Castle Walls Editing

Category: Editing

  • Surprising Connections Between Horror and Romance

    Surprising Connections Between Horror and Romance

    At first blush, horror and romance might seem as far apart as two genres can be. But on closer inspection, the genres exhibit many similarities.

    Beyond the story-level connections, the readerships of these two genres share a protectiveness born from the feeling others look down on their genre of choice as being of low merit, of not being literary enough, of being trashy, even. Sometimes the reaction is just a dismissive curl of the lip.

    Horror and romance contain both purely entertaining page-turners and examples of high “literary” merit (the quotes here suggesting “whatever the hell that means” and “but that’s a topic for another day”).

    In my experience people will often look down on horror and romance in a way they wouldn’t about mysteries or suspense, so that sense of protectiveness is understandable. This snobbishness might be more true in the past, and both genres might be more widely accepted today than ever before, but the attitudes still seem to exist, at least on some level.

    Horror and romance are cherished by their readerships, and these stories help readers process their lives. They act as a salve in troubled times. Sometimes they simply entertain and are in fact trashy in the best way. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

    All About a Feeling

    It’s been said by Tananarive Due and others that horror is an emotion, and this defines the genre in a special way and in fact makes the genre hard to define (and also more expansive). Romance is certainly all about love and the associated emotions.

    So at the heart of both genres is the evocation of feeling in the characters, and not just feeling, but intense, life-altering feeling.

    In “Horror and Romance: Doppelgangers in Need,” horror writer L. Marie Wood talks about how need (want, desire, yearning) is essential to both genres, and it’s a fascinating piece.

    Which Genre Are We Talking About Again?

    If you think about a force that insinuates itself in people’s lives and begins to change them, begins to affect them in physical ways (raised heartbeat, shortness of breath), begins to draw them toward something close to an obsessive relationship, you might be excused if you aren’t sure whether we’re talking about horror or romance.

    This force might be evil in horror and love in romance, but in both it’s a force that cannot be shaken, that persists, that holds the promise of forever.

    HEA and HEN

    A romance without a happily ever after (or a happy for now) is not a romance. That’s part of the promise to the reader, and romance writers feel the heat if they break that promise.

    Horror contains something you might call a happily ever never. While a character might in the end triumph over the evil in question, that triumph often comes at a great cost, and there’s usually the sense that the evil hasn’t been truly vanquished, that it’s only been momentarily thwarted before it rises again.

    Meet-Cute and Meet-Brute

    A romance needs a meet-cute to introduce the love interests and set them on the path toward romance. Well-deserved praise to romance writers coming up with fun and innovative meet-cutes that go beyond the characters literally bumping into each other.

    In much the same way, the protagonist in a horror story needs a meet-brute (yeah, I don’t think this term has much chance of catching on, but thanks for humoring me) to expose characters to the presence of evil. In both romance and horror, characters’ first reactions are often to flee from this scary force (“I don’t have room in my life for a relationship!” or “I don’t want to be consumed by this demon!”).

    This is another good point to emphasize again the physical responses in horror and romance. In romance, the mere touch of a new love interest (and it might be the slightest brushing of hands) draws an outsize physical reaction from the character, who consciously acknowledges the reaction or tries desperately to dismiss it.

    In horror the racing pulse or shortness of breath at that first touch of evil is just as present, and it will only get worse. That’s also a promise to the reader.

    Isolation

    In horror characters are often isolated in ways that make them more vulnerable to evil and that connect them closely to primal childhood fears, such as being lost in a forest or shopping mall. The character may be physically stranded in a cabin or cave, or they may be emotionally stranded when no one around them believes that true evil is present.

    Romance also often isolates its love interests to make them more vulnerable to the force of love working its magic on them. They may, in fact, be snowed in at a cabin. Or they may be forced to share a bed. Or any number of other scenarios. But that isolation is often key.

    Teasing Out the Romance / Showing the Monster

    In one of my favorite podcasts about horror movies, Pod Mortem, the hosts talk about how part of the reason movies such as Nightmare on Elm Street and Child’s Play work so well (and specifically the first film in each series) is because the creators know to use Freddy and the evil doll sparingly, that giving them too much screen time, too early, spoils the fear.

