Happy New Year! Have you made some New Year’s resolutions? In the editorial department at Medallion Press, we’ve resolved to improve our own English language usage and to share some of our findings with you. Aren’t we nice? Just as there are trends in what’s selling, there seem to be trends in certain errors. Let’s put these nine errors behind us as we say good-bye to 2009.

First, polish and update your manuscript before submitting it. While reviewing submissions, Helen, our executive editor, has found that some writers continue to underline rather than italicizing when necessary. She notes, “Everyone has an italics function. As soon as I see underlining, I know, among other things, that the author has had the manuscript hanging around for a long time with no updates.” Another polishing touch you can add is to insert a page break at the end of each chapter. Rather than using multiple line breaks to get to the next page, use the page break function.

Second, break your paragraphs appropriately to improve the readability of your manuscript. Long paragraphs slow the pacing.

Third, don’t hyphenate indiscriminately. It might surprise you to discover that editors spend hours checking hyphenated and compound words in a manuscript. Improve the quality of your own writing by checking hyphenations in the dictionary and The Chicago Manual of Style.

The fourth issue that consistently requires our attention is the word “then.” “Then” is not a coordinating conjunction. If “then” introduces a second clause (subject and verb) in one sentence, use a semicolon before it. (She walked to the park; then she watched the sunrise. But She walked to the park, then watched the sunrise.)

Fifth, be careful to not confuse homonyms. For example, when necessary, be sure to look up “vice” vs. “vise,” “discrete” vs. “discreet,” “pour” vs. “pore,” and so forth.

Sixth, when punctuating dialogue, watch what follows a character’s words. Is it a speaker tag (s/he said), or is it an action (s/he laughed)? A speaker tag is part of the same sentence, but an action needs its own sentence. (“Hi,” she said. But “Hi.” She laughed.)

Seventh, avoid redundancies like “nodded her head,” “rose to his feet,” “hesitated a moment,” “shook her head no,” “blinked his eyes,” and “shrugged her shoulders.” All we need is “nodded,” “rose,” “hesitated,” “shook her head,” “blinked,” and “shrugged.” Ahh, isn’t that better?

Eighth, when writing thoughts (internal dialogue), write them in first person, present tense. Second person, past tense confuses the reader and pulls her out of the story.

The ninth and final tip is to try to avoid random head hopping. We suggest keeping each scene in one character’s point of view to avoid confusion and to maintain the suspension of disbelief.

And isn’t that what we want? A little escape? You can help your readers have that experience by carefully editing your manuscript to avoid any encumbrances like the ones we’ve mentioned above.

Stay tuned for more tips from your friendly editors in the coming months. Here’s to a year of learning something new every day!

The Editors

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