Mistakes new (and maybe established?) writers make

[charlie_cochrane]

Excellent post about this at Ruth A Casie's blog.

Having been on the acquisitions team for four anthologies, I can vouch for the accuracy of that list!

Comments

[elin-gregory.livejournal.com]

Oh lord No 9! It's so embarrassing when someone says "You need to be careful about using the passive voice" and one has no idea what they are on about. We didn't get taught about stuff like that in my school in the 60s.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

LOL Same here. I have to resist suggesting my daughters take out all the adverbs when they read me any of their things for school.

[elin-gregory.livejournal.com]

See, I was taught that adverbs [in moderation] make ones writing more interesting.

I was reading a blog post by the senior editor of a publishing house. She was listing the grammatical errors that lead to automatic rejection [no matter how good the story is] and I had no idea what half the things she mentioned were. I'm going to see if I can find some kind of online course to take.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Got a link to that? I can't believe your grammar is any worse than mine and it's not been an issue in terms of acceptances.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

And I think the adverbs thing is not to use them lazily, ie the dialogue and the tags should tell you if someone is sad, angry or whatever rather than the "he said angrily" bit.

[elin-gregory.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I agree. As with the argument against using anything other than 'said'. That the words in the dialogue should inform the reader how the speaker is saying it isn't always going to work.

" 'Hush, someone might hear us. Pass the screwdriver,' he said" is fine.

" 'Pass the screwdriver,' he whispered" should also be fine really, since the words don't inform the reader of anything other than a desire for a screwdriver.

I've fished around and remembered that it was the editor of Storm Moon Press. It's not quite as dismissive as I recalled [I'm such a pessimist] but some of it still may as well be written in Dutch. I think I know what she means but I'm not sure. http://slarmstrong.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/10-common-editing-mistakes/

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Oh heck. I'll give up right now. :)

I do get cross at dnagling wotsits, though. Once read a school newsletter which implied the children were being raffled.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

I hate dnagling things, of any kind, too. :)

[jessie-lansdel.livejournal.com]

Timely advice for newbies like myself. The worst one for me is passive voice. By the time you've messed about with the offending line/passage it makes even less sense. Lol.

Anyway, I've added the list to my desk top for future reference. Thank you.

I did try to post 'over there'. I gave up for the sake of my blood pressure.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

:)

I have to say that, when I've been doing anthologies and the like, part of me has said "Ee can run with a bit of passive voice if the story's good enough. Easier to change that than many other things."

And talking of newbies, for at least two of those anthologies the stand out stories were those written by (at the time) newcomers, ie J L Merrow and Elin herself.

[elin-gregory.livejournal.com]

At least now we have an anatomical sounding name for them.

Raffling the kids - that's what all these cuts lead to.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

I did once produce a set of minutes which my automatic correction setting had changed, so that we'd auctioned the toilets (as opposed to actioned them).

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Perhaps if they were special historical toilets?

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

LOL. It's now a running joke!

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

I'm busy editing at the moment, and struggling with how much of the Yorkshire phrasing in the dialogue I should tweak so people realise it's deliberate, rather than me just writing things wrongly.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

That's a tricky one, unless you can somehow make knowing reference to it early on (like a character remembering to write 'proper' despite how they talk.

Thought of you today - saw a book about Debo.

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

I've now done most of the easy edits, so I think I now need to send an email asking what to do with the rest. I also need to find a different word for 'body-warmer' that will make sense to UK and US readers.

Which book did you spot? Ihave two on my To Read pile, one of which Mum wants back!

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

No idea. Just had a picture of her on the front and 'Deborah Devonshire'.

[melanietushmore.livejournal.com]

LOL! raffle kids, auction toilets. amazeballs!

Lol im sure Storm Moon Press also said if the story's good, they'll snap it up regardless.

Ohh this telling/showing thing has just been pointed out to me. I swear, the more i learn the more i panic and writing seems harder to 'pop out.'
Like that woman who tried to do an egg trick onstage and it just wouldnt come out. Poor love was straining for ages...
XD

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

LOL

Showing/telling is a great example. Some writers just get it straight off, others (including published ones) never quite twig it.