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In this series of blog posts, I look at how you can approach editing your own work in a similar way to how professional editors approach their clients’ work. One of the things a lot of people misunderstand about the professional editing process is what it is we actually do. Everyone seems to know we… Continue reading Self-edit like a pro: Notes, notes, notes

In this series of blog posts, I look at how you can approach editing your own work in a similar way to how professional editors approach their clients’ work. Writing and editing are two very different beasts. Writing is very intense, very personal, a way of expressing all those thoughts that are in your head.… Continue reading Self-edit like a pro: Look differently

In this series of blog posts, I look at how you can approach editing your own work in a similar way to how professional editors approach their clients’ work. Whether you write in Word, Pages, Scrivener, or another piece of software, chances are there is at least one feature of it that you’ve never discovered… Continue reading Self-edit like a pro: Get to know your tools

This week I’ve been to a fiction editors mini-conference, superbly organised by the lovely Carrie O’Grady and Sarah Calfee. It was a great opportunity for a lovely day of CPD and networking. I can hear some of you scoffing at the placement of “networking” and “lovely” in the same sentence. I get it. Networking used… Continue reading Networking works

In a new series of blog posts, I look at how you can approach editing your own work in a similar way to how professional editors approach their clients’ work. You've finished a draft. Yay! Go you! Seriously, go you. So many people never make it that far. But you’ve still got a long way… Continue reading Self-edit like a pro: Don’t be one editor. Be three

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you write stuff, you have to edit stuff. Editors exist and we’re marvellous people and you should all hire us, obviously, but even if you do that, you’re going to have to do a bit work beforehand. Well, I mean, you don’t have to. It’s not like… Continue reading New Series: Self-edit like a pro

A question I often see from new authors is “How can I make sure the reader has enough information about the world my characters live in?” It’s a good question. World-building can be really hard. Even if your world is, or is based on, this real one, you have to firmly establish that in the… Continue reading Turning words into worlds

One of my favourite pastimes is going on Facebook and asking one of my editors’ groups about how they use a particular swear word or phrase. (Look, I don’t get out much.) The group is very international, and I often need that perspective, particularly when I’m editing in a variety of English that isn’t my… Continue reading Across the fucking pond

Happy new year! I know, I know, we’re fourteen days in now and everyone’s already broken their resolutions and is counting down the days until summer. But today marks the real start of the new year for me, because it’s the first day I’m alone. My kids were off school until the 8th, and my… Continue reading The sound of silence

Forgive me, content marketing gurus, for I have sinned. It’s been 23 days since my last blog post. And I can’t promise that this one’s going to be any good, because I’ve just returned my last piece of paid work of the year, and I suspect that my brain has raced ahead and is already… Continue reading It’s Chriiiiiiiiiistmas!