    Similarly, romance often works best when the characters are kept from that full-fledge romance for as long as possible, because throwing them right together can spoil that delicious sense of tension and Will they or won’t they? (though of course we know they will).

    Don’t Go in the Basement: Tropes, Tropes, Tropes

    Horror and romance are often filled with tropes, conventions, and obligatory scenes, and each does well when it addresses these in new and interesting ways.

    Is there a compelling reason for the character to go into the basement when common sense is screaming to do anything but? Is the third-act breakup drawn from compelling character motivations or thrown in unrealistically because the author is at the 75 percent mark?

    The Grand Gesture / Sacrifice

    In romance a character often makes a grand gesture to win back their love interest after the aforementioned third-act breakup. This works best when the character gives up something they thought they needed because they’ve realized what it is they actually need.

    In horror a character will often need to make a great sacrifice, possibly their life or even their soul, to defeat evil. (And knowing that evil never dies we can say only, Hey, good luck with that.)

    I Love You / I’m Going to Tear Your Soul Apart

    Horror and romance might seem strange bedfellows, but thinking about the connections between the two is a lot of fun, and we didn’t even bring into the mix Gothic literature, which excels at entwining romance and dread. Are there any other connections that spring to your mind?

     

    Further Reading:

    Wood, L. Marie. “Horror and Romance: Doppelgangers in Need.” Chosen Realities 1 (Summer 2020).

  • Beyond Spell-Check: Ten Catches Copy Editors Make

    Beyond Spell-Check: Ten Catches Copy Editors Make

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Spell-check will fail to catch an almost unlimited number of writing miscues. In addition to spelling, copy editors address grammar, punctuation, style (hello, Chicago Manual), clarity, and consistency.

    The following ten items will give you some idea of what spell-check won’t catch.

    (Also note that I’m not addressing punctuation here and that while Word’s Editor function features a grammar check that will occasionally offer good suggestions, the many false positives and sometimes downright bizarre suggestions mean that you cannot accept any of the suggestions without a high level of discernment.)

    1. Wrong homophone. I can’t bare to see another picture of a bare. (Read: I can’t bear to see another picture of a bear.)
    2. Missing words. I can’t bear see another picture of a bear. (Read: I can’t bear to see another picture of a bear.)
    3. Transposed words. I can’t bear see to another picture of a bear. (Read: I can’t bear to see another picture of a bear.)
    4. Repeated words. This one’s obvious, and while spell-check will flag repeated words, it can’t determine whether the repetition was intentional.
    5. Repeated endings. Our brains sometimes do a funny thing where they inappropriately repeat an ending while typing: They keeping walking toward … (Read: They keep walking toward …)
    6. Echoes. Words repeated in proximity can clang against the ear of the listener. Often words like up and back (two prime offenders) can be deleted or switched out when they repeat too closely.
    7. Danglers. Dangling participles and other modifiers can cause problems, especially at the beginning of a sentence: Running into the classroom, the trash can caused me to trip. (The trash can wasn’t running into the classroom, so the person needs to be the subject instead.)
    8. Noninclusive language. Copy editors can call authors’ attention to potentially problematic language. The Conscious Style Guide and Crystal Shelley’s Conscious Language Toolkit are two great resources.
    9. Continuity issues. If a character’s eyes change color halfway through a manuscript, there should probably be a reason. Copy editors will comment on a wide range of continuity issues that can occur in a manuscript.
    10. Inconsistently applied style. Writers face a host of decisions for how they will style such things as thoughts and the words on signs, buttons, and other objects. The copy editor will help maintain consistency, keeping in mind author preference and style guidance from the big style guides (hello again, Chicago Manual) and publisher house styles, if working with a publisher.

     

    These often seemingly easy catches pose problems because writers (and editors too!) have a difficult time editing their own work. They simply know their work too well and see what should be there rather than what is actually there.

    Another set of eyes does wonders![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • My Webinar on Editing Horror

    My Webinar on Editing Horror

    The recording of my webinar on editing horror is now available for purchase at Club Ed at the following link:

    Editing Horror with James Gallagher 

    This one-hour webinar is for people interested in learning how to edit the horror genre. 

