As an editor, I like to send all manuscripts to my Kindle. If I read the document on a computer, it’s too easy for me to stop reading and make edits.  By using my Kindle, I can read anywhere (and for me that will often be in the bath!). I like to try and read a manuscript in as short a time as is possible, so I want to be able to focus just on the reading and on the story. That means removing all other distractions that might be available on my desktop or laptop. And because I can’t make notes in the document, I’m left with the limited options of highlighting on my kindle or taking notes on a pad of paper. This works well for me because each time I stop reading to make a note I’m taking myself out of the StoryWorld. If possible, I want to stay in there while I read, and if anything within the manuscript kicks me out of the StoryWorld (bad writing, unbelievable dialogue, plot inconsistencies) then I want to be aware of them, which is harder to do if I’m choosing to move in and out by taking notes.

Once you’ve written ‘The End’, on your manuscript, you’ve achieved something amazing, something many writers never manage – you’ve written a book! Congratulate yourself, celebrate with your beverage of choice, bask in the knowledge you did it! BUT – then comes the hard work. You’ve got to tidy that draft…

Before you started writing, did you think about what tense your novel would be in? Probably not, and that’s okay. If you didn’t consider it, you undoubtedly ended up writing in past tense, and there’s good reason for that. But there is a common error that a lot of beginner…

Does it seem odd, coming to an editor’s website to get tips on self-editing? After all, I get paid by writers to do this work, and yet here I am offering you advice for free! With my plot coaching and developmental editing clients, I often tell them that my goal…