Tag: writing
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What is Proofreading?
There are a lot of misconceptions about proofreading concerning what it means and what a proofreader does. Most often, it is confused with copyediting because the responsibilities of a copyeditor and the responsibilities of a proofreader closely overlap. If explained in simple terms, however, proofreading is easy to understand. Quite literally, it refers to reading…
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Navigating the World of Self-Publishing
When you finish writing your first book, the question you have to ask yourself is this: Do I self-publish, or go traditional? Some people think the answer is simple, that they’ll just try to find an agent, and if that doesn’t work out, they’ll publish it themselves, but that is the wrong way to go…
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What is Line Editing?
Line editing, as opposed to copyediting or developmental editing, is less about spelling and punctuation mistakes, and more about the language. I’d say it’s content editing in a technical manner, as the focus is to point out inconsistencies and flaws in pacing, and to suggest improvements in style and syntax. It comes before copyediting, but…
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What is Copyediting?
Copyediting is what people generally think of when they hear “editing”. Falling under the umbrella of “technical editing”, copyediting doesn’t care about the story itself. Rather, it focuses on a magnified view of the document. A copyeditor doesn’t look at your characters, your plot, or any of your world-building (other than for the reasons of…
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Magic in Fiction
Magic is a wonderous force that is used in nearly every Fantasy book out there. It can exist in any way, shape, or form because magic is anything without a scientific explanation—even science can be magic if we don’t understand how it works yet. This seems like a big topic, so I’ll try my best…
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What is Developmental Editing?
Developmental editing, otherwise known as substantive editing or content editing, deals with the big picture elements of your manuscript. This refers to the characters, the settings, the worldbuilding, the plot, and more. Developmental editing is similar to an editorial assessment in this way, but it deals with the story line by line, rather than being…
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10 Strategies to Promote Your Book for Free
When you’re self-publishing, most people would agree that the hardest part of the process is getting people to notice your book. This is true for the most part because the market is constantly being flooded with new content, and your book may just be washed away in the flood. The best course of action would…
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What is Ghostwriting?
Do you ever sit down and think to yourself “I have a story in me”? Probably. In fact, most people do. They often even do have a story in them to tell, if only they’d write it and share it with the world. The problem is, not everyone is a writer. Not everyone can sit…
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From Pen to Published
Part 1—So You Wanna Write a Book? Stage 1: The Idea This can either be the easiest or the hardest thing in the world when it comes to writing a book. Coming up with a compelling idea that you can guide through the length of a novel is most often a fantasy itself. At least,…
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What is an Editorial Assessment?
So, you’ve written the first draft of your manuscript and you’re not quite sure where to go from here. Do you send it to beta readers first? An editor? Do you wait until you’ve gone through it a second time? The answer is fairly simple. If you’re on a budget, I’d advise you to start…