I do love a good proper noun. They can really anchor you in a particular time and place. 🎯 I don’t mean a ‘right good’ noun. I mean the kind of noun, identified by an initial capital, denoting a particular person, place or thing. 📅The novel I’m currently editing makes good use of proper nouns.Continue reading “Proper nouns. What are they and why are they important in novels?”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
How many words is your average edit?
📈 A positive of lockdown: I’ve increased my daily #editing word count. 🔢 Having just returned my second-longest manuscript to date two weeks ahead of schedule, I’ve done a bit of number crunching. 🔎 While I’m not ready to share my daily word count, I will tell you a bit about what I do throughContinue reading “How many words is your average edit?”
Stay home or stay at home? Is the preposition on its way out?
It’s really interesting to see how language is changing in the current #Covid19 crisis. The BBC news app tells us that people are being told to ‘stay home’. On the signs people have been making for their windows, you can see the appeal of the symmetry of STAYHOME four letters apiece. Anyone in the UKContinue reading “Stay home or stay at home? Is the preposition on its way out?”
March 23rd 2020. Puzzle book: top proofreading spots.
🔎 Today’s #proofreading spots are from a fascinating project I’ve been working on: a lateral-thinking puzzle disguised as a furniture catalogue. Errors shared with permission. ❌ inhance ➡️ enhance ✅ ❌ metalllic ➡️ metallic ✅ ❌ ubiqitous ➡️ ubiquitous ✅ ❌ fascimile ➡️ facsimile ✅ ❌ seperately ➡️ separately ✅ Problems like this can occurContinue reading “March 23rd 2020. Puzzle book: top proofreading spots.”
Should mum be capitalised? Should university be capitalised?
🔎 Mum or mum? University or university? In the manuscript I returned this weekend, one issue was the misplacement of capital letters in nouns such as the ones above. My client often opted for the uppercase option but that wasn’t always the correct call. ▪️Keeping mum Whether to use uppercase or lowercase depends on whetherContinue reading “Should mum be capitalised? Should university be capitalised?”
Proofreading stopped my panic attacks!
Between 2009 and 2017, on and off, I accessed support from primary health care for a generalised anxiety disorder. There were a few factors at play causing this, but one big one for me was feeling trapped by my employment circumstances. My mother-in-law once told me I was ‘institutionalised’! My path had taken me fromContinue reading “Proofreading stopped my panic attacks!”
Want a phone conversation to chat about your editing needs? That’s fine. And it’s also fine if you’d rather not!
We profess that email and messaging is so much more convenient than a phone call. But is it? I speak as someone who almost always uses email. But I had a business phone conversation this week and it was so successful that it has made me reflect. There’s a lot of to-ing and fro-ing withContinue reading “Want a phone conversation to chat about your editing needs? That’s fine. And it’s also fine if you’d rather not!”
I didn’t even know proofreading was ‘a thing’ when I was at school.
Did you even know your job existed when you were at school? 🤔 When I was at school, there were so many jobs that I didn’t even know existed. And it’s not because of technology. Some of these jobs have been around a long time. There are areas of study that I didn’t even knowContinue reading “I didn’t even know proofreading was ‘a thing’ when I was at school.”
How can I proofread without missing errors?
When I’m proofreading… 👇 👇👇 👇 👇 👇 I read like a small child. 🗣️ I read the words aloud. 🐢I read them slowly. 👆I follow along with my finger. I find this particularly helpful when reading sentences with a lot of two/three letter words in them. Our eyes can gloss over these allContinue reading “How can I proofread without missing errors?”
What’s the best place to live? Why, it’s by the sea!
“O ye! who have your eyeballs vexed and tired, Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;” John Keats got it right. Advice for our times. Moving from Leeds to Morecambe has done my mental (and physical) health a world of good. A friend of mine recently described living by the sea as being ‘goodContinue reading “What’s the best place to live? Why, it’s by the sea!”
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