We've talked about the different types of editors, but did you know there are also different types of readers you might solicit for your book manuscript? Let's talk about manuscript readers, what they do, and why they're important.

We've talked before about the different levels of editing, including proofreading. You know that proofreaders have sharp eyes and that they correct errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, usage, formatting, etc. 

But you may still be wondering, "What does a proofreader actually do?"

Are you the type of writer who waits for that spark of inspiration to come and zap you into action? It feels amazing in the moment, but eventually the lightning fades and leaves you twitching. I used to be the same way. Like you, I spent years waiting for the right moment to write. 

But do you know what I've learned? That moment, when the heavens part and suddenly there are no distractions or obligations and inspiration pours from the sky in never-ending waterfalls? Yeah, it isn't coming. Disappointing, right? The perfect moment never comes. Or if it does, it comes because we make it come by putting in the work. A consistent writing habit will win out over flighty inspiration every time.

So how do we develop a writing routine that will stand the test of bad days, busy schedules, and dried-up wells of inspiration? ​Well, here are five things I've started doing that have worked wonders for my writing life. I've been able to build a consistent daily writing habit with minimal effort, and the returns have been amazing. I've made it about a third of the way through the rough draft of my current novel in just a month and a half. Keep reading to find out how you, too, can create and rock your daily writing habit!

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​1. Start Small
You wouldn't decide to run a marathon and then immediately go run it. If you did, you'd probably die, just like Pheidippides, the first man who ever ran one. No, you'd train for months, starting small and building up your endurance and speed over time. Writing, especially if you want to be a skilled lifelong writer, is a marathon. 

Some people write every day; some don't. Personally, if I miss one day, then I might as well abandon all hope of building a consistent habit, so I don't skip days if I can help it. But that may not be the case for you. Maybe you work better with rest days in between your writing days. Maybe you legitimately only have the time, physical energy, or mental bandwidth to do a few times a week. That's perfectly okay! Pick whatever works for you, but stick with a schedule. Consistency is key.

Commit to something small to start off with. I've committed to writing every day for at least thirty minutes. Even if I end up writing only fifty words or staring at the screen thinking about character motivations for half that time, that's still thirty minutes of intentional time spent on my writing. More often than not, though, those thirty minutes turn into an hour, an hour and a half, or even two hours. And the longer I've sustained this daily habit, the quicker I get into the flow each day, and the more my output has increased.

But if I had decided from the beginning that I was going to write for two hours every day, there's no way I could have sustained that. I probably would have given up after the second day. It wouldn't be fun. It wouldn't be comfortable. It would feel like a punishment to make myself sit when the words weren't coming. So start small and build from there. Don't get overeager or impatient. If all you can do right now is five minutes a day, that's still enough to build the habit, and then it can grow from there. ​

2. Make Yourself Comfortable
​We humans don't like to be uncomfortable. Think about it. When's the last time you stepped in a puddle of water with your socks on and didn't immediately go change your socks? If you feel a sense of dread or unease when you think about writing, ask yourself why that is. Most likely, it's because you've had sporadic or negative writing experiences in the past. 

We perform our best when we're comfortable and happy. So, what do you do when you want to encourage yourself to do something? Make it a positive experience for your brain. To this end, start each writing session by ensuring that each of your senses is experiencing something pleasant. 

Put something you find inspiring in your line of sight. Maybe it's a written quote from your favorite book. For me, it's a little plastic unicorn figurine. (It's actually a Uni from Neopets because, yes, I did play Neopets throughout my childhood and adolescence and still have this figurine for some reason—anyone else?)

Listen to music or sounds that help you focus or keep you calm. I've always been the type of person who needs total silence to focus—or so I thought. Now I listen to the same Yo-Yo Ma album every time I write, and the swelling of the cello evokes something in me I didn't think was possible. 

Smell something pleasant. I often diffuse essential oils. Some people light a candle before each writing session. This is a two-for-one because not only do you get to smell something nice but the act of lighting the candle becomes like a trigger for your brain: "I'm lighting this candle, so it must be time to write!"

Get something tasty on your tongue while you write—chocolate, tea, coffee, your favorite snack. Whatever it is, it will trigger dopamine in your brain. And the next time you go to write, your brain will say, "Oh! I like this writing thing. We always get chocolate! Let's keep doing it!"

