Proofreading tagged posts

The 10 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

November 10, 2012 Learn the Craft, Writing Tips  No comments

When you are a writer, you are in control of your own business, your own workload and your own money. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to properly manage all of these aspects. It can be difficult to manage the business side of your career as well as the quality of your actual writing. Mistakes are bound to happen.

Here are some of the most common mistakes writers make, so you can learn from them without having to make them yourself.

1. Procrastination – When you give in to procrastination, you just place more stress on yourself later. You’ll end up writing lower-quality work and missing opportunities. Instead, set up a work schedule you can stick to so you’re not tempted put assignments off.
2. Editing While You Write – As you are writing, you may feel like you needRead More

Branch Out & Barter Your Way to a Better Book!

November 1, 2012 Self-Publishing, Success Stories  No comments

I am an indie writer, which is simply a spiffy phrase for being self-published. Why I chose this route is another story, but the bottom line is, I am on the hook for it all. In addition to writing my snippets of suspense, I also have to make sure the book is edited, designed, marketed and sold. I don’t know about you, but all of that stuff is much more daunting to me than the actual writing of the book!

ON TENTERHOOKS was my first novel and that means that writing for me occupies that nebulous space between engaging hobby and primal passion. It doesn’t pay the bills so I had to be very judicious about how much cash I spent to get things geared up.  Below are some useful tips I discovered that helped me produce a professionally edited book, an engaging cover and a polished bookRead More

~ Common errors ~

December 1, 2011 Emma's Corner, Learn the Craft, Writing Tips  7 comments

I came across the following error in a conversation I was editing this week. The spelling was correct and the sentence still made sense to the reader but because I’d seen this author misspell definite elsewhere in the manuscript, I queried her about which word she intended to use. She was adamant that the character was definitely (not defiantly) evasive.

“““““““““““““““““““

“I asked her yesterday.”

“What did she say?”

“Well, she defiantly avoided answering the question, but I know she wanted to see him.”

 “““““““““““““““““““

This is a simple example of an issue that a spelling and grammar check programme will not pick up, and one that an Autocorrect function can often create, rather than prevent.

Definitely seems to be one of those words that many people have difficultyRead More

You really should follow the doctor’s orders

November 8, 2011 Emma's Corner, Writing Tips  3 comments

Doctors warn against keeping old cosmetics for a very good reason. I’ve just experienced the fallout of not following this advice first hand. Yes, guilty as charged. I used an old tube of mascara and gave myself a nasty eye infection. Don’t I feel stupid.

I dragged myself to the GP who referred me to a specialist after I showed no signs of improvement over four days, and they agreed that the best treatment is to just put up with it until it heals on its own. Perhaps I was just feeling sorry for myself but the specialist appeared almost gleeful when he explained that I hadn’t even reached the peak of the illness yet, and it’s going to get worse for the next four to five days before I start to recover.

What this means is that I’m currently hiding away from the world lest someRead More