How to write dialogue: 1- punctuation
It doesn’t matter how many novels you read – unless you’ve made a point of analysing it, speech punctuation can seem like a great mystery. And you don’t have to be a novelist to need to write speech. You might want to include a real conversation in a blog, or memoirs,...
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What is a writer’s ‘voice’? And should an editor leave it well alone?
Everybody’s different. We can see people’s uniqueness in their clothes, their hairstyle, their accent, their hobbies or pets. And that individuality extends to their writing. I currently have an editing job involving lots of technical documents, destined to be part of...
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Meaningless… Are you using these phrases to promote your business?
If you’re writing for your business – on your website, flyers, or other promotional material – there’s a harsh truth you need to know about your readers: they’re selfish. So are you; so am I. What we’re all thinking when reading business blurb is, “What’s in it for...
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Number nightmares: 7 traps to avoid in your writing
Many people find numbers confusing. But if numbers are an essential part of your writing, there are ways to avoid bamboozling your readers (because you don’t want that, do you?). By ‘numbers’, I mean prices, percentages, or anything that needs counting, whether...
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Read all about it! How to write a press release for your event
At some stage, you may be asked to write a press release for a local newspaper – maybe to promote an event for your organisation. Newspaper editors will usually require a press release to be in the same style as the rest of the paper. Well, it makes sense to keep on...
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Do you know the difference between proofreading and editing?
Proofreading and editing are jumbled up in many people’s minds as "something to do with writing". If I say I do both, then one of the first questions I’m asked is: “What’s the difference?” You might think that a proofreader checks for mistakes, and of course that’s...
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