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Grammar

Ask the Editor 1: What genre is my book?

What genre is my book?

I am asked this question surprisingly often. I say surprising because one might assume, most of the time, that the genre of a book is obvious. And, most of the time, it is relatively obvious; authors tend to aim their efforts at specific markets. But once in a while, you come across a book that defies simple classification.  Read more

The Pedant: how to make your editor happy 5: The trouble with ‘as’

The trouble with ‘as’

If you edit for long enough, you inevitably develop pet hates and bugbears; constructions or word usages that just get your goat. Sometimes these are frequent errors, such as the confusion of ‘that' and ‘which', or the misuse of punctuation. Sometimes they are constructions that smack of lazy, sloppy writing.  Read more

The Pedant 4: how to make your editor happy. Spoilt for choice: formats and fonts

Spoilt for choice: formats and fonts

Since the advent of home computing and the easy availability of word processing and publishing software (is it really only a generation ago?), the budding writer has been faced with a wonderland of possibilities; or a tyranny of choices, depending on your point of view.  Read more

The Pedant: how to make your editor happy 4: Spoilt for choice: formats and fonts

Spoilt for choice: formats and fonts

Since the advent of home computing and the easy availability of word processing and publishing software (is it really only a generation ago?), the budding writer has been faced with a wonderland of possibilities; or a tyranny of choices, depending on your point of view.  Read more

The Pedant: how to make your editor happy 3: Bells and whistles? The use of bold, italics and capital letters in prose fiction

Bells and whistles? The use of bold, italics and capital letters in prose fiction

There are times when, no matter how well you write, you need typographical support to emphasise a point. English is a wonderfully flexible and suggestive language, but it can't do everything by itself, and replacing plain type with, for instance, italics, can really help the reader to understand what's happening in your story.  Read more

The Pedant: how to make your editor happy 1: Accents and dialects

Accents and dialects: spelling your way into trouble

‘Oi'm sarry to bather ye, Mam.'

‘We ‘ave ze wonderfool patisseries, no?'

‘'Ere, leave orf, will yer, I ain't dun nuffink.'  Read more

The Pedant: how to make your editor happy 2: Dialogue tags

Dialogue tags

She said, he said: the use (and misuse) of dialogue tags

Dialogue is the engine of good fiction. It makes characters three-dimensional and realistic; it drives the story forwards; it allows the writer to provide background information without resorting to reportage. Good dialogue, one might say, speaks for itself.  Read more

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