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As many of you already know, I will edit your writing quickly and professionally. If you are publishing on BC/TS the edit is done pro bono (I won't charge you). Work which is ultimately sold for a fee (Kindle, Nook, etc.) should be edited at a fee (negotiable). I have a web site at write-it-better.com which can visit and see what the charges might be. They would be negotiable for authors on the site.
djkauf
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my recent blog
I didn't do a good job of typing (or editing) my blog, The web site will not come and visit you; you can visit the web site. Mea culpa. I never said I'm a good typist.
djkauf
Giggle
... happy is the person that can laugh at themselves.
.. and it really is OK I am sure in this crazy text-speak world we are all pretty good at reading typo :)
For me - it is MUCH easier to spot other people's mistakes...
...than my own.
I do editing with the unacknowledged understanding that, if you want perfection, send your raw manuscript to [email protected] (and GOOD LUCK with getting a reply) - otherwise I am usually able to help spot errors and misused words.
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
Reticence in using an editor.
I've had a couple distasteful experiences with Editors. I do not like it when someone tears the heart out of my work and makes it theirs. It is not helpful to make my stories grammatically correct to the exclusion of culturally flavored dialogue.
I've had the experience of an American saying that Yankee English is the only correct spelling and sentence structure. However, it is clear to me that certain of my sentences are difficult to read, and do not flow well.
There are plans to publish about 3/4 of my stories for Kindle by September 2014. It bothers me that I am not one of the popular writers here, but I think it may be that is because I do not write to TG parameters, and my future work will be even less TG. It is not because I am hostile to TG folk, but I have written and talked about it enough to satisfy my need to do so.
So, where does this go from here, and do I need an editor? I do not know.
Gwendolyn
Dialog should be exempt.
When I write, I try my best to use good grammar and spelling. However, when writing dialog, I write the way people, or I should say, the characters talk. Sometimes that includes playing with the spelling to make the words sound the way their accent does. As and example... In parts of New England, people would say, "My caw won't start." Which some would maintain should be, "My cah won't start," or perhaps, "My ca won't start."
The narrative portions should be grammatically correct and spelled correctly.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
With a rebel Irish accent that might be...
..."Me fuken cair won't fuken stairt, now will it?"
Upper-crust British might be...
..."The Chauffeur is having a bit of botha with the Bentley."
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
A suggestion...
About awkward sentences. Read the paragraph they're in aloud. If you stumble while reading it aloud, as familiar as you are with your text, your reader will most likely stumble as well when reading it for the first time.
Also keep in mind that a good editor is not going to "tear the heart out of your work." They're trying to make your work the best it can be. Communication is very important during the editing process. If you disagree with an editor's change, ask them why they changed it. Additionally, you can tell them why you wrote it that way in the first place.
~And so it goes...
I agree 100%
with what you said Erica. When I edit, I only try to correct spelling and usage along with punctuation. I NEVER change anything regarding plot or the story itself without first having had lengthy conversations with the author/s.
I like to think that I do a very thorough and competent job of doing what I do, and several authors here on the site have told me that very thing. I am not as prolific as Dj, but who is? LOL When I edit, I do one story at a time and that story is the only one I work on until it's completed to the authors satisfaction. There has only ever been one time that a writer decided to go with a different editor and did so because she felt that the other editor suited her style better than I did, and that's fine by me.
I am not a professional and I don't have a college degree in the proper usage of the English language. What I DO have is a good eye and ear for what sounds or looks wrong and through years of reading, a discerning eye toward correct spelling. I never charge to edit for anyone and all I ask is an acknowledgment somewhere in the story, as an editor.
Thanks to everyone who does edit and make the stories more readable. You make this place a more pleasant one to come to and read.
Catherine Linda Michel
As a T-woman, I do have a Y chromosome... it's just in cursive, pink script.
Editing
I think I'll write my next story on my phone with autocrat turned on...