    The class covers the following:

    • What is horror?
    • Brief history of the genre
    • Subgenres
    • Horror beats and tropes
    • Character: protagonist v. the monster
    • Setting
    • Controlling theme: from life to death to damnation
    • The unknown
    • Reader immersion
    • Editorial concerns for problematic tropes

     

    I am a lifelong horror fan, and this webinar was a blast to prepare and present. Even better, I was able to do it over at Club Ed Freelancers, run by the great editor and editorial trainer Jennifer Lawler.

    I’ve taken numerous classes with Jennifer, and she and Club Ed have been an important part of my development as an editor.

    Long live horror!

  • Continuity, Part 1: Continuity Issues and Why They Pose Problems

    Continuity, Part 1: Continuity Issues and Why They Pose Problems

    “Only by thoughtful concentration on details can fiction be satisfactorily edited.”

    —Words into Type

    [On April 4, 2025, I presented “The Case of Ever-Changing Eye Color: Tracking Continuity in Manuscripts” to a live audience at ACES 2025 in Salt Lake City. This series of posts is largely based on that presentation.]

    What Are Continuity Issues?

    Continuity issues refer to discrepancies among details an author has provided in their manuscript.

    Usually these issues relate to physical character traits, nonphysical character traits, plot events, and matters of time, place, and distance.

    When the author provides information about a character, that information should be consistent throughout the manuscript unless there’s a good reason (a character’s hair might change color because they’ve dyed it).

    Discrepancies in the passage of time, the physical properties of setting, and the distance between settings (and the time it would take to travel between places) all present innumerable opportunities to introduce continuity issues.

    Continuity issues are present when the reader asks questions such as the following:

    • Didn’t this character have blue eyes in chapter 3?
    • How is it Saturday when four days have passed since Thursday?
    • How did this character just enter the room when they were already in the room?

    Continuity issues may occur within scenes, across scenes and chapters, and across books in a series. So copy editors face a daunting task when helping authors maintain good, uninterrupted continuity in their stories.

    James Gallagher speaking behind a lectern at ACES 2025 in Salt Lake City

    Why Are Continuity Issues a Problem?

    Readers are savvy at picking up continuity issues—and they often aren’t shy about sharing them online. So it’s well worth it for authors and editors to do what they can to address continuity before a book makes its way into the world.

    Continuity gaffes can do the following:

    • Break the spell of an author’s storytelling and take the reader out of the work.
    • Diminish author authority and lessen the reader’s faith in the author.
    • Weaken the story.

    Depending on the reader and the magnitude of the continuity issue, reader response might range from indifference to mild amusement to slight irritation to a refusal to finish the book.

    For the author, the response might be embarrassment, awareness that they’ve taken a hit to their reputation, or irritation with their editor for not catching the issue.

    For the editor, the response might be mortification (no one is harder on the editor than that editor), awareness that they’ve taken a hit to their reputation, and even fear that they could lose their client.

    Next time we’ll look at why continuity issues occur, and we’ll explore how we can prevent them.

    Note: Presenting a session on continuity live and in person to a room of editors at a national conference is something I’ll never forget. Organizations such as ACES: The Society for Editing provide learning opportunities and access to an inspiring community of editors.

  • Course Review: Editing for Point of View and Perspective

    Course Review: Editing for Point of View and Perspective

    The self-paced Editing for Point of View and Perspective class from Club Ed delves into finer editing considerations of particular benefit to developmental editors and line editors. As with all Club Ed courses, the materials and exercises are first-rate.

    After having taken many quality courses from Club Ed creator Jennifer Lawler, I’d picked up this self-paced class many months before I finally settled down to work my way through it. Because I’d benefited from previous courses with Jennifer, I had high expectations, and I was not disappointed.

    A reality of editing schedules is that authors sometimes push delivery dates, so having a learning opportunity at hand can help relieve anxiety—as well as sharpen your editing skills—when time unexpectedly opens on your calendar.

