Book Editing

Most popular posts

A chalk painted outline on the ground to suggest reverse outlining

Reverse Outlining: Gaining a New Perspective

What is reverse outlining?  While many writers outline before they write a single scene, others follow a “pantser” method where...

A few different pens with multiple colors and tips exposed as a form of creative writing tips

5 Essential Creative Writing Tips 

Whether you’re brainstorming your first story or publishing your ninth book, there comes a point when all writers wonder the...

A man at the edge of a cliff looking out over ostensibly a big drop below

How to Write a Cliffhanger

A cliffhanger is not a trick, but a promise. As a storyteller, you want to grab your reader’s attention and...

An apple core being dismantled by a machine crank to suggest that theme ideas can be gotten to mechanistically with our blog

Theme Ideas: Finding the Core Your Story

Theme ideas aren’t something tacked on to the end of a story. They are central to the narrative, and woven...

An image inscribed "start now" to suggest that writing motivation tools are offered within the blog for immediate inspiration

Writing Motivation

Have you ever found yourself staring at the blank page and waiting for the spark, but it doesn’t come? So...

A child reaching into a hat to suggest play in the magician archetype

The Magician Archetype: Characters Who Transform All They Touch

The Magician archetype is a character who comes into the story and transforms everything. They don’t wield a specific authority...

A picture of a pan next to a marked up page to visualize copy editing
Blog
Alan Watt

Copy Editing

Copy editing is a specific type of editing that focuses on both the technical aspects of your writing and the overall flow:

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Blog
Alan Watt

Proofreading Marks

Proofreading marks are symbols used to denote corrections to a manuscript. Many editors today use “track changes” features on various software programs

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A hand writing on papers with a red pen suggests the romance that can be found in the process of proofreading work
Blog
Alan Watt

Proofreading

While your Editing Checklist is about clarity and pacing, and your Rewrite is about adjusting the structure and polishing character development in

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Painting escaping criticism by Caso utilized here to suggest a feeling that learning constructive criticism and how to employ it appropriately will allow the author to escape criticism effectively
Blog
Alan Watt

Constructive Criticism

One of the most important skills you’ll learn as a writer is how to take constructive criticism.  Feedback is an instrumental part

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A writer is trying to rewrite a simple thing on a notepad with crumpled pieces of paper all around. Beauty and lightness are evoked in the frame, suggesting this as a necessary process.
Blog
Alan Watt

The Rewrite

Once you’ve completed an editing checklist on your manuscript, you may find that your story requires a more substantial rewrite.  Often dreaded

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Conflating Characters
Blog
Alan Watt

Conflating Characters

Sometimes we’ve written characters that don’t belong in our story because their function is redundant. Conflict might arise that don’t add anything

Read More »
Own Your Work
Blog
Alan Watt

Own Your Work

Just because you might be a first-time novelist, it doesn’t mean you’re not the authority over your work. No agent, publisher, or

Read More »
The Rewrite
Blog
Alan Watt

Approaching the Rewrite

 The first draft is about diving into the unknown, invoking the muse, and writing from our right brains. The next step, the

Read More »

Recent posts

A matchstick not burned compared to the others around it suggests that collaborative editing allows one to keep themselves where others lose themselves

Collaborative Editing: How to Receive Feedback Without Losing Your Voice

Collaborative editing goes beyond the technical aspects. It’s a partnership to make your work the best it can be. Writing...

A group of people sit around a campfire to suggest the heartfelt nature of involving a sensitivity reader in the creative process

The Benefit of Sensitivity Readers

You’ve written something brave, but it explores areas you’re concerned might potentially offend a specific group of people or culture....

Four books are sat up in hand together and all look similar to another to suggest the four stages of editing the same book, a parallel for book editing

The 4 Stages of Book Editing 

You finished a polished draft of your manuscript. Congratulations! That is a huge accomplishment, and I’m going to tell you...

People gather around material in a professional work setting to suggest the value of a critique circle to professional effort

The Critique Circle Every Serious Writer Eventually Needs

Is there value in joining a critique circle?  Writing is one of the most solitary of all professions. You sit...

People surrounded a paper with highlighter and pen to suggest a light collaborative and beautiful feeling to line editing as a process

Line Editing: Transform Good Writing Into Great Writing

Perhaps you’ve been working hard on your rewrite, but something is still off and you’re not quite sure how to...

A messy, unfocused mix of paints suggests that revising vs. editing must be clearly defined to work reasonably in the scope of a piece of writing

Revising vs. Editing: Why Mixing Them Up Is Costing More Than You Think

You might be wondering, Aren’t revising and editing the same thing? They’re not. There’s actually an important distinction.  Let’s say...

A picture of a pan next to a marked up page to visualize copy editing

Copy Editing

Copy editing is a specific type of editing that focuses on both the technical aspects of your writing and the...

Proofreading Marks

Proofreading marks are symbols used to denote corrections to a manuscript. Many editors today use “track changes” features on various...

A hand writing on papers with a red pen suggests the romance that can be found in the process of proofreading work

Proofreading

While your Editing Checklist is about clarity and pacing, and your Rewrite is about adjusting the structure and polishing character...

Painting escaping criticism by Caso utilized here to suggest a feeling that learning constructive criticism and how to employ it appropriately will allow the author to escape criticism effectively

Constructive Criticism

One of the most important skills you’ll learn as a writer is how to take constructive criticism.  Feedback is an...

A writer is trying to rewrite a simple thing on a notepad with crumpled pieces of paper all around. Beauty and lightness are evoked in the frame, suggesting this as a necessary process.

The Rewrite

Once you’ve completed an editing checklist on your manuscript, you may find that your story requires a more substantial rewrite. ...

The most important editing checklist for writers is the one that allows them to balance their lives against their work and keep their clarity in the final product

An Editing Checklist for Writers

Refine your manuscript with this essential editing checklist. Learn how to edit a book by paring down prose and polishing...
Someone reading a book in nature on fire, a suggestion that without proper management a work can burn up in the hands of a beta reader.

Beta Readers: Finding Trusted Insight for Your Work

Beta readers help writers feel safe to fall deeper into their work. Balance the proximity that your beta readers might...
Getting Notes

Getting Notes – Ten Things to Consider

I got an email this morning from one of my students who just received a pile of notes on her...

Banishing Redundancies

Banishing Redundancies

Redundancy is not only a sign of lazy writing; it can also pull us out of the story by interrupting...

Conflating Characters

Conflating Characters

Sometimes we’ve written characters that don’t belong in our story because their function is redundant. Conflict might arise that don’t...

Own Your Work

Own Your Work

Just because you might be a first-time novelist, it doesn’t mean you’re not the authority over your work. No agent,...

The Rewrite

Approaching the Rewrite

 The first draft is about diving into the unknown, invoking the muse, and writing from our right brains. The next...