FOR EDITORS, PROOFREADERS AND WRITERS

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Louise and Denise discuss the grammar police, how to manage them, and why they're nothing to do with professional editing.

​Click to listen to Season 4, Episode 1

Listen to find out more about:

• Who are the grammar police?
• Social media and the grammar police
• Pedantry versus professional editing for style, preference and flow
• Writing style: Business, academia, web copy, creative non-fiction, fiction
• Conventions and standards versus rules and errors
• How and when to tell a writer about an error
• Dealing with the grammar police

Editing bites

• Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, by Jane Straus
• TextExpander

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, ​Denise and Louise talk with guest Sea Chapman about constructed languages, or conlangs.

​Click to listen to Season 3, Episode 10

Listen to find out more about:

• What is a constructed language, or conlang?
• The different types of conlang
• Tips for writers who want to include conlangs in fiction
• The rules of play
• Base languages sometimes and conlang creation

Resources mentioned in the show

• Email Sea Chapman ([email protected]) for handouts from her ACES 2018 presentation, ‘Conlangs: Languages with Stories to Tell’ or to request additional resources
• Language Creation Society
• Conlangs on reddit
• Constructed Languages on Facebook
• ConWorkShop forum
• Conlangery podcast
• Iain Banks talks writing, world events and Mastermind (video)
• ‘A few notes on Marain by Iain M. Banks’
• Fabulosa!: The Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language
• ‘What’s Polari?’

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise discuss em dashes, or em rules, and how to use them in fiction and non-fiction writing.

​Click to listen to Season 3, Episode 9

Listen To Find Out More About:

• Parenthetical use
• Indicating a new speaker
• Indicating omission
• Profanity
• Showing faltering speech
• Conveying end-of-line interruptions

Editing Bites

• The Magic of Fiction, Beth Hill
• ‘Start here: How to self-publish your book’, Jane Friedman

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise explain what a comma splice is, why you should usually avoid it, and how it can add clarity.

​Click to listen to Season 3, Episode 8

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

​What is a comma splice?
When two independent clauses – which could stand on their own as sentences and make perfect sense – are separated by a comma, the sentence is said to contain a comma splice. For example:

• I love tomatoes.
• Red and yellow ones are my favourites.

Those two sentence above could be separated by a semi-colon, a dash, or a full stop and no one would be breathing grammar rules down your neck:

Standard punctuation 

• I love tomatoes; red and yellow ones are my favourites.
• I love tomatoes – red and yellow ones are my favourites.
• I love tomatoes—red and yellow ones are my favourites.
• I love tomatoes. Red and yellow ones are my favourites.

However, if you use a comma to separate them, that heavy breathing will come from some quarters:

Non-standard: comma splice

• I love tomatoes, red and yellow ones are my favourites.

Why comma splices trip up readers
Some people don’t know what a comma splice is and don’t care. But plenty do, and even if they don’t know what’s it called, they trip up. For those in the know, comma spliced sentences (sometimes) scream off the page for precisely that reason.

That's because when readers see a comma they're inclined to think, This is the start of a list.

A standard method for showing a reader that they’re coming to the end of a list is to incorporate a coordinating conjunction such as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘though’ and ‘or’. It acts as  shorthand for One more item’s coming. Then there’ll be a full stop.

And so when only two items are separated by a comma, the reader’s expecting at least one more item in that list. When that third item doesn’t appear and the sentence finishes, the reader is jolted because they've placed the emphasis in the wrong place. Try reading these examples out loud:

• Let me tell you about fruit: I like apples, I hate pears but I think oranges are okay. Are we clear now?
• Let me tell you about fruit: I like apples, I hate pears. Are we clear now?

Your intonation likely changed as you read the words 'but I think oranges are okay' because you knew you were finishing a sentence. In the second example, you were left hanging after 'hate pears' and likely hadn't placed the stress correctly.

These kinds of stumbles are a distraction that, even if only for a split second, pulls the reader out of the writing. Now they’re thinking about where they placed the emphasis, not about our fabulous learning tool, enthralling plot line or groundbreaking academic research.

When comma splices can work: fiction
Comma splices are probably more prevalent in published fiction, and more acceptable. Sometimes, and with good reason. The comma doesn't always trip up readers.

The key is to allow splices to stand when they serve a purpose.

Narrative and rhythm
Take this example from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity’ and so on.

This prose is an experiment in rhythm. The splices work. But something else is going on too – the anaphora.

Anaphora is a literary device that uses repetition for rhythmic effect. In the Dickens example, the repetition of 'it was' pulls us along on a beautiful booky wave. Editing in semi-colons or full points would destroy the rhythm and would qualify as an example of editorial hypercorrection.

For a more detailed examination of anaphora, read: What is anaphora and how can you use it in fiction writing?​

Dialogue and mood
While a comma splice will stick out like a sore thumb in a piece of academic research or an education textbook, that’s not always the case in dialogue. 