    Instructor Led v. Self-Paced

    I’ve taken both instructor led and self-paced classes from Club Ed, and there are pros and cons to each. At Club Ed, both options present you with reading materials (Word documents or PDFs) and exercises for each lesson.

    Instructor Led

    With instructor-led courses, materials are released weekly for the lessons (usually over a four-week period). Students are asked to return assignments before the beginning of the next week.

    The two main advantages of instructor-led courses are class forums and instructor feedback.

    The forums allow participants to interact with the instructor and other classmates. This provides further insight and discussion, as well as the opportunity to network with other editors.

    The feedback on each exercise is arguably the most valuable component of Jennifer’s courses. Editing is often best learned through doing, and Jennifer provides a detailed critique on each student’s work, invaluable for adjusting the new skills being practiced.

    Self-Paced

    The main value of self-paced courses is, of course, the flexibility to take courses on your own time. When time opens, they are there waiting to fill gaps in your schedule.

    Ask any editor and they’ll tell you that scheduling a live class is a surefire way to have work suddenly overwhelm your inbox. While I try to balance live and self-paced classes, live classes always bring a bit of anxiety around fitting them into a full editing schedule.

    (I also want to add that I try to take at least a couple of courses each year, and I hope to always do so. Whether it’s largely a refresher course or one that covers a new skill, training is wonderful for maintaining skills, developing new ones, meeting new editors, and renewing your enthusiasm for the art.)

    While self-paced classes don’t entail instructor feedback on the exercises, Jennifer does include an answer sheet with her suggested approach to each exercise. The individual feedback of instructor-led courses is most valuable, but these answer keys go a long way toward bridging that gap and are extremely helpful.

    The Class

    Editing for Point of View and Perspective helps developmental editors spot and solve POV and perspective errors in fiction. The class is broken into four lessons:

    Lesson 1

    The first lesson covers the basics of POV and perspective, the differences between the two, the three main POVs, and common problems editors will encounter with POV and perspective.

    Lesson 2

    The second lesson takes a closer look at the possibilities and limits of POVs and examines how an author’s choices affect the story. The lesson also examines where narrator perspective and character perspective interconnect.

    Lesson 3

    The third lesson delves into perspective problems as early-warning signs of other issues in the manuscript. The materials demonstrate how developmental problems in a manuscript can be intertwined, and strategies are offered for prioritizing and addressing these issues.

    Lesson 4

    The fourth lesson addresses POV and perspective issues that occur less frequently in manuscripts but for which an editor should nonetheless be prepared. The materials show where authors can go wrong and the strategies editors can use to get authors back on track.

    Overall Assessment

    POV and perspective issues require a sensitivity and ear for what is happening right down to the sentence level, and editors who develop this sensitivity and ear will be able to offer clients strong advice for modulating the narrative distance between the text and the reader. This class provides insightful materials and useful exercises for developing this higher-level editing skill.

  • Five Reasons Copyediting Takes More Time Than You Might Think

    Five Reasons Copyediting Takes More Time Than You Might Think

    People are often surprised by the time it takes to copyedit manuscripts, probably because they have a sense of how long it takes to read a book of similar length. But copyediting does take longer—much longer—and authors and readers benefit from the hours upon hours copy editors dedicate to their craft.

    (This post refers largely to copyediting fiction, but the principles apply to nonfiction as well, though nonfiction generally takes even more time [often substantially more time] owing to such things as reference lists and technical content. Editors also develop processes that work best for them and their clients, so the following won’t reflect all processes of all editors.)

    WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

    Understanding the time to copyedit something effectively (and all that that involves) helps authors know what they should be getting from an edit, and it helps them weigh what is a reasonable fee for the copy editor’s work.

    What You Get

    As we’ll see, copyediting involves a lot more than people think. (I actually had a friend ask what more I needed to do after running spellcheck!)

    Authors often begin their search for an editor with the idea that they need only a “quick proof,” so all they’ll get from a copy edit needs to be learned (as well as the idea that they might also need a developmental or line edit).

    What You Pay

    If it takes an author twelve or thirteen hours to read through their manuscript, they might assume that the time to edit is somewhere in that neighborhood—and the price they’re willing to pay will understandably align with that.

