It's been a while since I wrote The Pond People. It began as a short story which was edited to death to send out for a competition. After extending the story it was sidelined for something else and hadn't been edited beyond the first draft. Posting it as a blog serial has made me get … Continue reading Editing The Pond People
Category: Editing
Gutenberg Changes (the easy ones).
I tackled WordPress's change to block editing and thought I was coping okay. . . and then Gutenberg changed again while I wasn't looking. I'm sure the 'upgrade' has been heralded in one of those emails I don't read, but it threw me when I couldn't find the little arrow that moves blocks up and … Continue reading Gutenberg Changes (the easy ones).
So. . . Connecting clauses
When reading sample edits in a writing magazine, I've recently come across examples where a comma before the conjunction so has been pronounced incorrect. Since so is one of the FANBOYS conjunctions (which, we are advised, require commas before their use) and since I'm getting a bit rusty myself since I last looked into commas, … Continue reading So. . . Connecting clauses
Shortcuts for Transferring Text.
On entering a flash competition recently, my Word file was rejected as too large. This alerted me to the fact that many of my short story files have somehow ballooned to file sizes of over 5,000 KB I don't know exactly why, but I know what to do about it. By copy-and-pasting each story as … Continue reading Shortcuts for Transferring Text.
Apostrophic Error’s.
One rule for all your apostrophe decisions.
Wordcounting, and other edits
I like editing. Back in the days when most of my writing output was instruction leaflets for library resources, I enjoyed re-organising paragraphs and sections to hold back information until the student needed it, rather than pre-loading with explanations they didn't need yet and wouldn’t understand. Now I've broadened my writing scope, I still enjoy … Continue reading Wordcounting, and other edits
Tell It Like It Is
Dialogue can be tricky. If you want to make your characters’ conversations sparkle, there is plenty of good advice on the internet. But first, tidy up basics, like punctuation and speech tags, that can distract from your brilliant banter. This is a checklist to help you dust off your dialogue ready for that final polish that … Continue reading Tell It Like It Is
Where Commas Fear to Tread
commas again - where NOT to use them.
Comma Conclusion, Part 4
(even) more about commas
Comma Conventions, Part 3
More comma-plications
Writing Wrinkles 