What I do for writers
On one end of the spectrum, my work for writers ranges from light to heavy edits of their finished work.
At the other end, I undertake manuscript critiques to suggest how book concepts might be further developed. That’s a wide range of book doctoring, I know, but virtually all editing issues fall between those two extremes.
Thus, like a family doctor, I offer a full range of interventions – from suggesting minor variations in grammar and style
to probing more deeply for story development opportunities while looking for roadblocks to acceptance by publishers.
Maintaining your original voice, tone, diction, and purpose
While providing this broad spectrum of writing advice, I focus on maintaining each writer’s original voice, tone, and diction – that unique way of saying things that marks successful authors as original. (A classic example of such originality was the writing of Ernest Hemingway. Some writers tried to copy his example, and of course failed the market test of originality.)
What are voice, tone, and diction? Voice tells the reader who is speaking. Tone projects the attitude of the speaker. Diction is reflected in the speaker’s accent, inflection, intonation, and sound.
(For example, the diction of speakers from Boston differs from the diction of speakers from Dallas, whereas their voice and tone may not.)
While honoring and maintaining each writer’s unique way of saying things, I edit manuscripts in accordance with the expectations of The Chicago Manual of Style. This book is the bible of correct usage among American agents and publishers. Writers do not get past these gatekeepers without honoring these rules.
Writing purposes vary
While providing editing services ranging from detailed edits to manuscript development, I cover a wide range of writing purposes – from works of fiction to works of non-fiction. That is, while I usually edit narrative material, I sometimes work with writers of expository material, such as business books and memoirs.
As examples of my coverage of this broad range of writing purposes, In 2010, I edited a proposed business book for grammar and style. Much to my delight, and to the joy of this author, the proposed business book Business Fraud: From Trust to Betrayal by Jack L. Hayes, won first prize in the recent Royal Palm Literary Awards competition of the Florida Writers Association (Business Books – Unpublished) and has subsequently been published by Bascom Hill Publishing Group.
I recently helped another writer develop the initial concept of a novel. The question this writer put to me, simply stated, was how to develop his idea for the greatest richness, coherence and marketability. My up-front work in this case was not about grammar and style (an issue that can only be addressed with finished work) but about the unfolding of the story itself: How might it best be deployed to capture a particular segment of the audience that exists for fiction of various kinds?
The fiction market resembles a pie. One slice of this pie might be “cozy” mysteries, another might be literary fiction, and so forth. Readers tend to seek out fiction to their specific taste. So I help writers of fiction aim their work at a particular “slice of the pie.”
In the main, though, what I do in my work is edit manuscripts in accordance with the rules of grammar and the expectations of the authors of The Chicago Manual of Style, while maintaining all characteristics of the writer’s own voice, tone and diction.