    Authors might have a very different idea of a fair fee if they understand that the work involves not twelve or thirteen hours but thirty or more hours.

    Let’s say an author has a 300-page manuscript in standard format, and it takes that author twelve hours to do a read-through. This would have them reading at twenty-five pages an hour.

    Ten pages an hour is a pretty good clip for copyediting fiction. I’m usually below that when you average my main pass and proofing pass, but at ten pages per hour that 300-page manuscript would require thirty hours of work. So if an author is paying $200 for the job, they might begin to wonder about the quality of the work.

    FIVE REASONS COPYEDITING TAKES SO LONG

    The following five reasons for why it takes as long as it does to edit effectively should also give authors some reassurance about their editor’s commitment to their manuscript.

    1. Time Outside the Read-Through

    Editors do a number of tasks before the first pass, between passes, and at the end of the job, not to mention admin tasks such as communicating with the author, invoicing, and tracking the kind of data that helps editors constantly refine their systems and processes.

    Initial Cleanup

    Before that first read-through, an editor will rename a file according to their naming conventions and format the file so that it’s usable for editing.

    The latter usually means ensuring the manuscript is Times New Roman, twelve-point font, double spaced, with automatic indents and styled headings. Editor’s Toolkit Plus is a handy tool for snapping up spaces around returns, double spaces, and tabs and for formatting ellipses and smart quotes.

    The editor may run an initial pass of PerfectIt (a consistency checker), search for particular instances in the document, and run macros such as ProperNounAlyse (this pulls all the proper nouns from a document so an editor gets a heads-up on spelling discrepancies for people and place names).

    After the First Pass

    Here the author often runs spellcheck and PerfectIt, then reviews their notes and comments for continuity or sentence-level concerns to keep track of during the final pass.

    After the Proofing Pass

    Editors usually have a number of common cleanup searches, most of which can be built into PerfectIt. The editor will check their notes for any outstanding concerns, review their comments for tone and content (Do they address the issue, explain why it’s an issue, and suggest an alternative?), and clean up their style sheet (see more on style sheets below).

    Before returning the edited manuscript, the editor will draft an editorial overview (usually an email). I’ve also begun using Loom videos so I can show authors things like the navigation pane and aspects of using tracked changes (this also provides a nice, personal way for me to thank authors for having me as their editor).

    2. A Different Kind of Reading

    To do their jobs effectively, editors must read in a way that is slow and measured. Editors are always asking questions of the text and of the way it relates to the surrounding text in grammar and syntax.

    Readers often speed-read or even mentally switch off for passages, but editors must maintain strict concentration at all times, and they must manage their concentration and be aware of their limits per day and per hour, and rest accordingly.

    Editors also must be aware not just of sentence-level concerns like spelling but of continuity issues (such as discrepancies with the timeline and character details such as eye color) and of things like echoes or words and pet phrases throughout the manuscript.

    Time is also added for inserting edits, which are tracked, and for adding comments to explain edits or to query authors on matters of style or continuity. Editors will often use tools like TextExpander to more quickly insert frequently made comments, but editors inevitably also need extra time to carefully phrase other comments so that they are both kind and useful to the author.

    3. Constant Lookups

    MerriamFetch is one of my favorite macros, with good reason. (A macro is a program you can run within Word, and this macro automatically pulls up Merriam-Webster’s definition page for a selected word. Believe me, it saves a ton of time.)

    Spelling is more complicated than running Word’s spellcheck. Spellcheck helps, and editors should run it, but editors are usually editing to a dictionary outside of Word (I’m usually editing to Merriam-Webster).

    Editors also have to decide their approach when word variants are listed in the dictionary. Usually it falls to the first-listed variant, but editors will also take into account author preference and add exceptions to the style sheet to account for this.

    Editors are also constantly breaking from reading the manuscript to look up issues in their style guide (for me that’s usually the Chicago Manual of Style). These may relate to punctuation or treatment of terms or use of numerals or capitalization or similar issues.

    Editors are also frequently turning to other resources, such as Garner’s Modern English Usage or the Conscious Style Guide or Crystal Shelley’s Conscious Language Toolkit.