And it all comes back to comfort. For touch, get cozy. Cuddle up with sweatpants and a blanket—or not, if it's hot. Put your body somewhere that feels nice and relaxing: the couch, the bed, the floor. Don't sit at the rigid kitchen table where you pay your bills. Find a spot that's only for your writing time. I have a saucer chair in the corner of my bedroom where I sit to write, and I always put my feet up on a cushion. It's become so automatic that I can hardly write with bent knees anymore!

Are you starting to see the pattern here? Make your brain and your body understand that writing is not a punishment—it's a reward! The more you do that, the easier it will be to get your writing in each and every day, and the easier the writing will flow.

3. Breathe and Focus
I don't know about you, but in the busyness and stress of life, I often forget to breathe. Maybe you can relate. Perhaps your thoughts are often so crowded that you can't sort through them all. But even if you got a flat tire or the dog puked on your favorite shoes, you don't want to carry all that baggage into your writing.

That's why I do a short meditation with deep breathing before every writing session. Making sure I stop at least once a day and take some deep breaths helps me clear my mind, reset my body, and focus exclusively on my writing. Here's the video I use. Try it; you might just feel like a completely new person when those three minutes are up! Then dig into your writing with renewed energy. ​

4. Don't Edit Yet
I've admitted to you before that I'm a perfectionist. I don't like to leave things a mess, which means that my natural tendency is to edit while I write. Maybe you're the same way. It's natural for writers to want to craft something beautiful. But first drafts, at least, aren't the place for perfection. They're usually messy and almost always terrible. Accepting that truth is one of the hardest parts of being a writer. 

Editing is definitely important, but it comes later. In the beginning, you just need to get the story out onto the page. Second-guessing every word you write is only going to hinder your progress and lead to frustration. Get out of your own way. Write by hand if you have to. But don't erase or a change a single word the first time around. You never know when it might come in handy later. 

5. Celebrate Small Victories
Goals are great tools for motivating you to achieve what you want in life. But if those goals take a long time to reach, you can get weary waiting for your hard work to pay off. That's why you shouldn't wait until you reach your goal to celebrate; do it now, and do it often. 

Give yourself milestones along the path to your overarching goal. Make them frequent. For example, if your goal is to write an 80,000-word draft, turn every 10,000 words into a milestone. When you reach those markers, give yourself a reward. Plan these out ahead of time so you have something to look forward to. The reward doesn't have to be big (think ice cream or a new outfit). But it can be big, especially for those big milestones, like halfway or when you reach your overall goal (think of that splurge item you've had your eye on but keep resisting). Don't wait until the end to congratulate yourself. Allow yourself to feel proud now.

You may not realize it, but you crave validation for your efforts, even from yourself. Reward yourself for even the tiniest of accomplishments, and you'll reinforce the good feelings your brain has about writing. Celebrating early and often will make you even more likely to continue on the path you've started down. 

I hope you find these suggestions as helpful as I have. May your words flow!

Last time, we talked about how using different dialogue tags can affect your writing. Now that you've seen some examples of different ways to introduce dialogue, let's talk about the mechanics of dialogue tags. I see mistakes in dialogue tag punctuation all the time, but they're fairly simple to fix.

A dialogue tag, or attribution, is part of the surrounding sentence and is set off by commas. Most often, the tag comes after the dialogue. In these cases, the comma goes between the final word of dialogue and the closing quotation mark, then the tag follows. If the tag interrupts the dialogue, use a comma after the tag as well before continuing with an opening quotation mark and the rest of the dialogue. The attribution is lowercase unless it starts a sentence or includes a name. Let's look at a few examples. 

✅ "Let's go for a walk," she suggested.
✅ "If we leave now," he said, "we'll have time to get to the park and back before lunch."

Notice that she and he are lowercase, and the only periods are the ones at the very end of the sentence. If your speaker's name is given, of course, it will be capitalized. If the tag comes before the dialogue, the comma goes between the tag and the opening quotation mark. When you have a question mark or exclamation mark in the dialogue, it takes the place of the comma or period and goes inside the quotation marks.

✅ "Can I come too?" Stacy asked.
✅ They both shouted, "No!"

