too briefly)?
Entertainment factor
What are you going for? Awards or blockbuster sales? Literary genius, pure entertainment or something between? Everyone’s got a different style. Some people can paint vivid, compelling pictures of the most ordinary things. Other focus on an action-packed plot. Whatever an author’s style is, the audience has to be kept in mind. Will your readers be entertained? Are there sections that will bore them? Compelling sections that could be amped up even more?
Suspension of disbelief
A story needs to be written so that a reader can become fully immersed in your “world.” Are there any stray elements in your book that might cause a reader to see a huge disconnect? A dramatic example (technology vs. setting mismatch): the book is set in the Victorian era and someone’s on their cell phone … wouldn’t make any sense. A fun article on this: http://io9.com/5829621/suspension-of-... .
Smells
Whether the hot guy smells like cinnamon or the dumpster smells like rancid milk, smells will give dimension to any book.
Sounds
The world is far from silent. Thus the world in any book should be bustling with activity, too.
Verb tense
A book is typically written in present tense or past tense. Pick one and stick with it. If writing in present tense and speaking about things in the past then make sure the past tense only extends to that scene. I read a book a while back that had no fewer than twenty tense changes per page (and I was reading on my phone lol). The writer had a good and important story to tell, but it was completely ruined by lack of consistency in verb tense.
Cut the fat
A full pass should be dedicated to eliminating any and all extraneous things. Sounds awkward? Reword or cut. Doesn’t move the plot forward or provide an important plot detail? Cut. Too much information? Cut. Nothing should be “untouchable.” My husband cut 100 pages from his middle grade novel on one pass. I’m not that talented at it, but strive to be better.
Big picture pass
After all the little things are addressed, read through the entire book (at least once … preferably multiple times) to make sure everything flows and works together.
What to do with a better idea?
Write it. Write it even if it impacts the entire book.
Beta it!
At some point an author has to let their work be read. I highly recommend that happen before it gets published. I think once an author is well past the “first draft” phase and to the “I’m pretty happy with this” phase, it’s time to send the book out to beta readers. Note these should not solely be family and friends. Bloggers and fellow authors would make good beta readers. You want these folks to be able to give you high level feedback on what works and doesn’t work.
With daynight I didn’t give my betas out broadly enough. There were important things that got missed that some bloggers picked up later. While I wished these things had been caught earlier, I was still grateful for the feedback and made changes to fix the problems.
Consider beta feedback carefully. You will get diametrically opposed feedback in some cases. Look for common threads and address those issues. If one person loves action and another loves romance you will have to make a judgement call on the balance for your particular book.
When is enough enough?
Let’s face it. The editing process could go on forever. At some point an author needs to decide “enough is enough.” That’s the point to get the proofreader involved and work on polishing what’s there rather than making changes. It took an extraordinarily long time for me to get there with daynight. I felt something was missing and I pondered what that was for a long time. Then last fall the light bulb went off. I did the re-write that it needed and focused on polishing. And then I finally felt like it was “ready.” Some things to consider:
- Have you addressed all major issues that came up in the beta reads?
- Are you personally happy with the story?
- Do you feel like anything is missing?
- On the proofreading front: did you use someone other than yourself to proofread your book? Someone who has a really good grasp of current standards and has trained their brain to find errors? In particular, I highly recommend the first 10% be scrubbed every which way as many people will decide whether to purchase based on a sample of your book. How embarrassing would it be to have a major error 5 words in (an author friend encountered such a book recently)? Or within the first few pages?
Changes post-publishing
As far as I’m concerned it’s worth updating a book for a single error. I did an update solely to change a “my” to a “me.” I addressed some common threads that came back from early readers. I’d rather every new reader have a better experience than to leave errors in my book. It’s exceptionally easy to make updates (especially if you are compiling formats in Scrivener) and I see little downside. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Just fix it. I find errors in mass market books all the time. The difference is … there are usually only a handful as compared to hundreds. If enough changes get made then it is worth asking Amazon (or equivalent) to make the update available to readers.
References
The gold standard is William Strunk’s The Elements of Style. A must read for all authors. http://www.amazon.com/ELEMENTS-STYLE-...
Since most people can’t afford (or just don’t want to spend the money on) an editor, buy a current grammar guide and reference often.