    Fiction often requires fact-checking, so there are web lookups for things like the time it takes to travel between locations and even medical details. A copy editor’s lookup history can be, um, interesting.

    So many lookups!

    4. The Style Sheet

    While editing, the copy editor builds out a style sheet detailing general guidelines for editing and exceptions to these guidelines. An author may, for instance, prefer commas before sentence-ending toos and eithers.

    The style sheet also includes a word list of proper nouns and manuscript-specific spellings. Other items on the style sheet include character and setting details (so a character doesn’t have blond hair on page 10 and brown hair on page 110, unless a dye is involved, and so a character doesn’t go to the sixteenth floor of a ten-story building).

    The style sheet also includes a timeline by chapter that is a great help in addressing continuity concerns so, for example, five days don’t pass between Thursday and Saturday.

    5. Multiple Passes

    Editors have different processes. Some copy editors might run through only one pass. Others might run through more than two, but I usually do an intensive major pass and then a second proofreading pass using ReadAloud (hearing the manuscript read aloud is magic for finding such things as missing words, transposed words, and wrong words).

    Multiple passes, of course, add time to the job. In addition, editors may need to run streamlined passes for particular items, such as a specific continuity concern.

    TIME WELL SPENT

    Authors spend countless hours, even years, bringing their story into the world. Everyone, perhaps most importantly the eventual reader, benefits when authors and editors understand each other’s processes and the associated time each involves.

    Writing takes time. Editing takes time. When a book is in a reader’s hands and a story is firing that reader’s imagination, the reader might not have a true concept of all the time that went into the book’s creation, but they will undoubtedly feel it in every chapter, scene, and sentence.

  • Editing Is a Conversation

    Editing Is a Conversation

    Too often people view editing as a one-way service in which the editor “corrects” the author’s prose. To get the most out of the author–editor relationship, however, it’s important to remember two things:

    • Editing is a conversation.
    • Edits are suggestions.

    (Though general principles still apply, the following is geared toward the relationship between indie authors and editors. In traditional publishing the author will usually not communicate directly with the copy editor or proofreader.)

    The Conversation: Working Together

    The author and editor are partners working in service of the reader. This relationship is laid out beautifully in one of my favorite books—The Subversive Copy Editor by Carol Fisher Saller. (I will never stop recommending this book!)

    The editor is there to help the author and to honor the author’s voice. As with any good conversation, this means that the editor must practice the art of listening so that they can hear that voice before they can edit effectively.

    Of course, editors also bring expertise that authors may not possess. This expertise includes adherence with style guides and dictionaries, awareness of inclusivity concerns, and knowledge of publishing standards.

    But, again, it’s important to remember that the author’s voice should always be honored, so if maintaining that voice and serving the audience means bending a guideline, then that’s what the editor will do. Style sheets exist in part to record exceptions to style so that they can be applied intelligently and consistently.

    If an author has a style preference, they should let their editor know, and authors should feel empowered to “push back” against their editor. I’ve put that phrase in quotes because, when pushing back, authors will usually be surprised by how little resistance they meet.

    Edits Are Suggestions

    Whether an author is reviewing a tracked change or a comment, the author does not have to accept that change or suggestion. The author is paying the editor for the service, so it’s advisable to consider the editor’s suggestions, but the author always has the power to reject an edit.

    If an author feels as though they’re fighting their editor every step of the way and arguing every change, then that’s probably a good sign either that they’re not ready for editing (which requires an openness to being edited) or that they’re working with the wrong editor.

    If the former, then the author may need to open themselves to being edited and remember that the editor is there to help. It’s easy to be defensive, but too much defensiveness can work against the reader.

    If the latter, then the author may need to rethink the relationship. A great author and great editor may not pair well for any number of reasons, and there’s nothing wrong with amicably parting ways.

    The Conversation

    Perhaps the most effective way to ensure that editing is a helpful conversation is to remember that it is a conversation. As with all conversations, politeness and respectfulness should be maintained at every stage, by both parties.

    Before Editing

    Sometimes an author–editor fit can be determined only by working through an edit, but authors can learn a lot about their editor by reviewing their website, social media posts, and listings in professional organizations.