What you want to avoid is putting a period or nothing at all between the dialogue and its tag. You also don't want to double up on punctuation or put punctuation outside the final quotation mark. These sentences are incorrectly punctuated:

❌ "Let's go for a walk." She suggested.
❌ "If we leave now" he said "we'll have time to get to the park and back before lunch."
❌ "Can I come too?," Stacy asked.
❌ "They both shouted, "No"!

You can indicate interrupted dialogue with an em dash, leaving out the comma before the tag. But if you use an ellipsis to trail off, a comma is still needed.

✅ "I don't want—" She snapped her mouth shut.
✅ "Maybe we could . . . ," he muttered.

​Now, what happens if you replace a dialogue tag with an action or leave the tag out altogether? That's perfectly fine! In fact, I encourage you to do that sometimes. It will give variety to your writing and can even be used to convey pace and tone. In a two-person exchange, if it's clear who's talking, then you can leave out dialogue tags for a few lines. This is often useful in a fast-paced argument. But if there are more than two characters or it's not clear who is saying what, it's better to include dialogue tags.

If you want your character to move or do something while they're talking, you'll format your dialogue a little differently. If what they say before the action is a complete sentence, use a period instead of a comma and then capitalize the following sentence. If their action comes in the middle of their sentence and there is still an attribution, use commas like normal, but don't capitalize the first word of the dialogue following the action. Let's see some examples.

✅ "I know what you're doing." He uncrossed his arms and stood up. "It's not hard to figure out."
✅ "You're pushing everyone away," he said, taking a step toward her, "because you're scared."

In the first example, his actions come in between two complete sentences, and there is no tag. We therefore need to punctuate and capitalize the action sentence like we would any other sentence. In the second example, however, he takes an action while he's speaking. We use a comma before the attribution and another two commas to set off the action before continuing with the remainder of the spoken sentence. We also don't capitalize because since it is a continuation of his sentence and not the beginning of a new one.

However, if we want to truly interrupt his second sentence with an action and no attribution at all, we would do it this way:

✅ "You're pushing everyone away"—he took a step toward her—"because you're scared."
❌ "You're pushing everyone away," he took a step toward her, "because you're scared."

It would be wrong in this case to use commas to set off the action because that would essentially be creating a comma splice (two or more separate sentences joined by only a comma, which is incorrect).

I hope this brief guide on how to correctly punctuate dialogue tags has been helpful. But I know it can get tricky sometimes. If you need some help making sure your dialogue is punctuated just right, contact me. I'd be happy to help!​

If you write fiction, then you know that dialogue is an important aspect of your story. Well-written dialogue is arguably the most engaging part of a story for the reader, and it is often the best tool for characterization. 

But did you know that the way you introduce dialogue can either enhance or detract from what the character is actually saying?

What is a dialogue tag?
A dialogue tag, or attribution, is what ties a piece of dialogue to a character. It can come before, during, or after a quotation and tells us who is speaking and how they're speaking. The most common dialogue tags are she said and he asked.

There are many writers who advocate for using said and asked almost exclusively rather than using other verbs like noted, whispered, shouted, posited, cried, muttered, etc. This is because said is virtually invisible to readers. 

There are some good arguments both for and against this preference. On the one hand, limiting the variety of verbs used in dialogue tags keeps the focus on the dialogue itself. It forces the writer to compose better dialogue to convey emotion instead of relying on the tag to do that for them.

On the other hand, using only said does not tell us how the dialogue is being delivered and may lead the writer to rely on adverbs to give us this information. Many writers frown on using too many adverbs, as these can lead to more bland verbs and a penchant for telling rather than showing.

Personally, I think a balance between the two views on dialogue tags is the best approach. Much of the time, you want the tag to remain invisible so your dialogue stands out. But sometimes, you want to convey something about the character with the tag. Does your character just say things, or do they snarl them? And there are certainly times when bellowing or whispering is called for.

When you hear the word "editor," what do you think of? Someone who's going to take your rough draft and turn it into a masterpiece? Someone who will leave your plot alone but correct your grammar mistakes? Perhaps you just picture someone taking a red pen to your writing, leaving it bleeding.

Maybe you only have a vague idea of what an editor does. You're not alone. There are varying definitions of what an editor does because there are several different types of editing, often referred to as the four levels of editing. But the lines between these four main categories can get a bit blurred.