If the speech is truncated, or there's anaphora in play, a comma might well work. Imagine this scenario in a novel: two characters are having an argument. One says, ‘It’s not me, it’s you’.

Strictly speaking, that's a comma splice. There are two independent clauses with a comma. Would it bother you? Probably not. The speech looks and sounds natural to the mind's ear. Changing the comma to a full stop would slow down the rhythm of the character’s speech and affect the emotionality in the dialogue.

But most important, readers won't trip up; they'll place the emphasis correctly. And so while emotion and mood have been respected, this hasn't been at the expense of clarity. 

Summing up

• Understand what a comma splice is. Only then can you make an informed decision about whether to let it stand or fix it.
• Read the sentence aloud, tor ask someone else to. If you or they stumble over what you’ve written, so might your reader.
• Just because Woolf, McCarthy and Dickens use comma splices doesn't mean every writer should. There may be other literary devices in play or narrative motivations affecting their choices.
• There is a grammatical standard for how commas are handled between two independent clauses, but even so, we can’t prescribe for always right or always wrong. Sometimes it’s about style, rhythm and flow.

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise discuss en dashes, or en rules, and how to use them in fiction and non-fiction writing.

​Click to listen to Season 3, Episode 7

​
Find out more about ...

• Parenthetical use
• Indicating number spans
• Placement in dialogue interrupted by narrative description
• Linking in adjectival compounds
• Showing faltering speech
• Indicating a relationship/alternative
• Profanity

Editing bites

• Masterclass
• The Conscious Style Guide ​

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

​​In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Louise and Denise demystify (and stand up for) one of the most misunderstood pieces of punctuation – the semi-colon.

Click to listen to Season 3, Episode 5

Find out more about ...

• What the semi-colon looks like
• Separating two independent clauses
• Subjects and predicates
• Weighting and parallelism
• Comma splices
• Separating items in a list
• Emojis
• Objections to the semi-colon

Resources

• National Centre for Writing’s podcast
• Semicolon: How a misunderstood punctuation mark can improve your writing, enrich your reading and even change your life, by Cecilia Watson
• How to use semi-colons in fiction writing​

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise chat with Tim Storm about the concept of unearned writing, and how to craft prose that's authentic and plausible.

​Click to listen to Season 3, Episode 4

​
Find out more about

• The writer’s responsibility to the reader and the story
• Story events and character reactions in relation to plausibility and authenticity
• Salvation events
• Unnatural character realizations
• Contrived plot turns
• Thematic insertions or digressions
• Turning unearned writing into earned prose
• Idea flow in non-fiction

Resources related to the show

• Title Case Converter
• The Allusionist podcast
• Storm Writing School
• Free course from Tim: The Gold Standard Scene: Analyses of Near-Perfect Scenes in Prose Fiction
• Storm Writing School on Twitter
• Storm Writing School on Facebook
• Storm Writing School on Pinterest
• Writing resources from Louise

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise chat about 4 features of written language that are often thought to be Americanisms but aren’t!

​Click to listen to Season 3, Episode 3

​Find out more about ...

• -iz- spellings
• serial commas
• em dashes
• which/that in restrictive relative clauses

Mentioned in the show

• Lexico/Oxford: ‘The Differences Between British and American Terms’
• Lynne Murphy on British and American English (video)
• Free PDF booklet: Visit the grammar and spelling page in my resource library to download this free booklet summarizing suffix variations in American and British English.

​Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise talk with linguist Rob Drummond about grammar pedantry, peevery, youth language, and non-standard language in context.

Listen here ...

Find out more about ...

• Correct or conventional – a linguist’s perspective
• Better versus standard
• Zombie rules, and what we can ditch
• Youth language – dumbing down English or enriching it?
• Young people's language in relation to identity and language change
• Varieties of English in written communication: globalization, national and cultural identities
• The internet’s impact on pedantry and peevery
• The relationship between knowledge and pedantry
• The difference between preferences and judgements
• Recognizing our own pedantry and respecting contextually appropriate style
• Stepping outside our linguistic comfort zones

Mentioned in the show

• Radical Copyeditor blog
• ‘The Business of Being a Writer, with Jane Friedman’
• Rob Drummond Linguistics
• TED Talk: 'John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!'
• Rob's graph: Linguistic knowledge versus linguistic pedantry

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Denise and Louise talk about how to use question marks in fiction and non-fiction according to convention.

Listen here ...

Find out more about

• Direct questions
• Indirect questions
• How-to statements
• Idiomatic phrases and question marks
• Double punctuation
• Uncertain dates and date ranges
• Indicating uncertainty

Mentioned in the show

• But Can I Start A Sentence With “But”? by Carol Saller
• Making a Point: The Pernickety Story of English Punctuation by David Crystal

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In this bonus episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise chat about 10 things an author needs to tell an editor about so that both parties can work out whether they're a good fit.

