Editors: Important to the Writing Community

This series of articles discusses writing habits that upset editors.

Here’s article #7. Do you recognize the problem?

Introduction to Excerpts

Today’s post presents two excerpts that illustrate contrasting sides of a popular writing convention. You won’t find these paragraphs in a book or online, but they’re representative of what I often notice as I’m reading or editing.

Scenario: A writer copies and pastes his first page into an email that he sends to an editor for a free critique.

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This series of articles discusses writing habits that upset editors.

Here’s article #6. Do you see the problem?

Introduction to Excerpt

You won’t find the following paragraphs in a book. They’re a representation of what I see occasionally while reading, critiquing, and editing.

Excerpt

“I ain’t NEVER seen NOTHIN’ like THIS before, Harry.”

Harry glared over the top of his book at his roommate, Jack. “WHAT?”

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This series of articles discusses writing habits that upset editors.

Here’s article #4. Do you see the problem(s)?

Introduction to Excerpt

You won’t find the following paragraphs in any single book. They’re an amalgamation of sentences (edited to preserve anonymity of authors) from several publications.

As you read the excerpt, try to think of a descriptive noun for the phrases that will irritate your editor.

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