    A sample edit shows an editor’s editing style (heavy, medium, or light), their ability to use basic markup functions, and their commenting style (a good comment should explain the issue, explain why it’s an issue, and offer a suggestion or resource).

    Email exchanges also indicate an editor’s professionalism, timeliness, and demeanor. Editors are sometimes open to video calls (though, of course, editors are notoriously introverted).

    During Editing

    The editor’s primary means of communication during editing is through tracked changes, comments, and the style sheet.

    While an editor will usually make silent edits to clean up such things as double spaces, spaces around returns, and straight quotes), these silent edits will be listed on the style sheet, and other edits will be tracked for the author’s review.

    This is part of the open conversation so that the author is fully aware of what the editor is doing and there are no surprises.

    Comments are essential for explaining edits, querying such things as continuity issues, and even offering the occasional “Well done!”

    Needless to say, an editor’s comments should never be condescending or mean spirited.

    The style sheet is a separate document that details general guidelines for editing, exceptions to style, a word list of proper nouns and manuscript-specific styles, a character list with character details (helpful to ensure such things as eye color don’t change during the course of the story!), setting details, and a timeline (a big aid for continuity concerns).

    After Editing

    When the editor returns the manuscript and style sheet, they will continue the conversation with an editorial letter (usually an email) covering the work. I’ve also been employing Loom to use video to add a personal touch and demonstrate such things as good practices for reviewing tracked changes.

    The conversation may continue if the editor will also be reconciling edits after the author’s review, and I always make it a point to encourage authors to send me any questions that arise while they’re reviewing the edits.

    The Ongoing Conversation

    It’s a beautiful thing when authors and editors work together to present readers with works that inspire, amaze, and take them to faraway places of wonder. Keep the conversation going, and make it a good one.

  • January Thanks

    January Thanks

    This January I tweeted daily thanks for helpful things in my editing world. The following tweets offer useful resources and provide insight into my editing life.

    I missed the first two days, so I’ll send a special thanks to authors everywhere and to The Best Punctuation Book, Period from June Casagrande, with honorable mentions to all the wonderful resources there simply weren’t enough days for. 

    (There’s also a pretty obvious typo in one of the tweets, so feel free to enjoy a little treasure hunt.)

    Here we go!

    And that’s a wrap. Just let me know if I can help with your writing projects. 

     

     

  • I’m Now a Fictionary-Certified Editor

    I’m Now a Fictionary-Certified Editor

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I’m pleased to announce that I’ve completed my Fictionary certification and am now listed among the program’s Fictionary-Certified StoryCoach Editors.

     

     

    The training program entailed two months of text and video lessons, biweekly Zoom calls with Fictionary founder Kristina Stanley and other members of the class, and the completion of an entire developmental edit using Fictionary software.

    The edit included the tracking of story elements in the software, notes per scene, in-line comments, and what turned out to be a thirty-page summary letter complete with story insights and visuals.

    My certification also came with this cool badge:

    About Fictionary

    Fictionary is an editing aid for performing developmental edits in a comprehensive and objective manner.

    Fictionary makes it easy for editors to track 38 story elements for character, plot, setting, and structure. The software also allows editors to view data in a variety of ways and to produce visual insights to help clients better see story and character arcs, words and characters per scene, POV issues, POV goals, scene tension, and other important elements. 

    Other Training

    I’m proud of the work I put in on my Fictionary certification, as it isn’t easy to add training to a full editing schedule. Continued development is important, though, and I try to regularly take classes, often through ACES or the EFA (I’m a member of both). To further my studies, I regularly view webinars and read craft books on editing.

    I also meet biweekly with my editors’ group, Pens & Pilcrows, which I founded in 2021. The group has provided a wonderful level of support and inspiration, and it has been all that I’d hoped it would be.

    As I said above, adding training to a full schedule is never easy, but I always come away feeling as though I have more to offer clients. This year I’ve taken courses in manuscript evaluation, line editing, markup in PDF page proofs, and, of course, Fictionary.

    I’m also enrolled in a class for editing science fiction and fantasy. That kicks off at the end of September, and it’s one I’ve been looking forward to.

