Welcome, A to Z bloggers, visitors, and of course all my faithful regular readers! This year's theme for my A to Z:
Short & Sweet Reasons Why You Need an Editor
So without further ado . . .
“Zounds!” shouldn’t be in anyone’s dialogue anymore.
Hiring an editor can prevent you from having a modern-day character saying something that old-fashioned, and can also prevent you from having your heroine say, “That’s pretty cool,” in your novel about ancient Egypt.
We’re trained in various style books so we know that a novel will be edited and presented differently than a nonfiction academic journal. We know there are differences in how sentences are edited in the US v. the UK. We understand the rules and not only how to apply them, but why—and when they can be broken.
And we understand that word usage changes constantly.
One of the editing groups I’m in frequently has members asking, “If I say this particular word, what comes to mind? Please state your age and where you’re from.” A word often means something completely different in one part of the world than another, and a decent editor knows it. We follow the language, not just the rules.
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For those of you who made it all the way to Z with me, thanks for stopping by so often! Here's hoping I'll continue to see you here in the coming months.