|
|
The Redwood Writers' motto is Writers Helping Writers, and to further that goal, the branch has held several workshops in 2008. For information on a particular workshop, please click on the appropriate link; othewise, enjoy reading about all of these wonderful events.Poetry Workshop with Armando Garcia Davila, Geri Digiorno, and Juanita MartinEditing and Publish on Demand Workshop with Marlene Cullen and Danny Snow Revising and Editing Your Manuscript with Jordan Rosenfeld The Final Stages of Editing – A Workshop with Susan Bono Correcting Technical Errors with Georgia Hughes Poetry Workshop Juanita J. Martin with Armando Garcia-Davila. The Redwood Writers January 6th general meeting was well attended with an excellent review and discussion of poetry. The poetry workshop addressed the issue of “Why write poetry?” Juanita Martin hosted the event at the expanded venue we tried out for the first time - the Petaluma Senior Center. She kicked off the workshop with an exercise on writing poetry. Next, Martin introduced Armando Garcia Davila who talked about the Sonoma County poetry slams and prose. He related to the audience the frustration and difficulty in getting a first draft out. He empathized that “It is hard to get started,” but implored us to just do it! Davila said writing is not easy or else everyone would be doing it. In terms of his poetry he related, “Some poems never seem to get finished; some poems never gel.” He left us with an encouraging note of stick-to-it as we write that for which we feel most passionate. Martin introduced Geri Digiorno, former Poet Laureate of Sonoma County, next. Digiorno told us that writing literally saved her life. It provided her with an outlet to “get it all out.” While soliciting feedback on your poetry, Digiorno wanted us to make sure that the poem we write remains ours, not theirs. She said we can write about anything and suggested we write a little bit each day and “before you now it you'll have a book.” Digiorno closed with the statement that, “All you need to do is write. Just keep doing it!” Editing and Publish on Demand Workshop www.thewritespot.usMarlene Cullen (photo by Terry Hankins) January 19th brought us our second workshop of the month and the first in a series of four focused on editing. The Petaluma Senior Center was once again utilized and another excellent interactive session was facilitated by Marlene Cullen and Danny Snow. Marlene Cullen, local writing coach and leader of Writers Forum, helped us understand the need for editing. Danny Snow of UP Publishing talked about Print-on-Demand (POD) opportunities for aspiring writers. A free copy of his book he co-authored with Dan Poynter was provided for all attendees as well. Cullen began the session by highlighting the objective of the editing process, which is to make the author look good. The role of the editor is to make writers look better to the reader. She also stressed that the author is actually the first editor, since each wordsmith must write it and then edit it. Cullen shared some insights gleaned from Stephen King who writes that revising is the taking out of what is not part of the story. King also equates the second draft to be the first draft less ten percent. Another point of view is what good editors offer an author. They help the author shape the work. Cullen also encourages all writers to participate in a writing group. Participants must have good chemistry and authors should avoid people who do not provide a good balance of pros and cons for your written piece. Cullen addressed the question as to why an editor is needed if a critique group is working for the author. The answer, in part, is that editors correct inconsistencies in the story and they help with your professionalism by ensuring the author’s work is “polished and perfect.” Cullen identified the wide range of editors available, such as newsroom editors, copy editors, content editors, and development editors, to name a few. Copy editors comb the story for line-by-line grammatical errors, punctuation mistakes, spelling errors, and more. Content editors look for good transitions throughout the story and will rearrange parts of the story to make it more readable. Cullen considers herself a developmental editor, a role she likens to a coach or personal trainer. As she edits a story, Cullen looks for a good plot, theme, character development, and setting. It is the job of the editor to add the frosting on the cake, the last ten percent of the story that makes it sweeter for the reader. A lively Q&A ensued which brought out a few more good points as follows:  www.u-publish.com/media.htmDanny Snow (photo by Rob Koslowsky) After a brief break, Danny Snow took over and talked about self-publishing. He suggested that authors could both publish with a conventional publisher AND self-publish. Snow says it is up to the author to prove the appeal of your work through book sales. As a successful self-publisher, each author builds his or her reader base while obtaining good reviews to establish credibility. Snow pointed out that in the U.S., 50,000 new copyrights are obtained by the major publishing houses annually, but only five percent were actually published. Furthermore, these relatively few books took 12 to 18 months to hit book stores. Of these, only ten percent met their advance targets. On top of that, many lapsed into out of print (OOP) status. This