If you\u2019ve spent any time at all studying the world of book publishing, reading articles and books on authorship, visiting blogs like this one, etc., you know that publishing professionals highly recommend that you hire a good book editor for your book before publishing. I am one of those who advises authors to hire an editor for their manuscript. And one reason may surprise you.<\/p>\n
While your manuscript may be fairly well-written, your writing habits could be getting in the way of it being very well-written. Yes, we all have writing habits. They stem from our way of communicating. Writing is communicating, after all. And sometimes our way of communicating doesn\u2019t actually work well in a manuscript which is meant to entertain or inform, for example.<\/p>\n
What habits am I referring to? Here are a few:<\/p>\n
\u2022\tThe overuse of pet words and phrases. One of them for me used to be \u201cof course,\u201d at the beginning of sentences.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tCreating long, complicated explanations or descriptions, often leading to run-on sentences and muddy writing.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tTrying to use words to impress or forcing the use of unfamiliar words.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tThe overuse of commas and other punctuation for emphasis. Too many exclamation points, for example, soon devalue the enthusiasm factor.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tMisuse of punctuation such as quotation marks, em dashes, ellipses. <\/p>\n
\u2022\tInappropriate paragraph breaks.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tA tendency to over explain, leading to a lot of repeated words.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tThe inability to appropriately organize your material\u2014sentences, paragraphs.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tWriting for yourself rather than your reader.<\/p>\n
Today, why don\u2019t you examine a few pages of your manuscript and see if you can find patterns that tend to brand your way of writing. See if you can discover your writing habits. Do they enhance or spoil your work? I can tell you that almost any habit that is repeated over and over in your writing (and isn\u2019t that the definition of a habit?) will tend to taint it. You may be surprised at how much fresher and more meaningful your writing can be once an editor helps you to rid your work of some of those writing habits.<\/p>\n
Visit my websites for resources, articles on editing (and other topics) and a description of my services: If you\u2019ve spent any time at all studying the world of book publishing, reading articles and books on authorship, visiting blogs like this one, etc., you know that publishing professionals highly recommend that you hire a good book editor for your book before publishing. I am one of those who advises authors to hire an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com<\/a>
\n http:\/\/www.patriciafry.com<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"