Track Changes – Advanced A few months ago, I started my series on Track Changes in Microsoft Word for anyone who was struggling with this feature. Hopefully, it has been of use to an author or two. This is article is my last installment in this series and it centers on the options available to you when using this tool. As authors and editors,...
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Track Changes – Intermediate Last month I introduced Track Changes in Microsoft Word for anyone who needed a little extra instruction. I hope you’ve all been practicing! This month I’m going to delve a little further into some of the features Track Changes has to offer authors when tracking the changes made to their manuscripts by the various editors, readers, betas, and critique partners....
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Track Changes – The Basics A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I discovered track changes in Microsoft Word. What a wonderful feature! It allows collaborators to make changes to a document while preserving the original until a change is made permanent. The best part is that each collaborator’s revisions and comments are tracked separately and appear in a different color....
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What Stops Me In My Tracks When I’m Reading? As I’ve said before, I read a lot. Not nearly as much as I’d like—and much of what I read is unpublished manuscripts—but there is little that makes me happier than relaxing with a book that whisks me away to an exciting new world, a future time, or a distant land. You see, the life of...
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Editor Speak 101 – The Tools of the Trade Imagine if you will that you hired someone to mow your lawn and they showed up with a pair of hedge clippers. You would immediately know that they are using the wrong tool because you know a lawn mower is required to trim grass properly. Now you may not know how to use a lawn mower...
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Ten Things that Should Be in Your Writer’s Toolbox In today’s article I’m going to cover the specific books and programs you should have squirreled away in your writer’s toolbox. Of course there is MUCH more out there than what is listed here, but this is a list to get you moving in the right direction. Must-have Books –The Basics The Latest Version of The...
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Character Consistency How many times have you been reading something and out of nowhere there’s an odd change to a character that comes with no explanation? Nothing inconsequential, of course—something substantial, like eye color or body type or a huge personality change that goes unexplained? Are you the type of reader who would notice that sort of thing? As an editor, I have to be. During...
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What to Ask a Freelance Editor… Before You Hire Them Hiring the right editor to work on your book can be daunting. How do you know you’ve hired someone who has experience, shares your vision, and is just the right match? Some authors resort to the trial and error method, but that seems like a cumbersome way to get the job done. Many authors get...
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Point of View: Keeping Your Voices Distinct Most of the authors I know are women, and one of the biggest struggles I see with women authors is writing a realistic male character—or at least making the male protagonist’s voice distinctly different from that of his female counterpart. Too often there is little variation in voice or tone when the point of view changes from female lead...
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Five Reasons To Hire A Professional Proofreader Proofreading involves a lot more than some might think. Reading a manuscript and correcting typos and punctuation is part of the process, but it’s certainly not all of it. The biggest responsibility of the proofreader is the understanding that she is the last editor to touch the manuscript before the author signs off on the edits. And that’s...
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