Once you’re ready to hire an editor (or two), you may start to see “sample edit” popping up. A sample edit is a short edit a freelancer may offer on a chapter or small excerpt of work by an author who is interested in hiring them and with whom they...
Easier said than done, right? Maybe so. But there are a few things you can do to help yourself create characters who pop off the page and feel genuine. Get to know your characters. Sometimes characters will surprise us on the page, but we usually start out with an...
While the omniscient point of view (POV) is considered a bit outdated today—with favor being given to third-person limited or first-person—it still comes up now and again. And with it there is the danger of head-hopping, or jumping from one perspective to another. Why...
When looking for comps, stop seeking exact matches and look instead for books that relate to your themes, plot, style and voice, characters, and the general structure of the journey or tale you’re telling. Let’s back up: What’s a comp? Comparison (“comp”) titles...
A vague pronoun reference occurs when a pronoun could be referring to multiple antecedents. This lack of clarity can lead to confusion, especially in scenes with a lot of people speaking/acting or in scenes with a lot of action, such as a fight. I spot vague pronouns...