The editing process has been on my mind lately, both because I’ve been spending a lot of time editing … and reading things that maybe skipped a few (or all) steps in the editing process. I also have an AWESOME new professional editor who is helping me get up to speed on current standards (let’s just say I might have had a teacher and professor or two who drilled some incorrect concepts into me—but hey, I’m adaptable).
On the reading front… for fun or research or out of curiosity or whatever… I decided to read a bunch of the “top 100” Kindle books over the last couple weeks. Okay, maybe “reading” is a generous term, as I ended up skimming or skipping parts here and there that weren't my thing. There are definitely some gems in the top 100. But from an "editing perspective" my overall my first impression was “Wow. The bar has officially been lowered.” If you get exposed to something enough (eg. poor editing) does one become immune to it? Or for the right kind of “content” do people turn a blind eye?
What struck me is that there was a missed opportunity in a few cases to turn a good product into a great product.
I think of a book like a famous model--before and after makeup, styling and Photoshop... still pretty, but the transformation is quite amazing!
A big disclaimer: I do not claim to have perfected any of this. Quite the contrary! I have to continually remind myself to do all of this and often still fall short in execution.
Quantity over quality trap
In today’s market, I think we as authors have one major thing working against us … the most effective way to become profitable is to churn out as many books as quickly as possible. From a financial standpoint there’s no question … an author needs multiple books out to maximize their earning potential. The more books an author cranks out, the more books they are going to sell every day, and thus more money in the bank. No one’s going to get rich off of selling one book, even if that book is selling an average of 20 or 30 or 40 books a day. But have 5 or 10 books doing that … that becomes real money.
It’s really easy to get caught up in the desire to have multiple offerings … and to perhaps take some shortcuts to get the books out in a timely fashion. Maybe there are a few authors out there that can sit down and write the “perfect” book on the first try in two or three weeks. But for mere mortals I’d suggest taking what might be a decent “first draft” (or maybe the “skeleton” of what will be a masterpiece) and spending at least the same if not more time re-writing and editing as was spent writing in the first place. daynight took me a solid six months to write and probably double that time to do rewrites and edits. And it is *still* far from perfect. Granted I am pretty OCD about editing (and sloooooow … so it will not take everyone that long).
Content editing versus proofreading
There’s two sides of the virtual editing coin: content editing and copy editing (or proofreading). Both are critical. Typically a writer will write. Then re-write over and over again until the content is right, fixing any mistakes they see as they go along. But at the very end every book should be proofread. By someone other than the author. Preferably someone who is an actual proofreader. Trust me, I’ve been burned by this. The brain is a remarkable thing and can turn every misused “my” into a “me.” Most books will be run through a grammar and spellchecker (I say most because there are actually a surprising number of books that don’t appear to have even had this done to them). But that will not catch all the errors—not even close.
One CONTENT editing approach: “multi-pass”
Every author will have their own approach to editing, but I like to go through my book dozens to hundreds of times, each focusing on something different. I also do passes that look at the entire thing to make sure everything is consistent and flows well. For each book I make a list of passes I want to make, plus I’ll add make a list of things to go through and check. For instance I might note “progression of bruises.” If my character got injured did I play the whole story out or did the character have a “miraculous and instant” recovery because I forgot about it? Or I might make the note “What are [unnamed character’s] motivations for doing that?” if I feel like I didn’t adequately explain.
Note that I found as I adopted this process my writing got better. I’m constantly thinking about all these things as I write, so I have less work (far from no work) when I do my passes. I’ve listed some (but not all) of the passes I do on each book below. These are what came to my currently migraine-addled mind. I’ll update as my mind becomes less fuzzy :). Note that these can be done relatively quickly if you stay focused on the task at hand.
Dialogue
1. Is the dialogue necessary?
2. Is what you considered to be witty the first time around still witty? (I never published my first three books. When I go back and re-read I am amazed at how many pieces of dialogue I thought were hysterical are flat and not funny at all.)
3. Are the “says” or “saids” varied with other tags? This is one my editor pointed out to me. I had read that the reader’s brain just ignores the “says”, so to not try to “fancy them up.” But now that my editor pointed this out to me … it can make good dialogue flat when it turns into a back and forth “he says” “she says” thing.
Character development (one character at a time).