Listen here ...

​Find out more about ...

• Word count
• File format
• Genre or subject
• Previous rounds of editing
• Type of editing required
• Audience and publishing path
• Time frame
• Other published works (online or in print)
• Sourcing editorial assistance

Mentioned in the show

• The Editing Podcast, Point of view: On editing erotica. With editor Maya Berger
• The Editing Podcast, S1E1: The different levels of editing
• The Editing Podcast, S1E6: What is a sample edit?
• The Editing Podcast, S2E9: Writing and editing for the web. With Erin Brenner

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise talk to Laura Poole about the importance of fact checking.

Listen here ...

Find out more about

• What a copyediting service includes
• When fact checking takes place in the editorial process
• Fiction: place names, historical accuracy, idiom, dates, etymology
• Non-fiction: people names, obscure terms, place names, dates, protecting author reputation
• Differences between spot checking and fact checking
• Fact checking for consistency across series
• Print versus digital: preventing reputational damage in the long term
• Tools for fact checking
• Who’s responsible for fact checking?
• Effective and sensitive querying of facts in non-fiction
• Artistic licence with facts in fiction

Related links and resources

• Laura Poole, Archer Editorial
• Tool: Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
• Tool: The Historical Thesaurus of English
• Tool: Google Ngram Viewer
• Tool: CIA – The World Factbook
• Tool: The New Food Lover's Companion (Barron's Cooking Guide)
• Tool: Research tools for crime and thriller writers

​
Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this bonus episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise talk to editor Maya Berger about editing erotica.

Listen here ...

Summary
Find out more about:

• Why authors shouldn’t fear approaching an editor
• Why erotica deserves the same editorial rigour as any other genre
• The rise of romance and erotica in mainstream publishing
• How to find an editor who specializes in erotic fiction
• Subgenres and the benefits of specialist editing: LGBTQ, kink and taboo (BDSM and powerplay dymanics)
• Sensitivity reading: representing voice and identity

Related links and resources

• Maya Berger (website): What I Mean To Say
• Maya Berger (CIEP listing)
• Directory of Editorial Services: Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP)
• Finding an editor (blog by Louise)
• Finding an editor (podcast): The Editing Podcast, S1E10, How to Find an Editor
• Copyediting and proofreading pornography and erotica (blog by Louise)

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Denise and Louise talk to Beth Hamer, a professional proofreader and the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) conference director. Beth chats about how to organize a successful editorial conference.

Summary
Find out more about:

• Responding to feedback
• Refining the delegate experience 
• Benefits of attending the annual CIEP conference
• Choosing a venue
• Choosing speakers 
• Programming sessions

​
Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Denise and Louise discuss how to use quote marks (or speech marks) in writing ... and when not to use them.

​Click to listen to Season 2, Episode 10

Summary
Listen to find out more about:

• What quote marks are and how they're used
• Whether to use straight or curly quote marks
• Choosing single or double quote marks
• Where the closing quote mark goes in relation to other punctuation​
• When not to use quote marks

Other resources

• Chicago Manual of Style
• Penguin Guide to Punctuation
• New Hart’s Rules​
  
• How to punctuate dialogue in a novel (free webinar)

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Learn these top tips for writing and editing for the web with our Editing Podcast guest Erin Brenner.

• Why working with web content is different from writing for the page
• In which programs should we create content for the web?
• Pre-upload checks on the writing
• Pre-upload checks on metadata links, and alt-text
• Quality control: self-editing versus third-party professional help
• How many editing passes?
• Fact-checking and authenticity
• The order of play for editing web content
• Style sheets and web content
• Language choice and style for web content
  

• Erin Brenner’s Web Style Checklist
• They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan

• Erin Brenner, Right Touch Editing
• ‘Customer service: A cautionary tale of red flags and safety nets’ by Vanessa Plaister on the CIEP blog
• The AP Stylebook (Associated Press)

‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise talk to Jen Hamilton-Emery, co-director of Salt, one of the UK's premier independent literary publishers.

​Click to listen to Season 2, Episode 8

Summary
Listen to find out more about:

• The Salt story: awards, authors and publishing goals
• Author retention
• Indie publishing and the digital revolution
• The submission process
• The author–publisher relationship
• The publishing process
• Rights, sales and royalties
• Print runs
• Resources for authors

Find out more

• Visit the Salt website

Editing bites

• Typographic Style Handbook: A Guide to Typography by Michael Mitchell and Susan Wightman
• Understanding Show, Don’t Tell by Janice Hardy

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise offer guidance on how to change your editor, and manage the process in a way that ensures everyone comes out smiling!

