Editor is a pretty broad name covering a number of different editing methods, styles, and topics.

Eliminating “Wan Intensifiers and Throat Clearers”

You might have spotted here or elsewhere on social media, but I’ve recently changed the name of my novel.

One of the habits I have when editing is to read the text aloud to myself before the (final) proofreading stage to find errors and identify clunky sentences.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been noodling around with ideas for my next novel and then letting them marinate to see what comes out of it.

It’s been a long and blissful summer, with just enough freelancing work to keep the home fires burning.

June was a busy month. And the problem with a busy month is that I end up juggling so many different plates, pots, pans, and pickling jars that I cannot really remember what I did during the month.

One of my key tasks with the novel in its current phase is to tighten it up and ensure that the language is crisp and concise without sounding like it has been written by… well, an AI, I suppose.

I. Have. Finished. My. First. Draft.
Yes, finally.

I’ve been experimenting with different tasks AI can help me with.

Do you know what? I am very nearly almost done with the first draft of the novel. (Finally! you cry, What took you so long?)

I am terrible at writing to a prompt.

I’ve always been fascinated by the first lines of novels. In fact, when I was younger, I used to collect my favourites in a notebook – something I have started doing again recently.

I’ve been working on the last few scenes of the novel and struggling with one of them, as I knew I needed a certain amount of jeopardy, but somehow – despite having the emotions all there – the scene felt a little flat.

So, December… Well, that sped by in a flash. I finalised a second travel project for Fodor’s and worked on a couple of financial writing projects. And I did a whole host of editing for clients.

Life—i.e., work—kicked me into touch in October, and the month was all about editing for clients and very little about writing. And November continued in much the same vein.

We all have “word crutches”—those words or phrases that we overuse or rely on too much in our writing.

As I mentioned last month, my freelance life these days is all about the travel guide update for Fodor’s, which I am due to hand in on 1 November—a date that seems just around the corner right now.

August was a busy freelance life month. The first week I was straight out of holiday mode and thrown right into editing a longer report. No easing myself back in; that was for sure.

Let’s start breaking grammar rules! Do you remember those ones from school? Never start a sentence with “and” or “but”, don’t split your infinitives, and never end a sentence with a preposition.