Is the story on the page the same as the story in your head?  When you finish revision and final proofreading rounds, it is a good idea to give your finished manuscript a listen.  The process of listening to the narration highlights problems such as: 1. Smoothness of flow. 2. Awkward transitions between scenes or chapters. 3. Repetitive word usage. 4. Clunky, run-on, or repetitive dialogue and dialogue tags. 5. Missing and redundant information. 6. Awkward choreography of action scenes. 7. Boring passages. 8. Ratio of narrative versus dialogue and action. 9. Spelling and grammar errors. 10. Missing words. Unless you can bribe or coerce someone to read your story to you, there are several tools to do the task. Most of them are free, or free for the basic program. Some offer additional voices or functions at a cost. The "narrators" sometimes stumble over words, but it won't insert words that aren't there the way your mind fills in ...

This post was originally posted on June 7, 2017 Recently, I had to take a long road trip. I decided to proofread while my husband drove. By sending the document to my iPhone, I realized that seeing it on the smaller screen highlighted certain errors. It also gave me a feel for how the e-book version would look on a mobile device. 1. Save your document as a PDF from Word. If you do not have this option with your word processing program, you may be able to upload the word document itself or convert the word document through another source, such as Nuance PDF or Adobe online. 2. Email it to yourself. 3. Open the email on your phone. 4. Upload the PDF to iBooks or other PDF reader. Note: iBooks allows you to annotate. 4. Read and take notes. 5. Update your draft. Keep proofreading until you can't find any mistakes. It helps to have other people read the final draft as well. They catch things you cannot because you have read it so many times. ...

This was originally published June 5, 2017: I recommend proofreading your manuscript in multiple ways. Each method changes the way the document appears. Your eye catches different errors with each pass. After my final editing passes are done, I proofread my manuscripts at least twenty times before publishing them. You can: 1. Read it on Word or other word processing programs in several fonts. The Four Layers of Conflict The Four Layers of Conflict The Four Layers of Conflict 2. Read it on Word with ¶ "reveal codes" on to catch spacing and formatting errors. 3.Read it on Word with two page view. 4. Read it as a PDF document as a single page + page width. The print will be larger. 5. Read the PDF version again as "two pages up continuous" to see the flow between pages and how the paragraphs, images, etc. line up. Remember the side on the left is actually the odd pages that will appear on the right hand side of the printed book. A chapter s...

This post first published on September 20, 2016. We hope it helps you with your #NaNoWriMo2017 novel revisions! ~ Dani G. Photo by Ron Bieber  © 2006   ( Flickr ) I used to find it difficult to move on to writing the next chapter of a book until I had the previous chapter down solid. I used to write a draft, read it, then revise. Then I’d read the revision, feel something was still missing, and revise again. Thus began an endless loop of revisions, pursuing the illusion of a perfect chapter but making little progress on the book. What’s an obsessive writer to do? I’ve always refused to start with an outline because it makes me feel inhibited. My characters are unruly, and after just a few pages we’re wildly off-track. So I started my current novel based on a synopsis and a list of “things that might happen,” which I believed was a smaller time investment. But when I began revising each chapter ad-nauseum, I knew I was not saving time at all. Then I learned...

Recently, I had to take a long road trip. I decided to proofread while my husband drove. By sending the document to my iPhone, I realized that seeing it on the smaller screen highlighted certain errors. It also gave me a feel for how the e-book version would look on a mobile device. 1. Save your document as a PDF from Word. If you do not have this option with your word processing program, you may be able to upload the word document itself or convert the word document through another source, such as Nuance PDF or Adobe online. 2. Email it to yourself. 3. Open the email on your phone. 4. Upload the PDF to iBooks or other PDF reader. Note: iBooks allows you to annotate. 4. Read and take notes. 5. Update your draft. Keep proofreading until you can't find any mistakes. It helps to have other people read the final draft as well. They catch things you cannot because you have read it so many times. Especially if you self-publish, I recommend havi...

I recommend proofreading your manuscript in multiple ways. Each method changes the way the document appears. Your eye catches different errors with each pass. After my final editing passes are done, I proofread my manuscripts at least twenty times before publishing them. You can: 1. Read it on Word or other word processing programs in several fonts. The Four Layers of Conflict The Four Layers of Conflict The Four Layers of Conflict 2. Read it on Word with ¶ "reveal codes" on to catch spacing and formatting errors. 3.Read it on Word with two page view. 4. Read it as a PDF document as a single page + page width. The print will be larger. 5. Read the PDF version again as "two pages up continuous" to see the flow between pages and how the paragraphs, images, etc. line up. Remember the side on the left is actually the odd pages that will appear on the right hand side of the printed book. A chapter should always start on the printed right hand...

With shortened days, colder nights, falling leaves, and the approach of Halloween, it is time to crank up the horror genre. It just isn't October without a few good scares. I prefer psychological terror over grotesque or gore because it is what happens before the "Boo" that makes the "gotcha" delicious, but here are a few of my favorite classic horror reads: 1) Everything by Edgar Allen Poe. From the Tell-Tale Heart to the Cask of Amontillado , his stories have stuck with me over the decades. I still listen for the thump of a heart under the floorboards. 2) Stephen King, pick a title: Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Cell . They’re all chill-icious. His books have caused me several sleepless nights and a few near heart attacks. 3) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson was a fantastical, terrifying ghost story about a group of people drawn to Hill House for a psychological experiment that goes awry when it seems the house has possessed one ...

One hundred percent yes! In the olden days, when traditional publishers had a crew of talented editors aboard their ships, a writer had someone to suggest changes and to perform the final proof-reading. Nowadays, editors are being tossed overboard. If your book is traditionally published, your manuscript should get at least a cursory once-over if not three. However, being published by a big house is not a guarantee that your book will be solid or error-free anymore. Self-publishing means you must either: be a good editor, know and bribe a good editor, or hire one. Hiring an editor is tricky. Anyone with a fair grasp of English can hang out their shingle as an editor. If you decide to hire one, check their credentials. Ask for references. Do a criminal background check, just kidding, but only slightly. Search for them on the Preditors & Editors website: http://pred-ed.com. I highly recommend you have several people with some knowledge of craft go over your work. I'm no...