Various publishers quote anything from £400.00 - £1,000 to edit a novel because it is a very time consuming business.  Ebook IT Press editing is free and that is why we expect submitted manuscripts to be written in a professional manner and will reject all submissions requiring intensive re-writing.

Below are a few of the most common mistakes and suggestions on how to rectify them.

Please do check your document to eliminate the following basic errors.

Incorrect punctuation in speech:

“It’s raining again.” Laura said.

“It’s raining again.” Said Laura.

 Both of the statements above are incorrectly punctuated.

“It’s raining again,” Laura said. -  “It’s raining again,” said Laura.  That is the correct punctuation.

All speech ends with a comma before the closing speech marks when followed by lowercase: he said, she, said, she asked, he replied Joe said.

Even for a question the same rule regarding using a lower case letter after speech applies. (“Where are you going?” asked Mary.) (“Where are you going?” she asked.).

Imagine going through every sentence of a novel to correct the speech punctuation and you will appreciate just how time consuming it would be.

SHOW NOT TELL

When writing a story we have a natural inclination to tell the reader what is happening instead of showing them.

This is Tell

John, found a fifty-pound note wedged underneath the railings of the park and quickly picked it up and put it in his pocket.

An old woman who looked as though she had been crying asked him if he had seen a fifty-pound note, which she must have dropped. She told him it was her rent money and could not afford to replace it.

John felt sorry for her and gave her back the money he’d found, and the old woman’s smile of gratitude was all the thanks he needed.

Although this tells us what has happened, we want to be shown as it happens. We want to know what our here or heroine thinks says or does, and the old lady’s response.

This is show

John was taking a shortcut through the park when he saw the fifty-pound note. It had somehow become wedged beneath the bottom rail of the green iron railings.

       No, it can’t be, he thought, picking it up, but it was. He could hardly believe his luck and slipped the note in his pocket. He was so engrossed with deciding on what to spend the money on that he almost walked into an old woman who clutched at his sleeve.

       “Excuse me,” she said, her eyes red rimmed. “I’ve lost my rent money somewhere along here.” She pointed along the path they were standing on. “You haven’t found a fifty-pound note have you? I had it a just few minutes ago.”

       Just my luck, John thought, removing the banknote and handing it to her. “It was caught beneath the railings back there,” he said.

       She took it from him and gave him such a warm smile that his chagrin at being parted from the money vanished. He stood and watched her hurry off and pictured her smile again.

       You can’t buy a smile like that for a hundred, let alone fifty-quid, he thought. Humming to himself, he continued on his way.

This is Tell

Charlotte was furious and warned him not to do it again.

This is Show

“Don’t you ever do that again, or you’re out!” Charlotte raged, eyes narrowed and jabbing him in the chest with her forefinger.

Get inside your characters skin and let the reader experience what they: do, feel, hear, see, smell and think. Not all at the same time but, use your main character’s senses to bring the scene alive and it also helps the reader, who has the same senses to relate sympathetically to our protagonist.

Point of View

Decide who is the most important person in each chapter; usually it’s the person with most to lose.  He or she will be your main protagonist and everything that happens must be told through that person’s eyes.

Your protagonist can only know the things that happen elsewhere if he is made aware of them by being told, or reading about them. Neither can he know what other characters are thinking just as they cannot know his thoughts.

Sometimes it may be necessary to switch scenes and to the POV of another protagonist midway through a chapter. Leave a double line break, when writing in single spaced line format, or in the case of double line format, a double, double space.

It is this technique that brings the person you have created to life and allows the reader to suspend belief by accepting your character as being real. They must not only be made to follow your character’s, trials and tribulations that will lead to the satisfactory outcome, but also be made to care enough about your character to want to know what happens.

Remember, our character cannot know what they have not seen, heard, read, or been told about.

 Alan looked at her and smiled. “That’s up to you,” he said. If only you knew what I know, he thought.

       Helen stared at him for a moment, she was unsure of how to reply. “You don’t mind?”