This is because even editors themselves can't completely agree about what constitutes each stage of editing. Two editors may have the same name for a certain type of editing but a different definition for it. Another two editors may provide the same service but call it a different name. Some editors may even combine two editing levels into one. 

Despite all the confusion among editors and writers alike, most book manuscripts follow the same basic path. Let's back up and set a good foundation for your understanding of the editing process, at least as it pertains to books (other types of writing may not follow this path). Each editing level has its own important role in the journey of a document toward publication.

Let's say we're following Sally on her novel-writing journey. First, Sally writes a rough draft of her book. The way she goes about this is going to be individual to her. For instance, she may outline the plot, sketch out her characters, and construct the details of her setting all before writing a single word. She may just start writing and discover these elements of the story as she goes. Or she may do a combination of both.

The point is that there are many ways to get to a rough draft. Once she's completed the first draft, Sally can be proud of such an accomplishment. But the work is far from over. 

Developmental Editing
After a full draft is completed, it's time for a developmental edit (also called a structural, substantive, or content edit). She may choose to make several passes back over the manuscript herself, revising and rewriting as necessary, before handing it off to a professional. (She may also engage manuscript readers at this point, but that's a discussion for another time.)

Developmental editing focuses on shaping the story as a whole. Does the story make sense? Are there problems with plot, setting, character development, scene order, or point of view? Is the overall structure sound? Are the beginning and ending effective? Are the writer's promises to the reader fulfilled? A developmental editor will evaluate the big picture, bring any issues to Sally's attention, and make suggestions for improvement. They may reorganize and rewrite sections of the manuscript themselves.

Working with a developmental editor is often an intimate and lengthy process, but it's a necessary one. Sally will work with her editor until both are satisfied that the overall content of her novel is exceptional.

​Line Editing
The remaining stages or levels of editing focus not on the content of the book but on the language used. Now that the foundation of Sally's story is firm and structurally sound, she'll want to hire an editor to drill down on the finer points of the language. 

Line editing is what it sounds like: the editor goes line by line through the text, focusing on language, style, voice, and tone. Line editors home in on the sentence-level stuff. They aim to cut out wordiness, improve sense, and smooth the overall flow of each sentence.

As I said, some editors combine multiple services into one. Line editing may sometimes be done in conjunction with either developmental editing or copyediting. 

Copyediting
If it wasn't included with her line edit, Sally will want to get a copyeditor to eliminate any glaring eyesores. Copyediting focuses on spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word usage. Copyeditors check for logic, scrutinize cross-references, and prepare style sheets to maintain consistency across a manuscript. 

Copyeditors often operate on what is referred to as a scale from light to heavy. "Light" copyeditors correct obvious errors and flag more subjective issues for the author's review. "Heavy" copyeditors use their judgement to fix even the subjective issues without waiting for the author to make a decision. Where the editor's corrections fall on this scale should be discussed before the project begins. Copyediting can sometimes be combined with line editing or with proofreading.

Proofreading
Proofreading is the final stage of the manuscript editing process. At this point, both the story itself and the language used to tell it have been refined. Many errors have been corrected in the copyediting stage. Behind the scenes, Sally may also be working with a cover designer and a formatter. Her book is almost ready to publish!

But all editors are human. Sometimes they miss errors, and sometimes new errors are introduced during one of the previous phases. (Or maybe one of the previous phases was skipped entirely!) This is where the proofreader comes in. 

Proofreaders are the masters of quality control. They focus on many of the same issues a copyeditor does: grammar, spelling, and punctuation. But they also catch typographical errors and inconsistencies in formatting. Though it is rarer in this digital world, proofreaders may even compare the latest stage of a project with earlier stages to ensure that manual changes have been made correctly and no additional errors have been introduced. 

Like the other editing levels, sometimes proofreading is combined with copyediting. If copyediting is skipped, it makes the proofreader's job all the more important. They are the last defense between errors and the world.

Sally wants her book to be as perfect as humanly possible, so she hires a proofreader to be the final eyes on her manuscript. After investing so much time and energy into her beloved novel, she knows it's always best to have a sharp set of eyes give everything a final look. Once it's been proofread, Sally can finally publish her novel!

