Sharon Honeycutt, Editor

You write. I edit. You shine.

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Dialogue: Let’s Make it Readable

January 20, 2016 /

When I’m editing fiction, I always pay close attention to dialogue because it’s tricky. I usually see it go one of two ways:

  1. The writer tries to make it too formal.
  2. The writer tries to make it too informal.

Pretty basic, huh?

I’m editing a book right now that falls into the first category. The writer uses no contractions in the the dialogue whatsoever. For example, “I cannot believe you have been to the store already. I did not think you would get it done that fast.” (I’m making these sentences up, but using the writer’s style to make my point.)

Read that dialogue out loud. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

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If You Write, You Should Read

January 7, 2016 /

You might be surprised to know how many times I ask myself, when I’m editing early drafts of books or books written by inexperienced (read “new”) writers, “Does this person read?” And I think you’d be surprised because I’m certain that in most cases, the answer is “Yes, I read. I read a lot!”

Writers need to read, and ideally, they should read a lot and from different genres. The more we read, the more we expose ourselves to different styles, different figures of speech, different ways of building a narrative, and different takes on perspective. Writers should be “forever” learners, and reading consistently is one way to continue learning.

If you’re a writer and you do read a lot, it’s possible I’m still asking myself that question I posed above as I’m working on your book. Why is that? Why isn’t your experience as a reader translating into your efforts to write?

One reason could be that you’re not reading as a writer. You’re reading for pleasure, or you’re reading to learn, but you’re not reading as a writer. You need to train yourself to do that. How, you ask?

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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

Editing a Series: Do We Have to Start with Book 1?

December 10, 2015 /

Once in a while, I get hired to edit the second or third book in a series that I’m not familiar with. This happens for lots of reasons. Sometimes the author doesn’t get the first book in the series edited at all and then discovers, post-publication, that they should have, and so they decide to make the investment with subsequent books.

Sometimes an author does hire an editor for the first book in a series, but that relationship doesn’t last. Maybe the editor and the author weren’t a good match for each other (because there is a bit of chemistry involved—you want your editor to “get” you), and the author has decided to go a different way. Or maybe the editor the author hired for the first book was great but is no longer in the business, and so the author has to find someone new.

Whatever the reason, it happens once in a while that I get hired to edit a subsequent book in a series without having read the first installment(s). Is that a problem? Yes and no. Here’s what I mean.

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