Editing Fiction: The 5 Most Common Mistakes

Posted on August 5, 2018 by dkhundt

by Ellen Tanner Marsh / Writer’s Digest

Ellen Tanner Marsh, in her article “Editing Fiction Like A Pro: The 5 Most Common Mistakes that Bog Down Your Narrative,” tells her readers to focus on the “don’ts” of sentence structure rather than agonizing over every word until it’s just right, which is something I am VERY guilty of.

I mean, have you ever sat down at your writing desk or comfy chair and tweaked, twisted, phrased, and rephrased your prose until you look up at the clock and it’s five hours later, and you’ve written only a paragraph? Yep, Guilty.

As a long-time freelance editor, Marsh has helped countless authors fine-tune their plots, characters, and prose. Some of these authors, whether gifted or just getting there, tended to make the following mistakes… Read More