The Fuzzy Bottom Line
Perhaps by now you can see why the distinctions between the different types of editing can get a little fuzzy. A line editor may also perform copyediting at the same time, thereby eliminating the need for a separate copyedit. A developmental editor might also focus on sentence-level stuff, making a line editor unnecessary. A proofreader's approach may look more like copyediting. This is why it's important to thoroughly discuss the scope of each project with your editor so that you're both on the same page. 

No matter how your editor defines or combines their services, the important thing to remember is to start with the big picture and work downward. You don't want to skip right to perfecting each sentence with a line edit or copyedit only to find out later that you have a gaping plot hole that would have been addressed in a developmental edit. And you don't want a proofreader to make corrections to punctuation and grammar until after a line editor has tightened up your prose. 

Keep in mind that many editors offer packages that contain many or all of these types of editing in succession. This can be great, because the editor gets to know your manuscript intimately and walks with you through every part of the process. At the same time, being so involved in the story can make them just as blind to certain issues as you are. That's why it's sometimes a good idea to hire separate editors for each stage of editing to get fresh eyes and a fresh perspective with each pass.

So what is an editor? It can often feel like a mystery. But hopefully you now have a better understanding of the different kinds of editors and how each one can help improve your writing. Every role is important, but some of them don't always fit into neat little boxes. Ultimately, you have to choose the right editor(s) for you and your manuscript.

A regionalism is a characteristic, usually pertaining to speech, of a geographic area. Most regionalisms that come to mind are differences in vocabulary. This might be pop vs. soda vs. coke or tennis shoe vs. sneaker. But did you know that some regionalisms are grammatical? I recently shared a tip on my social media pages about semicolon usage, and it contained a sentence with a regional grammatical construction that caught a lot of people's attention.

The crucial part of the sentence in question is "the brakes needed replaced." Some people commented that it should have been "the brakes needed to be replaced." I've been doing some research on regional grammatical constructions, and it seems that "needs replaced" is a construction wholeheartedly accepted by some and vehemently rejected by others.

Some researchers at Yale did a study in North America on what they call the need + V-en construction (need followed by a verb with a passive participle ending). In standard English, they say, this construction is deemed unacceptable. Yet they found that pockets of people throughout the US take no issue with this construction at all. You can read the full article on their findings here.

Have a look at their map of average acceptability of the sentence "My car needs fixed." There's also an interactive map at the bottom of the article with more details about the raw data used in their research. The regions where this sentence is fairly or wholeheartedly accepted cover quite a bit of the country, and not all of these areas are contiguous. I notice that Kansas and Northwest Arkansas (where I grew up and where I live now, respectively) are among the regions most accepting of this construction.

The discussion about this particular grammatical regionalism brings up a couple of larger questions: Should regionalisms be excluded from formal writing? And, if a significant portion of a population uses a certain construction, should it still be considered unacceptable? I'm not attempting to answer these questions here, but they are worth thinking about.

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​Language changes constantly. Just last month, Merriam-Webster added over five hundred words to the dictionary to reflect new terms being used in the English lexicon. Not everyone will have heard of all of these words, but enough people are using them that they warrant entries in a prominent dictionary. And I'm willing to bet that not everyone is using these words in the same way.

My point is that there is a difference between how language ought to be used and how language is actually used. In formal writing, those differences matter more. In informal writing, they may not matter as much. Ultimately, it's the writer who gets to decide where each piece of writing falls on that spectrum. 

As a proofreader, it's my job to fix what's wrong—​and leave what's not wrong alone. While some people might not agree with the need + V-en construction, others use it regularly. If something "needs fixed," the "to be" is implied. The truncated construction might be scoffed at by some, but no one is going to misunderstand the sentence.

What about you? If you live in the US, how has your region influenced your acceptance of the need + V-en construction? What about those of you who don't live in the US? Is this construction acceptable in your country or region? Let me know in the comments!

If you want to learn a bit more about regionalisms from an expert, check out Grammar Girl's article here. And if you'd like to have some fun and take a regional dialect quiz, this one shows you a heat map of your personal dialect. (Unsurprisingly, mine was centered around Kansas, as shown above.)

​I talk about confidence a lot. I want to help writers be bold and overcome their fears. I want them to be confident in their skills and brave enough to tell their stories to the world.

But can I let you in on a little secret? Helping others be confident is one of my primary goals because confidence is something I've struggled with a lot. I know what it's like to second-guess my own opinions, abilities, or knowledge.