state of affairs does not sound very encouraging. On top of that, there remain only seven large publishers in the world, and they are looking for the next Harry Potter, a book that can sell hundreds of thousands of copies. So what is a budding author to do? Snow advocates a Self-Publish on Demand (SPOD) approach to publishing for authors. Part of this approach is the reduced time to market with a book able to be published in 90 days or less after a final, well edited, manuscript is ready. Another value is the low cost to do it. It no longer costs thousands of dollars to publish a book. Furthermore, the author retains editorial control and makes more money in the process. Instead of maybe making $2 per book fos a 200 pp. paperback that would retail for $20 by taking the conventional route, a SPOD author can bring in between $4 to $9 per book, depending upon the business model established, from web order fulfillment to selling at author events, respectively. Snow suggested some value-added marketing approaches too. Try presenting a customized book package for new target markets you are trying to reach. For example, on a copy of your book put the company logo of the prospect you want to place a bulk order for your book. It is a great one-to-one marketing approach to capture special sales. In fact, Snow reported that the more lucrative book markets are found beyond the book stores and libraries. The American Booksellers Association (ABA) estimated that there are ten times more outlets for books than book stores and these other markets now make up an $11 billion market. Other SPOD companies are appearing such as Lulu, Blurb, Cafe Press, and Create Space to improve the business model even more for authors. Snow says their value add is found in the author never having to handle an inventory of their own books, worry about paperwork, or go to the post office and mail copies out. Companies like Lulu do all of this (www.lulu.com) and in most cases, the author can make $10 per book. This is something to look into. After an author has his or her work in the hands of a capable SPOD company, the readers can be targeted in three key areas: on the web, through live events, and in specialty stores. The web is a renewable resource in that any author can find many folks and sell to them directly. Spend 5 to 10 hours each month and e-mail people and companies who may be interested in your book. Snow stated that “You do not sell if you do not promote.” It is important to drive readers from your web site to your book and conversely, to drive readers from your book to your web site. In all of your marketing, create an event such as a seminar or workshop for the benefit of the audience. People resist going to a book signing or a reading since the focus is then on the author and not on the reader. Snow wrapped up his talk by presenting all attendees with a copy of his book, customized with the new RWC logo on the back cover. What a nice touch and only 25 in existence. Check out the book, less the RWC logo, here: www.writersbookcase.com Submitted by Robert Koslowsky Revising Your Manuscript Workshop Photo by Rob Koslowsky Jordan Rosenfeld, author of two books for writers, Make a Scene, and Write Free, and contributing editor to Writer's Digest magazine, helped reinforce in our minds what is needed to begin that all-important process of revision. The workshop was meant to happen, in spite of the weather, since the rain ceased and gave all attendees an opportunity to arrive at and leave from the workshop without the need of an umbrella. The expanded room size was ideal for this week’s larger audience attending this second workshop in the series of four. Rosenfeld opened the meeting with an exercise from her new book co-written with Rebecca Lawton Write Free: Attracting the Creative Life, to get everyone in the right frame of mind to think about the process of revision—ideally to combat self-sabotaging habits and techniques. That done, the audience of writers related to the sentiment, expressed by another RWC member in a previous presentation, that revision "feels like beating up an old friend." Rosenfeld quipped, "Revision is where violence should be allowed." Writers must create space between their first draft and the point at which they settle down to revise their work. Then they take the necessary steps to cut out the superfluous parts of the story with a dispassionate attitude of objectivity. As Deborah Taylor-French remarked, "Revision is like sculpture." The "Olympic rules" of revision were presented next. Rosenfeld’s golden rule tells writers to allow distance of at least a week between themselves and their first draft. A month is better, and "if you’re bad at revision, just wait a year." The idea is to "let your work breathe," just like a fine wine, because this inevitably helps lead a writer closer to objectivity. Rosenfeld suggested that authors might want to take less time on shorter pieces than they would on a novel -- time away to allow the writer to decompress and return to chop away the underbrush choking the sweeping branches of the story. Regardless of what works for each person, writers must have support and encouragement from the people in their lives and should strive to seek out likeminded people. The silver rule is to edit in waves, or in stages. Rosenfeld had her own suggestion of an order of waves, but admits that each person will