1. Consistent voice. This can be tough. Example: my upcoming novella features a girl who dropped out of school at sixteen and has been living in a van. I had to do a full pass to dumb down the language. The character isn’t dumb. But I had some (well ok … many) words in there or phrases that she would never use. It took a full day to do this, but it now reads true to her character. Time well spent.
2. Backstory. I think every character, even the most minor, deserve an interesting backstory. That doesn’t mean every detail needs to be revealed to the readers, but touches here and there will give characters dimension.
3. Flaws. Everyone has flaws. Characters need flaws to be interesting and realistic.
4. Growth. In real life experiences mold people. Trials help people grow. Thus characters should also grow and develop throughout a story.
5. Physical characteristics. Is each character described adequately (both physically and mannerisms/quirks/memorable qualities)?
Action
Action scenes should have a different feel and tone to them. Sentences should be shorter. Here’s a blog post on writing action scenes: http://bryanthomasschmidt.net/2011/07... .
Romance
If you’d like to remove a few things from my personal pet peeve list (you know… so that when I read your book I will sing its praises and not be pounding my head against the wall and causing further brain damage &/or warped thoughts to occur):
1) If there’s a love triangle, each “candidate” should be equally interesting and a viable option. One option should not be an afterthought to the other.
2) Avoid insta-love. Insta-attraction is ok, but does the relationship build? Do they have obstacles to overcome? Build up some tension!
3) If two characters start out disliking each other (this can be an effective plot device, but…) … why do they dislike each other? What’s the backstory? How do they overcome it? Again, make this gradual and not instantaneous.
4) How does the relationship progress? Does it make sense? Is it realistic?
Setting
Is every scene well described (without being overly described)? Will readers be able to picture where things are happening?
Pacing
Pacing is one of the trickiest things to get right. The story has to move. It has to keep people hooked and wanting to turn pages. Here’s a decent post about pacing: http://www.writersdigest.com/tip-of-t....
Twists
I’m a big fan of having twists … both ones that readers can and should see coming, and ones they may not see coming. There’s a lot of twists in daynight. For each one there is foreshadowing—some rather blatant, some very subtle. Foreshadowing is important. It rewards readers who are paying close attention. Think of how much time has been spent analyzing the ending in the movie Inception. There was a *ton* of foreshadowing, much of it very subtle.
Some twists may be plotted out from the beginning, while others will arise organically while writing. If I add a twist while writing, I go back to add foreshadowing and do a full pass to make sure I get the level of subtlety correct.
Show vs. Tell
Wherever possible, unveil things to readers while they are “showing” vs. elaborating through extended prose. In fact, there’s a whole section in daynight where I’m unveiling Thera that I’d like to go back and do differently. “Telling” will halt forward momentum and can bore readers. It’s important to keep things moving and having the characters doing something at all times. Here’s a post on this: http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-b... and a great post by Maria Snyder (author of Poison Study, a fantastic book): http://www.mariavsnyder.com/advice/sh....
World-building
Every book is in essence building a world. This becomes even more important when the author is building an actual new world (in my case I had to build the new world of Thera and the dystopia who controlled it). Avoid information dumps. Gradual reveals are better. Here’s wikipedia’s take on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldbui... .
Humor/comic-relief
I believe that well placed humor can make an enormous difference in a book. Think of how much Effie and Haymitch added to The Hunger Games. Particularly when dark material is involved, humor can lighten things up a little and give readers a break from all the gloom and doom. I added two full characters to daynight to up the comic relief factor.
Consistent tone
- Each character should have a unique voice that stays consistent
- The overall tone of the book should stay consistent
Continuity & removing loose ends
I always do full run throughs to look for problems in continuity or loose ends that need to be wrapped up. Sometimes I’ll find things while doing other passes and will make a list and address in a later pass.
*Note that if a change is made to do a full pass to make sure that the “butterfly effect” is addressed. Every change will impact things that happen later in the book, so make sure to adjust accordingly.
“Clever” commentary on life
Are the characters making observations about their situation or life that will connect with readers? You know … the kinds of things that readers highlight.
Chapter & story arcs
1. Is something interesting happening in every chapter? Does the tension build? Does the situation resolve?
2. On a global level, is the story building to the climax? Do all the loose ends get tied up and does it have a clean resolution at the end (without ending too briefly)?