       “No, if that’s how you feel you go to him, but don’t come running back to me when you’re up the stick and he’s done a runner.”

       “Josh isn’t like that, he loves me …”

       “Just the same as he loves his wife and kids?” Alan rammed the point home and was pleased to see the colour drain from her cheeks.

       Helen stared at him but could see from Alan’s face that he was telling the truth.

       Mary, seeing her best friend was devastated came and put an arm around her. “Why don’t you push off Allan, you scumbag,” she said. “At least Josh doesn’t smack her around.”

What’s wrong with that? Well we have three people talking and each one of them has a point of view and it’s impossible, therefore, for the reader to know which one of them is the main protagonist.

If it’s Alan only he should have a POV and the story told from his perspective.

Alan looked at her and smiled. “That’s up to you,” he said. If only you knew what I know, he thought.

       Helen stared at him for a moment as though she was unsure of how to reply. “You don’t mind?”

       “No, if that’s how you feel you go to him, but don’t come running back to me when you’re up the stick and he’s done a runner.”

       “Josh isn’t like that, he loves me …”

       “Just the same as he loves his wife and kids?” Alan rammed the point home and was pleased to see the colour drain from her cheeks. Helen stared at him in shock but he saw the realisation the he’d spoken the truth in her eyes. but could see from Alan’s face that he was telling the truth.

       Mary, Helen’s seeing her best friend was devastated came and put an arm around her. “Why don’t you push off Allan, you scumbag,” she said. “At least Josh doesn’t smack her around.”

From Helen’s POV:

Alan looked at her and smiled. “That’s up to you,” he said. If only you knew what I know, he thought.

       Helen stared at him for a moment, she was unsure of how to reply. “You don’t mind?”

       “No, if that’s how you feel you go to him, but don’t come running back to me when you’re up the stick and he’s done a runner.”

       “Josh isn’t like that, he loves me …”

       “Just the same as he loves his wife and kids?” Alan shot back. .rammed the point home and was pleased to

       Helen felt the colour drain from her cheeks and stared at him in shock, but saw from the sneer on Alan’s face that he was telling the truth.

       Her best friend Mary, came and put an arm around her. “Why don’t you push off Allan, you scumbag,” she said. “At least Josh doesn’t smack her around.”

One of the most common fiction writing mistakes is the: ‘She/he did not notice the man standing at the bar glance furtively in their direction…’

            ‘She was so upset she did not notice the shooting stars streaking over  the ….’

If they did not notice something - they cannot tell us about it.

Creating Believable Characters.

To achieve this we must know our character intimately. We must know their hopes, fears, and most intimate secrets and desires, or at least write as though we do.

        Many of us create characters based on the personalities of people we know or have read about; the secret is to ensure that we change our character in such a way that the source of our inspiration could never recognise themselves if they read our work. We can change the sex, the irritating habit of the drumming fingers on a table could become the tapping of a foot etc. 

        Always give your characters a personality defect because we all have them. For instance someone who is usually fair minded and pleasant could equally well occasionally lose their patience and make a hurtful rebuttal, which would be followed by an apology. It is techniques such as these, giving our characters typical and common traits that are the flesh and blood of our creation.

Remember, events in a story that happen where your character is not present are best revealed to your character either in dialogue, or they read about.

The policeman met her gaze and she knew by his expression that it was bad news.

        “He’s dead, isn’t he,” she cried.

        “I’m sorry, Mrs Thompson,” he said. “We found his body on the beach. He appears to have drowned. His foot was trapped in a fishing-net. Have you any idea why your husband would be swimming in the sea at night?”

Mrs. Thompson has to be told how her husband died and preferably by showing us not by telling us.

Rather than the lifeless:- The policeman told her that her husband’s foot had been caught in the fishing net and wanted to know why he had been swimming in the sea at night.

Dialogue brings the scene to life.

Once you are satisfied that you manuscript is correct then follow the submission