need to go with what works for them. This mindset ensures the process of revision is a doable thing and circumvents the writer's likely feeling of overwhelm when beginning the process. Rosenfeld also encouraged each writer to find his or her strengths, be they structure, dialog, or character. Then find others who will review the work and complement the areas where he or she needs further development. The bronze rule is to have the author take a short inventory of every scene in their work—short annotations, which in essence is the following: what is happening in the scene, to whom, why, and the resulting consequences. These snapshots are important to make sure every single scene is relevant to the larger plot/premise of the piece. Discussion ensued around this rule for nonfiction and fiction writers. Nonfiction writers must consider scenes even though they deal with the constraints of truth, since non-fiction relies upon facts, real events, memories and personal histories. There is room for scene for every writer, although fiction writers have tremendous license to build a scene since, in essence, all the necessary ingredients can be made up. Rosenfeld asked the audience to consider the big picture first, or what she called the "Macro-Cosm." First, get the structural problems out of the way: plot, and character development, to name a couple. Leave the revision of the story’s language to the end, since the author will likely have to change the language later anyway. Plot is a major structural element to shore up. In nonfiction, the writer must ensure there is a clear premise or thesis that answers the question, "Why is this being written?" Nonfiction writers must make meaning out of a seemingly random set of "after the fact" experiences. Such writing must both entertain and enlighten. The writer must fulfill the promise of taking the reader on a journey. The great writer is the one who achieves this and leaves the reader wanting to read more of his or her work. Fiction writers need to edit their plots on a scene-by-scene basis. The Big 7 publishers are looking for, as Karen Batchelor offered, "a bang and the bank." This means that commercial success requires a book’s first chapter to start off with action, and preferably, with some kind of engaging hook. The theater metaphor was explored. The action takes place on the stage. Each new scene is like the curtain rising all over again—whatever happens once the curtain rises, is the next scene. To qualify as a scene, action must occur which allows the reader to experience a sense of real time passing, and which has significance to the plot. In many cases the original first chapter of a draft is revised into oblivion or will need drastic changes. It may no longer fit as the novel undergoes the editing process. Scene is the container of space and time holding characters interacting in a way that leads to consequences for them. And it is the subject of Rosenfeld's book, Make a Scene, for anyone who still doesn't quite grasp its concept and usage. There must be limited time for the scene to unfold and the elements of the five senses should be integrated. The oft used "show, not tell" guideline was invoked to reinforce the point that readers respond to a visual and visceral experience, more so than when they read one that is flatly narrated in exposition. Rosenfeld shared that an easy formula for fiction writers seeking one is a three-Act structure. Any novel can be broken into thirds. The first part is the setup where characters are introduced, questions raised, obstacles erected, foreshadowing introduced, and readers are wondering (in a good way) where the story is going. The reader is hooked. The second part is where the plot becomes more complex, the characters undergo more complications, and consequences result from these complications. The story flows as the plot is effectively moved along. The third and final part of the story is where things become clearer and start to get resolved, some final complications appear, and ultimately the climax and resolution are achieved. Plot is a series of incidents and consequences, all of which must be coherently related. Each new scene must build upon the previous scene. The reader must experience something new. As Harry Potter readers began to wonder, "Is Snape good or bad?" Voice is another major element of a story and the revision process must ensure a consistent voice. It is a combination of syntax and language that expresses the character’s personality and beliefs. Voice should be expressed no matter the point of view of the character. Characters must "leap off the page." Rosenfeld suggested a checklist when revising for voice: attitude, prejudices, fears (and/or obsessions), and neuroses (and/or quirks). The art is in how these characteristics are communicated to the reader. Rosenfeld claimed to be "an analogy whore." She encouraged us to spin the story in a way that captures the reader and draws them in. The acid test is when the dialog among characters is true to who they are. "Conversation is dialog’s greatest hit," a quote that highlights the power of dialog to reveal character and relay plot (fiction) or the premise (nonfiction). Authors must remain vigilant and internally listen to make sure voice is consistent throughout the writing. Agents have told Rosenfeld that what sells them on a manuscript is a great voice. She cited examples