The primary result of having low confidence is inaction. People who are not confident will freeze up in crises, avoid difficult problems, and delay chasing their dreams. They don't take action, nothing in their life changes, and their confidence plunges even lower.

So how do you get out of this downward spiral, boost your confidence, and see positive change in your life? There's a simple solution: you take action. 

​​Last year, to my utmost surprise, I became a runner. (And that's a whole other discussion for another time.) As a newbie runner, I've become a fan of the Nike guided runs, which help motivate and inspire me as well as teach me how to run better. On one of my recent guided runs, Head Coach Bennett gave me some food for thought every few minutes in order to work out my mind as well as my body. One of these thoughts struck a chord with me: "Courage lies just beyond the reach of confidence."

Many thoughts and discussions could come from this one sentence, but what resonated with me was an idea I've been ruminating on for a while. Confidence doesn't come before you take action; confidence comes because you take action. And how do you take action with no confidence? Courage. Courage gets you past the limit of your certainty. You have to be brave and take the first step, like Indiana Jones and his leap of faith, knowing that confidence will follow and give you a bridge to stand on.

Can you think of a time when you were scared to do something but you did it anyway? How did you feel afterward? If you succeeded, I'd be willing to bet that you felt fantastic. There's nothing that boosts your confidence like accomplishing something you didn't think you could do.

And even if you failed, you still accomplished something. You took action and practiced ignoring your insecurities. You pushed forward through the fear and crossed the proverbial finish line. That builds confidence too, because now you know that you can do hard things and still survive.

This concept of courage before confidence can lead to growth in so many areas of our lives. But specifically for your writing life, I'd encourage you to take that leap of faith. What is it that you've been avoiding?

Do you hesitate to begin writing your story, thinking that you lack the skill to put what's in your head onto the page? Have a little courage and begin anyway. Skill comes with practice. Are you afraid to share your writing with the world or even your closest friends, worried by the criticism that might come? Take a deep breath and share it anyway. The more you share, the easier it will be. 

The only way to build confidence is to have the courage to go beyond your comfort zone. And you know what? That zone will grow with every step you take.

​Perfection. It's a word I simultaneously cherish and despise. And even though I know I can never achieve it, I'm constantly pursuing it.

Does that sound like you too? Do you ever give up on something before you've even started because you know it will never be perfect? Or, if you do begin, do you spend countless hours tweaking and still feel like you've fallen short?

It's a common problem among writers especially. We wait for the perfect moment to start writing that novel, once the house is clean, the kids are in bed, or all our work responsibilities are complete. We write and rewrite the same passage over and over in the vain hope that this time the words will convey all that we intended and more. We check and recheck for our own errors, frustrated that each pass reveals more inadequacies.

In short, we obsess. Anything that isn't perfect is unacceptable and must be redone. And when we fall short again and again, we feel like failures.

But that's a lie. You know why? Because perfection is a lie, too. The simple truth is that nothing in this world is or ever will be perfect. Not me. Not you. Not your writing. Not mine.

The solution to perfectionism is simple, but you may not want to hear it: Let it go. I know, that's easier said than done. Trust me, that can be hard to come to terms with. Even though we know logically that it's true, something within us still screams, "But wait! If I just try a little harder, everything will finally come together flawlessly."

But that's never going to happen. And do you know what this continual striving for the unattainable costs us? Time, energy, money, peace of mind. If we keep pushing against an immovable barrier, we'll never be able to enjoy life. What a waste.

So where does that leave us? Well, I'm not an expert at overcoming perfectionism, but I think it really comes down to trust. At a certain point, you have to trust in yourself and your skills enough to know that you've done your best. Set a limit for yourself, and once you reach it, step back, take a deep breath, and trust that you did everything you could. Then let it go and move on.

When it comes to your writing, this is especially crucial. Anything you write should definitely be edited and rewritten to an extent. That's how writing gets better. But eventually, enough is enough, and continued tweaking will start to make your writing worse.

Sometimes success is found in completing something you set out to do, no matter how poor the quality of the final product. Just do it. Be content in the knowledge that you did a hard thing and didn't give up.

Trust in your skill. Trust in your audience's ability to have grace if they find any blemishes.

Many famous writers have said that writing is never finished; you just have to choose to surrender it.

So write. Do your best. Take a deep breath and hit submit. And trust that it's enough.​