Today’s inspirational blog is dedicated to my editor(s) at Siren Publishing. I have just had the edits for my third book and I was pleased to note that there were not nearly as many comments, corrections and suggestions as there had been in my previous two books.
This is terrific as it shows I am improving. In fact the learning process all along has been incredibly rewarding and I put this down to the super editors at Siren who are very encouraging and offer their recommendations for changes to our stories in a supportive manner. ‘This is a great way to show his attraction to her and the potential sexual chemistry.’
As I am a very reflective person I decided to analyse the edits on all three books to see where I have been consistently good (the pace of the story, good chemistry between the characters with some funny lines and a satisfying ending), the items in which I am improving (including head hopping. After the initial book I only had a couple of minor instances of head hopping on this one. Also I’ve nearly always remember now not to use capitals to indicate emphasis but italics.)
The things I still need to work on which include comma splices (joining together two unrelated sentences with a comma). This is a problem because, as a close American friend who lived in England for several years told me, the English join together sentences with a comma where the Americans would put in a period so I don’t see there is a problem in the first place.
And things I am getting worse on which include overuse of the em dash (a double length dash used for items like interruptions in speech apparently). I seem to have started using this in place of the comma to avoid a splice and am now over-using it! Note to self – must use a full stop (period) more often!!
My comment to any new authors who may be daunted by the overwhelming edits they receive on their first book is to take what the editors are suggesting and use it as a terrific learning opportunity .
Jennifer
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