Editing, some more
October 19th 2006 05:28
Why am I harping on this theme?
Well, while there is a market for just about anything you can write, no matter how sick, depraved, misspelled, poorly punctuated or badly edited, by far the largest market (meaning readers) requires good editing practices.
Why? Because there is always some bad bastard like me who will point out your mistakes. Often in public.
Peter Tremayne is an accomplished writer with many books to his credit. So is Ursula Le Guin.
So why pick on them? That’s easy, I’m not. My point is that if it can happen to accomplished writers, then it can happen to you and, yes, me as well.
Why does it happen? Because we are human.
How can we stop it from happening? Edit your work, than get it edited again and expect it to be edited again.
Spelling and punctuation are the easy bits. After all, if you’re reading this then you probably have a spell checker. The punctuation - If in doubt, leave it out.
A word on spell check. I run English, American, Spanish, French and Latin dictionaries. Why? Because I can and they’re free.
The hardest part of editing is not being precious about your work. Yes, I know your writing perfect. It says exactly what you want it to.
The question is; Are you willing to bet your chances of being published on it?
Well, while there is a market for just about anything you can write, no matter how sick, depraved, misspelled, poorly punctuated or badly edited, by far the largest market (meaning readers) requires good editing practices.
Why? Because there is always some bad bastard like me who will point out your mistakes. Often in public.
Peter Tremayne is an accomplished writer with many books to his credit. So is Ursula Le Guin.
So why pick on them? That’s easy, I’m not. My point is that if it can happen to accomplished writers, then it can happen to you and, yes, me as well.
Why does it happen? Because we are human.
How can we stop it from happening? Edit your work, than get it edited again and expect it to be edited again.
Spelling and punctuation are the easy bits. After all, if you’re reading this then you probably have a spell checker. The punctuation - If in doubt, leave it out.
A word on spell check. I run English, American, Spanish, French and Latin dictionaries. Why? Because I can and they’re free.
The hardest part of editing is not being precious about your work. Yes, I know your writing perfect. It says exactly what you want it to.
The question is; Are you willing to bet your chances of being published on it?
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