​Click to listen to Season 2, Episode 7

Summary
Listen to find out more about:

• Why authors change editors
• Planning ahead and giving notice
• Whether the editor should get involved in sourcing a replacement
• Checking T&Cs and cancellation policies
• Information and tools to share with the new editor

Editing bites

• The NCW Podcast (National Centre for Writing)
• Oxford Dictionary of English Idiom
• Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms

Other resources​​

• The Editing Podcast, S1E1: The different levels of editing
• The Editing Podcast, S1E10: How to find an editor
• The Editing Podcast, S1E7: Style sheets for writing and editing
• Blog article: How do I find a proofreader, copyeditor or developmental editor?
• Blog article: What's a style sheet and how do I create one? (includes a free downloadable style-sheet template)
• The different levels of editing (free webinar)

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise offer some quick tips on formatting your Word file ... final tidy-ups to get your file in shape, and that accord with mainstream publishing standards. And there's a free PDF that includes all the search strings we talk about (or try to)!

​Click to listen to Season 2, Episode 6

​Click on the image below to download the free booklet and grab all those search strings we try to explain!

Editing bites

• Wildcard Cookbook for Microsoft Word: Amazon UK and Amazon US
• Word Tips​

​Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise talk about 10 editing macros that will save you time and improve the quality of your writing.

​Click to listen to Season 2, Episode 5

Summary
Listen to find out more about:

• Macros how they work in Word
• CatchPhrase
• CitationLister and CitationListChecker
• CompareWordList
• File Cleaner
• FullPointInDialogue and CommaInDialogue
• MultiSwitch
• PerfectIt
• ProperNounAlyse
• SpellingErrorLister
• VisibleTrack

Editing bites

• ​‘Advanced Find and Replace for Microsoft Word’: Available from Jack Lyon
• ‘20-Minute Macro Course’: Available from Tech Tools for Writers​
  

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise talk about adverbs, and how to use or remove them purposefully.

​Click to listen to Season 2, Episode 4

Summary
Listen to find out more about:

• What Stephen King said about adverbs
• Adverb use versus adverb abuse
• Definition of an adverb with examples
• Definition of an adverbial phrase with examples
• Adverb red flag #1: the double tell in narrative
• Adverb red flag #2: the double tell in dialogue
• Adverb red flag #3: the double tell in dialogue tags
• Fixes: using stronger verbs and strengthening dialogue
• Why adverbial phrases don’t solve the problem
• Extent of overuse

Editing bites

• How to Write Dazzling Dialogue by James Scott Bell
• Oxford Guide to Plain English by Martin Cutts

Other resources

• Stephen King on Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise talk with Daniel Heuman, founder of Intelligent Editing and developer of PerfectIt – consistency-checking and style-enforcing software for editors and writers.

​Click to listen to Season 2, Episode 3

Summary
Listen to find out more about:

• What PerfectIt does
• Who uses PerfectIt
• What’s new with PerfectIt 4
• Using the onboard styles
• The PerfectIt 4 interface
• How to access PerfectIt on PC and Mac
• How much a subscription costs and what’s included
• Where to download PerfectIt​

​
​Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise discuss four different kinds of writers and how identifying what kind you are can help you work out the kind of editing that’s the best fit for you.

​Click to listen to Season 2, Episode 2

Summary
Listen to find out more about:

• The confident writer
• The nervous writer
• The reluctant writer
• The impatient writer

Editing bites

• ‘How to proofread your own writing – 10 tips to clean up your writing’
• ‘Is proofreading enough? Does Your Reader Dance?’

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise discuss how to prepare your book file for editing ... whether you're doing it yourself or working with an editor.

​Click to listen to Season 2, Episode 1

Summary
Listen to find out more about:

​Editing bites

• Editing in Word, 2nd Edition, by Adrienne Montgomerie
• How to Market a Book, by Joanna Penn

Other resources

• Review of Montgomerie’s Editing in Word, 2nd ed. by Louise Harnby (blog post)
• How to use styles (free tutorial)
• How to use styles (blog post)
• PerfectIt
• Formatting in Word: Find and Replace (booklet containing raw-text tidy-up tips)
• Proofreading checklist (free PDF booklet, available when you sign up to The Editorial Letter)

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Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise discuss how long it takes to complete an edit – whether you’re doing it yourself or working with a professional – and how to plan ahead.
​
And check out the cheeky bloopers that Denise included of me messing up my words! I’ll get my revenge!

Click to listen to Episode 12

Summary of Episode 12
Listen to find out more about editing time in relation to:

• Word count
• Complexity of the project
• Level of editing being carried, including referencing, style-guide adherence and fact-checking
• Publishing imperfect written content
• Working with agents
• Collectives and agencies: fast turnaround, high quality
• The length of the editing day
• Scheduling editing in advance, and allowing time to deal with queries

Editing bites

• Self Publishing Journeys (podcast hosted by Paul Teague)
• ELT Teacher 2 Writer

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/