Sharon Honeycutt, Editor

You write. I edit. You shine.

Tag: writing (Page 5 of 6)

Editing Your Manuscript: Free Sample Edit

April 13, 2016 /

Now that you’ve had a chance to watch me begin the editing process on my first novel, it’s time to turn the tables. I hope that you learned a little from what I shared with you of that self-editing process. I intended to go longer with it, but the same mistakes kept cropping up, and I didn’t have much new to share.

So I thought, why not ask my readers to submit samples of their writing for a free edit–with the stipulations that I’ll do them as I have time and that I can share it all right here on my blog with the rest of the world so that we can all continue to learn together. Writing and editing are skills that evolve, so it never gets old and I never stop learning.

Here’s what I’m offering:

Send me an email with no more than your first 2,000 words INCLUDED IN THE BODY OF YOUR EMAIL. NO ATTACHMENTS. (You’ll benefit most from this if you send the FIRST 2,000 words–that’s what readers see when they crack open your book to decide if they want to buy it, and it’s what an agent sees when they are deciding whether or not to ask for additional pages.) Continue reading

Editing My First Novel: Learn from My Mistakes, Part 3

March 22, 2016 /

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’ve started the (painful) process of publicly editing a novel I finished in 2007. If you missed the first two parts, you can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. In Part 3, I’m going to talk about authenticity.

When I wrote this particular book, I was calling on my personal experience of working as a newspaper reporter for a small daily. I held the job for a little over three years, and I loved it. I worked several different beats, and I think I did a pretty good job of it. I’m sure that’s one of the reasons I made my main character a reporter. I could relate to her that way. (Write what you know and all …)

The problem was that I got lazy. Continue reading

Editing My First Novel: Learn from My Mistakes, Part 2

March 8, 2016 /

Last week I invited you to go along with me as I rip apart the first novel I wrote, which I finished way back in 2007. I’ve become a professional editor in the meantime, and I’ve finished three other novels since then too. I’ve learned a lot and have a lot to offer my clients, so I thought it would be interesting to shine the light on my own first effort. If you missed last week’s introduction to this, click here.

In my previous post, I talked about the perils of a backstory dump. On the third page–the THIRD page–of my book, I throw in a big one:

Continue reading

Editing My First Novel: Learn from My Mistakes, Part 1

March 1, 2016 /

Back in 2007 I finished my first novel, a time-travel romance set (mostly) in the Smoky Mountains. It’s pretty bad.

I was so excited when I finished it–and I should have been. I’d just written a book. That’s a cause worth celebrating. What I shouldn’t have done, however, was submit it to agents. But I did. I’ve lost count now of how many agents I queried, but I remember only a couple asked to see additional pages. It went nowhere other than into a drawer. Did I mention it was bad?

I thought it would be interesting to dig it out and take a look at it as an editor. Then I thought it would be interesting to share with you the problems I see with it and how I would recommend fixing them if a client had submitted this book to me.

I don’t know how many blog entries it will take to do this, but welcome to the first one.

Continue reading

Need to Hire an Editor? Write a Thorough RFP (Request for Proposals)

January 27, 2016 /

So you’ve written a book! Woo hoo! That’s truly exciting and something to take pride in. I’m a writer as well as an editor, so I totally get that rush of emotions you feel when you’ve finished this huge thing that has consumed your thoughts and your time and your patience and your caffeine and chocolate (and alcohol?) supply for months and months. It’s an accomplishment. Breathe. Take a walk. Or a jog. Or a nap.

And then think about how you want to approach the next step. You need to hire an editor. Why? I’m sorry to say it, but your book’s not done. You need another pair of eyes. You need someone who can find the plot holes, the inconsistencies, the incorrect grammar.

So where do you find an editor? Well, you’re here on my site, and I’m one, so … you’ve found one! But if you’ve looked at my site and you don’t think we’d be a good match, there are platforms out there that make it easy for you to connect with editors. Google is your friend here.

Regardless, though, of how you go about finding your editor, at some point, in some way, you need to be able to express your needs. Continue reading

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