Sharon Honeycutt, Editor

You write. I edit. You shine.

Category: publishing

Editing Your Own Book: Good or Bad Idea?

August 18, 2016 /

I was reading a thread in the Absolute Write forum tonight where the OP (original poster, icydk) asked about others’ editing and revising processes once they finish their first drafts. I love this website and the forum there because there are always great ideas and new ways to do things. I almost always learn something.

I didn’t read all the responses to the question, but I did read probably the first ten to fifteen. They all gave ideas as to how to go about it, and some of them were really good. (My favorite from the responses was to open the first draft in one window and a new doc in a window beside it and just start rewriting. I don’t know if I’d ever go to that extreme—to start over completely—but I liked the idea. My preferred way is to print the whole book and go after it with a pen and highlighters. Then I head back to the laptop.)

What I didn’t see in those responses was “hire a professional editor.” You may ask, “Why was this?” Continue reading

Just Write the Book!

June 17, 2016 /

If you’re new to my site, you may not know that in addition to working full-time as an editor, I’m also a fiction writer. In 2014, I self-published my fourth novel, The Dragon’s Daughter, about the teenage daughter of a KKK grand dragon.

And since then, I’ve been rather stuck–in a variety of ways.

Last year I finished a novel, a ghost story set in Tennessee. I really like the concept of it, and I like my characters. The storytelling, though, well … that needs some work. Looking at it as an editor, I can tell that it has perspective (POV) issues. I need to sort out who my real protagonist is (which is extra hard in this story because the protagonist may actually be the character that I thought was the antagonist). I need to figure out who is going to tell the story best. Whose thoughts do I want my readers to be able to fully access–if anyone?

I need to rewrite the book. It’s definitely in first-draft stage. And I’m stuck. So I’ve left it alone for almost  a year, which is quite depressing as a writer and quite frustrating as an editor. The editor side of me is hogtied by the writer side of me who is just sitting on her hands.

To try to alleviate this version of writer’s block that I seem to be suffering with, I decided to work on a different, altogether new book. At this point, I’ve outlined two and have written about 12,000 words of a third. And I’m stuck.

After talking this out pretty thoroughly with my husband and my daughter, here’s what I’ve concluded (and I’m sharing it because I’m hoping it might help other writers out there feeling rather stuck as well): Continue reading

Share Your Writing Goals with Your Editor

December 28, 2015 /

If you’re searching for an editor for the first time, you may think all you need to do is hire someone and send them your book. If you don’t hire an experienced editor, that may be all they ask of you.

Please know, that’s not enough.

You need to hire an editor who feels like a partner to you, and one who views herself as your partner in making your book the best it can be. Partners need to work toward the same goal, which requires communication between the two of you about those goals. To help you communicate those goals to your editor, I’ve drawn up a list of things to think about. Continue reading

Hiring an Editor: An Investment You Won’t Regret

December 17, 2015 /

Have you ever read a best seller that contained a typo or two? Of course you have. We all have. Usually, that’s the extent of it–a missing word, a missing punctuation mark, a misspelling. Something small here or there that doesn’t really interfere with your reading or enjoyment of the story, but something that reminds you that human beings (who are fallible) put that book together.

Traditionally published books that land on the best-seller list are usually under the imprint of one of the Big 5 publishers. Not always, but usually. Those organizations staff professional editors and proofreaders to ensure their books are clean and free of mistakes, and yet … as we just discussed, they often aren’t. Even after several rounds of editing and proofreading (and I do mean SEVERAL), they often aren’t perfect.

Now, I want you to think about all the time you’ve put into your book. Continue reading

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