from George Pelecanos' novel Drama City, Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, and for non-fiction: Jackie Lyden's memoir Daughter of the Queen of Sheba. The session wrapped with an excellent Q & A. In bringing this summary to a close, a few other resources are listed below for the reader to explore: - To appreciate writing on a sentence level, read Sharp Teeth, a novel written in poetic verse by Toby Barlow: www.calendarlive.com/books/la-et-book26jan26,0,2323318.story - For fiction or nonfiction writers get the book Getting the Words Right by Theodore Rees Cheney: http://www.writersstore.com/product.php?products_id=2877 - For fiction writers, another solid reference book is Between the Lines by Jessica Morrell: http://www.writing-life.com/books/info.html - Jordan Rosenfeld and information about her services may be found through her website: Note that "Write Free: Attracting the Creative Life," Rosenfeld's new book with Rebecca Lawton can be purchased here: www.writefree.us/events.html Submitted by Rob Koslowsky. Reviewed and approved by Karen Batchelor and Jordan Rosenfeld. The Final Stages of Editing – A Workshop Photo by Rob Koslowsky Susan Bono continued the trend for delivery of outstanding workshops with her presentation on Feb 2, 2008. She billed her session as "Diamond Cutting: The Final Stages of Editing." Bono talked about the rules of editing, identified some rules famous writers broke, and suggested that hard and fast rules do not always apply. The suggestion was made that writers remain aware of what they’re writing and consider use of the human senses to shape the story effectively. Bono says writing and editing is a challenge. We do it all the time. How do we explain our art? Each of us is operating at different levels of development and each of us has unique skill sets. We must write and rewrite. As Bono says, "Writing is just continuous editing." It boils down to choices. Bono implored us not to become discouraged over the length of time it takes to edit or the tediousness of the process, saying, "You’re not alone. We all suffer." She highlighted a number of examples of famous writers who endured the process of editing. Tolstoy rewrote War and Peace (1865 - 1869) five times in long hand. Hemingway rewrote the last page of Farewell to Arms (1929) thirty-nine times. In fact, after many rewrites, the writer becomes quite intimate with his or her story. Bono is not a fan of Hemingway’s work based on the example she cited, Farewell to Arms, since he uses weak verbs, excessive repetition, and eighteen simple sentences in the piece. In contrast, Bono shared a piece by Edgar Allan Poe, which included 58 words in a single sentence. Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher makes good use of punctuation so it can be easily read aloud without losing one’s breath. His writing is like a rhythmic tolling of a bell. It is not snappy like Hemingway’s piece. Bono reminded us that our own voice is bound up in the sentence structure we choose to use. This becomes our style. In another example, Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (2003), showed that success in writing doesn’t mean all the rules of writing need to be followed. Chapter 3 was selected and problems with highlighted bits included tense changes - from past to present - within the same paragraph, a specific date given in the opening sentence for no reason, no rationale provided for revealing the women’s pregnant condition, the gestation period makes no sense - greater than 9 months, and so on. Although the raw power of the chapter is good, the poor writing and inconsistencies take away from the pleasure of reading it. From an editorial viewpoint, Fuller’s disjointed chapter 3 possesses poorly done beginning and ending transitions. Write to Your Audience Bono implored us to write to our audience. There is no one standard to follow. Aim your words at your readers. As a matter of fact, ask yourself, "Who is your typical reader?" For this exercise, I answered the question as follows: "They are people seeking information about a technical topic that is both educational and enlightening. They attend because the description or experience is entertaining and delivers information that enables. My writing cuts through conventional wisdom and sets the record straight." To narrow the focus even more, Bono asked me another question regarding who in this broad group, "…would become the president of your fan club?" Once done, this person becomes your ideal reader. The writer must address what this reader wants. The reader wants an emotional connection. Give it to them. Imagine the reader eagerly awaiting your work, just like all of the Harry Potter readers. This is motivating in itself. Readers want validation, community, and a sense of identity from the writer. Give it to them. To achieve this connection with the reader, the writer must be conscious of the five ‘Ws’ in his or her writing as well as the ‘now.’ Note that there is a ‘now’ about everything we write. The writer may move backward or forward from the now but must ensure the reader can follow. Bono pointed out that personal essays are often written from the point of view of the present self (the writer ‘now’) looking back on a former self. The Human Senses and Writing Building on an idea expressed during the first editing workshop (facilitated by Marlene Cullen), Bono asked us to consider writing and the human senses, "Writers have their sound (style) and their sense (content)." Bono claims to be auditorially inclined. This means sounds and vision are critical to her editing process and these elements can be applied to ours as well. Bono suggests use of the "sound of our work as part of the editing process." Try reading your writing out loud to someone. Do you fascinate them? Do you at least impress yourself? As Bono said, "Our thoughts come in units of breathing." So, please read out loud to hear how it sounds. You can even record it and play it back if there is no audience to hear. For Macintosh computer users consider getting Recorder 5 to do this: www.xheadsoftware.com/recorder_xhead.asp or use the following program for PCs: www.tucows.com/preview/288670. In addition to sound, consider using sight during the editing process. Lay out your manuscript. Are the chapters of consistent length? Is a short paragraph being used for effect or is it short because the writer is hiding from an issue? If a paragraph is too long, consider tightening it up. Symmetry and balance are pleasing to most readers. Take notice of where the middle of the paragraph, chapter, or story falls. Be sure to keep your attention on the main character and the plot, not on a number of "characters on the bus" to the detriment of the main players. If you use an outline or table of contents, see if there is balance. Use your eyes. Taste is another sense that can be used to savor, and in some cases, savage your manuscript. Is the flavor dense or sparse? Funny or serious? Full with dialog or lacking in dialog? Loaded with more scene than summary? Bono suggested the ratio of scene to summary should be greater. Jordan Rosenfeld would be nodding her head to this assertion. Touch is the fourth sense to consider. Keep the reader oriented in time and space. People are primarily living on the physical plane. The story needs to be tethered to the ‘now.’ Do not lose the reader. Maintain verb tenses and provide solid transitions. This makes the writing feel good to the reader. Smell rounds out our tour of the senses. Is everything in your writing fresh? First, dump the clichés. Cut out the weak verbs such as ‘was’ or ‘go,’ but don’t annoy the reader by being too tricky. Watch out for the word ‘it.’ Eliminate the overused word ‘that.’ Kill the word ‘went.’ For example, instead of writing "I went to the store," try writing "I drove to the store." A fragrance is preferred to an odor permeating your writing. Alas, this was not to be a high school English class and some great references were suggested instead (see below). To sum up, be critical of your sentence structures since they define your work and become your voice. As Bono intoned, "Remember to kill your darlings," and get on with some great writing. Other resources for writers include the following: "Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English" by Patricia T. O'Connor. www.grammarphobia.com/books_woe.html "Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew" by Ursula K. Le Guin. www.storycirclebookreviews.org/reviews/steering.shtml "The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition" by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. www.profitadvisors.com/style.shtml"The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers" by Betsy Lerner. www.amazon.com/Forest-Trees-Editors-Advice-Writers/dp/1573228575
Susan Bono’s Tiny Lights web site is found here: Copyediting and Proofreading – A WorkshopGeorgia Hughes delivered the fourth and final of our series of workshops with her presentation on Feb 9, 2008. Hughes’s background is in the areas of proofreading, copyediting, and engaging in the tough work of editing. She is an editorial director at New World Library based in Novato, California, a company that began thirty years ago. Hughes works primarily in the area of non-fiction, but the fact that authors are always trying to tell a story transcends the non-fiction genre – in any genre there is always a need for rooting out bad language, eliminating passive voice, and amputating dangling modifiers. The mid-morning session began on an incredibly warm sunny day, a stark contrast to the previous workshops held on rainy days. The beautiful weather likely steered many registrants away from the Novak Center. In spite of the distraction afforded by Mother Nature, attendance was good and the session interactive. Hughes differentiated copyediting from proofreading as the former is making hard decisions for the writer [1] while the latter is correcting obvious errors not open to interpretation. Spell check can be a friend or a curse, consequently, Hughes told us to use it sparingly, "And don’t let MS Word tell you how to structure your sentences either." The session was billed as "Correcting Technical Errors" and attendees confronted the challenge of dealing with bad words and phrases in their writing. Hughes suggested writers avoid falling back on buzzwords such as "text messaging" or "texting." Avoid clichés and popular or current language. When reading your work over, try viewing it with the eye of a copy editor and think hard about the words selected. Hughes quipped, "Don’t use words your grandma wouldn’t recognize." Such words will isolate the potential appeal of your writing. Words Hughes avoids include "impact" and "utilization." Impact is a noun that has become