Over the years, I’ve shared many resources with my friends and editing clients, as well as learning from them myself. Here’s an ever-growing list of the books and articles I’ve found most helpful. I deliberately list them in no particular order. Some are more about writing a first draft; some more about editing or marketing….
A Catchy Grammar Lesson from Steve Kowit
It helps to know the names of your tools. Imagine trying to fix something in your house when you’re not sure of the difference between an Allen wrench and a Phillips head screwdriver (some of us may not have to remember…) For writers, words of all kinds are our tools, and it pays to know…
Why I Don’t Use AI in My Editing (or Writing)
Technology offers an increasing—even bewildering—number of tools to use in different stages of the writing and editing process. Some offer great benefits, and many have drawbacks. For my part, I haven’t adopted any “AI” tools for writing or editing. I never input any of a client manuscript into an AI interface to be analyzed, and…
How to Punctuate Dialogue
Dialogue punctuation can seem counterintuitive or just plain confusing. Once you learn the rules and practice a bit, though, it can become reflexive. Here’s a summary of correct dialogue punctuation for the most common situations: With a Dialogue Tag What’s a dialogue tag? “Said” or another verb that’s a synonym for “said,” such as “asked”…
The Essential Information: A Quick Grammar Guide to Restrictive Commas and “That” vs “Which”
Punctuation can get confusing, but when used well, it’s a guide to meaning. Those subtle marks on the page give the reader plenty of context about how the words and ideas fit together. Today’s blog post will help you figure out whether to use commas around certain phrases, and which word choice is best, based…
What you should know before using the TechSoup Discount for Quickbooks Online Plus
This is primarily a website about writing and editing, not technology or financial software. However, today I’m writing the post I wish someone else had written for me to read a few weeks ago, in hopes it helps others working with nonprofits. Quick disclaimer: None of this constitutes legal or financial advice, and I am…
What Happens When My Manuscript Gets Edited? Part Four: Disagreement and Clarification with Your Editor
Today’s post is a coda to the series I’ve written over the past few weeks as an in-depth guide to the editing process. We talked about how an editor (or at least this editor) works, what’s involved in line editing and copyediting, and what a developmental or content edit looks at. Now I’ll tackle a…
What Happens When My Manuscript Gets Edited? Part Three: Developmental and Structural Editing
Welcome to the third post of my guide to getting your story edited. I hope this explanation makes the process less intimidating by giving you an idea of what to expect. It might even make you excited to start work on your story’s next draft! Today, I’m going to talk about developmental editing, also known…
What Happens When My Manuscript Gets Edited? Part Two: Copyediting and Line Editing
Welcome to the second part of my in-depth look at the editing process! Today, we’re going to look at the kinds of suggestions I make when working directly on manuscripts word by word, sentence by sentence, and paragraph by paragraph (the more holistic feedback given in developmental editing will be the subject of my third…
What Happens When My Manuscript Gets Edited? Part One: Behind the Scenes of the Editing Process
Sending your story to an editor—especially if you’re new to the process, but also when you’ve been writing a long time—can induce anxiety and above all, uncertainty. What’s going to happen? What shape will the manuscript be in when you get it back? Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at my editing processes. First, I’ll talk about…