    Need Copyediting or a Story Edit?

    If you’d like to learn more about story editing with Fictionary or my copyediting services, email me at James@castlewallsediting.com or use the online form on this site.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • My First Annual Report for Castle Walls Editing

    My First Annual Report for Castle Walls Editing

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I finally did it. For the first time since committing to full-time freelancing at the end of 2017, I’ve drafted an annual report for Castle Walls Editing.

    While the report is for my eyes only, putting it together has been tremendously helpful, and I’ve already started my 2022 report, which I’ll be updating throughout the year.

    Benefits of Creating an Annual Report

    I didn’t create a report for the first three full years of my business. For the most part, I am my business, and no one was asking for it. I had work in front of me, and creating such a report required time I could spend earning money and completing jobs.

    But now that I have the report (printed, in fact, and within easy reach), I couldn’t be happier that I put it together, and I’d encourage anyone else, no matter how small their business, to do the same.

    The following are the main benefits I found from creating an annual report:

    • The report made me take a hard look at my business. It’s easy to ignore realities when they’re not staring you in the face. It’s easy to work and work and work and focus only on the job in front of you. Creating this report forced me to take a hard look at my business, the good and the bad. Seeing the bad isn’t easy, but it’s the first step toward addressing what isn’t working and heading in a better direction.
    • The report captured all areas of my business in one place. The report gives me a comprehensive scan of all areas of my business in one easy-to-access resource. I expand more below on the areas of the report, so I’ll just say here that having a quick resource for reviewing and thinking about finances, training, clients, and other areas of the business helps me keep those areas top of mind. And this has already prompted me to think more about the business even while I’m working in the business.
    • The report made me feel more businesslike. I was working at home even before the pandemic, and I do my best to create a businesslike atmosphere. I maintain fairly regular work hours, and I have a professional properly outfitted workspace. But I’m working alone in my home, and it can be easy to lose sight of the business as a BUSINESS. The report lends weight to the significance of what I’m doing, and it encourages me to think of the business as a business, something that’s often a challenge for freelancers.
    • The report let me celebrate my successes. I could do better in many areas of the business, and that will always be true. I never want to stop growing and learning and doing better. But it’s not easy to run an editing business and pay your bills and make your clients happy. And I’ve done this for four full years since leaving in-house employment to pursue this dream. That’s a hell of an accomplishment, and I’m proud of it. 

    What I Included in the Report

    Although I didn’t create a report for 2018, 2019, or 2020, I added income and client information for those years in the appendixes. For each year I created a pie chart with share by client, and this let me see areas of the business that have grown or shrunk over those years.

    Another helpful visual was a line graph of my income by year. I dipped a bit in 2021, but in terms of income, 2020 and 2021 were both well above 2018 and 2019, so the graph is still satisfying.

    The following are the main areas I addressed in my report. In my overview, I spoke honestly, in a conversational tone. In a sense, I am indeed having a conversation with myself about my business. I wanted to be honest, I wanted to be fair, and I wanted to be kind.

    • Overview
    • 2021 Income
    • Clients
    • Training
    • Equipment and Tools
    • Insurance
    • Appendix A: 2018
    • Appendix B: 2019
    • Appendix C: 2020
    • Appendix D: Books Edited in 2021
    • Appendix E: All Courses

    Going Forward

    The 2021 report served as a good start for my 2022 report. I simply carried over information that would apply and moved around information that could shift (for example, I moved my 2021 financial information into an appendix).

    I didn’t break my 2021 report down by quarter, but I plan to do that this year, and it will be fairly easy because I’ll be doing it each quarter rather than at the end of the year.

    For items like training, I can add courses as I go.

    The report is and always will be a work in progress. This year I plan to add a section on my web presence and social media. I hope to take a more in-depth look at my clients. I’d like to add a section on lessons learned and goals for the following year.

    I’ve also rededicated myself to consistent time tracking, and next year’s report will contain more breakdowns of that data, so helpful in estimating fees for clients and seeing the kinds of jobs that are most profitable.

    Have you run an annual report for your business? If not, I’d highly recommend doing so. It’s been wonderful for me, and that should translate into a better business for my clients.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]