a verb while utilization, like impact, sounds pretentious. She said to cut out the use of very and so. Phrasing was not immune to the wrath of the copyeditor either. "That is" may be how we think and speak, but we shouldn’t use it in writing. Keep away from "There are" and "It seems to be" too. Other phrases Hughes sees are ones with lots of words that say nothing, such as "It is important that you should know…" and "I want you to understand…" The author needs to pay attention to subject-verb agreement and changing tenses during the process of revision. Watch out for these errors in your writing. Sentences became the next target for Hughes’s editing prowess. The first idea to consider was the "unpacking of sentences." One tip is to avoid comma splices when used to join two complete sentences together as one. Another sentence tip is to kill repeating words. The reader views the writing as weak and the author lazy when the same word is used over and over. Besides, the offending word loses its
After suggesting a few of these tips a number of handouts were provided and we began exercises in editing passages. One exercise featured how the transition from copyediting to typesetting is done. Copyeditors use codes to help the typesetter produce the book and the handout provided an example of a style sheet. Each author should produce his or her own style sheet to ease the transition from copyediting to typesetting. As Hughes clarified, "the style sheet primarily serves the author for keeping track of details, such as name spellings (and when the name is first used), dates, and other details that should remain consistent throughout the book. Another exercise helped authors do a better job spotting dangling modifiers, recognizing passive voice [2], and eliminating weak writing in general. Weak writing includes the extensive use of "is" and "was" verbs, an indication that passive voice is being used. One last exercise featured the review of a published book. It showed an extensive copy edit with 2 ½ pages of queries. How could a piece of writing be so poorly written and still get published? It is because the author has a platform and a large following that buys her books. However, because the author’s draft contains so many ideas and makes the assumption that the readers know a lot, a large number of structural changes and further background information were needed. In such cases a developmental editor may be needed first. Many experts and celebrities will hire a ghostwriter and a development editor [3] to get a book in shape. The development editor helps develop the idea and structure of the book and then the copy editor assists with the pacing of the paragraphs and the sentences. Throughout this exercise, cautions were given against declarative sentences and run on sentences. Writers need to be conscious of the foundation of writing – subject, verb, and object. Like Susan Bono before her, Hughes invoked the writing of Hemingway. However, the perspective given was Hemingway’s aversion to adverbs. "Weed those out and kill clauses too." Hughes wrapped up the workshop about editing by suggesting the role of the editor is to "Try to convey the thought better." The role of the writer is to get that thought written down by writing a great story. Keep on writing and then practice self-editing after getting it all down on paper. Once you become a famous author, someone else will help you edit. Notes: [1] As Marlene Cullen told us in the first workshop, copyediting involves line-by-line checking for grammar, punctuation, spelling, formatting and consistency such as checking facts; is it likely someone would travel from Mill Valley to Oakland across the Golden Gate Bridge? Proofreading, on the other hand, involves looking at the manuscript for typos, misspellings and inconsistencies in spellings or capitalizations. [2] This piece has too much passive voice, about 12 percent, according to the Word program. The reading level is at grade 9.4 too. Every writer that uses the MS Word program can set the preferences pane to reveal this information (check "show readability statistics" in the "spelling and grammar" section). Then complete a "spelling and grammar" run in the "Tools" drop down menu and the results will be displayed. Thanks to Ann Wilkes for pointing out this feature of MS Word. [3] According to Marlene Cullen, the Developmental Editor acts as coach or personal trainer, looking for continuity, discrepancies, clarity, and overall story development in terms of character, setting, plot, theme, and point of view. Once these areas are addressed, the manuscript is ready for copyediting. Other resources for writers include the following: "Chicago Manual of Style." Chicago: university of Chicago Press, 2005. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html "Copyediting: A Practical Guide," by Karen Judd. Crisp Learning, 2001. According to one review, "The book is filled with sound, practical advice if you wish to become an effective copyeditor. In addition to being a comprehensive guide to the real world of copyediting and publishing, sections on diction and style answer practical questions not addressed in other copyediting books." http://www.editcetera.com/ offers online and other classes for writers. They have excellent instructors as well as editor referral services. Georgia Hughes's web site is found here: http://www.newworldlibrary.com/ |