Entertainment factor
What are you going for? Awards or blockbuster sales? Literary genius, pure entertainment or something between? Everyone’s got a different style. Some people can paint vivid, compelling pictures of the most ordinary things. Other focus on an action-packed plot. Whatever an author’s style is, the audience has to be kept in mind. Will your readers be entertained? Are there sections that will bore them? Compelling sections that could be amped up even more?
Suspension of disbelief
A story needs to be written so that a reader can become fully immersed in your “world.” Are there any stray elements in your book that might cause a reader to see a huge disconnect? A dramatic example (technology vs. setting mismatch): the book is set in the Victorian era and someone’s on their cell phone … wouldn’t make any sense. A fun article on this: http://io9.com/5829621/suspension-of-... .
Smells
Whether the hot guy smells like cinnamon or the dumpster smells like rancid milk, smells will give dimension to any book.
Sounds
The world is far from silent. Thus the world in any book should be bustling with activity, too.
Verb tense
A book is typically written in present tense or past tense. Pick one and stick with it. If writing in present tense and speaking about things in the past then make sure the past tense only extends to that scene. I read a book a while back that had no fewer than twenty tense changes per page (and I was reading on my phone lol). The writer had a good and important story to tell, but it was completely ruined by lack of consistency in verb tense.
Cut the fat
A full pass should be dedicated to eliminating any and all extraneous things. Sounds awkward? Reword or cut. Doesn’t move the plot forward or provide an important plot detail? Cut. Too much information? Cut. Nothing should be “untouchable.” My husband cut 100 pages from his middle grade novel on one pass. I’m not that talented at it, but strive to be better.
Big picture pass
After all the little things are addressed, read through the entire book (at least once … preferably multiple times) to make sure everything flows and works together.
What to do with a better idea?
Write it. Write it even if it impacts the entire book.
Beta it!
At some point an author has to let their work be read. I highly recommend that happen before it gets published. I think once an author is well past the “first draft” phase and to the “I’m pretty happy with this” phase, it’s time to send the book out to beta readers. Note these should not solely be family and friends. Bloggers and fellow authors would make good beta readers. You want these folks to be able to give you high level feedback on what works and doesn’t work.
With daynight I didn’t give my betas out broadly enough. There were important things that got missed that some bloggers picked up later. While I wished these things had been caught earlier, I was still grateful for the feedback and made changes to fix the problems.
Consider beta feedback carefully. You will get diametrically opposed feedback in some cases. Look for common threads and address those issues. If one person loves action and another loves romance you will have to make a judgement call on the balance for your particular book.
When is enough enough?
Let’s face it. The editing process could go on forever. At some point an author needs to decide “enough is enough.” That’s the point to get the proofreader involved and work on polishing what’s there rather than making changes. It took an extraordinarily long time for me to get there with daynight. I felt something was missing and I pondered what that was for a long time. Then last fall the light bulb went off. I did the re-write that it needed and focused on polishing. And then I finally felt like it was “ready.” Some things to consider:
- Have you addressed all major issues that came up in the beta reads?
- Are you personally happy with the story?
- Do you feel like anything is missing?
- On the proofreading front: did you use someone other than yourself to proofread your book? Someone who has a really good grasp of current standards and has trained their brain to find errors? In particular, I highly recommend the first 10% be scrubbed every which way as many people will decide whether to purchase based on a sample of your book. How embarrassing would it be to have a major error 5 words in (an author friend encountered such a book recently)? Or within the first few pages?
Changes post-publishing
As far as I’m concerned it’s worth updating a book for a single error. I did an update solely to change a “my” to a “me.” I addressed some common threads that came back from early readers. I’d rather every new reader have a better experience than to leave errors in my book. It’s exceptionally easy to make updates (especially if you are compiling formats in Scrivener) and I see little downside. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Just fix it. I find errors in mass market books all the time. The difference is … there are usually only a handful as compared to hundreds. If enough changes get made then it is worth asking Amazon (or equivalent) to make the update available to readers.
References
The gold standard is William Strunk’s The Elements of Style. A must read for all authors. http://www.amazon.com/ELEMENTS-STYLE-...
Since most people can’t afford (or just don’t want to spend the money on) an editor, buy a current grammar guide and reference often.
No comments have been added yet.
