A Copy Editor’s Guide To Western/English Writing Rules
Six Most Common Mistakes I See In Manuscripts, & How To Fix Them!
Dialogue
Speech INTERRUPTED by an action requires a dash. The tag should not be capitalized, and should not have anything preceding the next string of dialogue.
Ex: “What are you talking about? Look—” she forced him to face the mirror “—You’re beautiful.”
Speech followed by an ACTION requires a period, not a comma.
The tag should be capitalized, and should not have a period preceding the next string of dialogue (if applicable).
Ex: “That’s just how life works.” He propped his back against the couch. “You snooze, you lose.”
Speech followed by a DIALOGUE tag required a comma, not a period.
Dialogue, in this context, means synonyms of the word says/said. Tags like sighed, sputtered, huffed, and laughed are all action tags, not dialogue tags. The dialogue tag shouldn’t be capitalized, and should have a comma preceding the next string of dialogue (if applicable).
Ex: “Nachos are too expensive these days,” he muttered, “I can barely afford water here.”
Active Vs Passive Voice
Active voice is when the subject is performing a verb, while passive voice is when the subject is having the verb performed onto them. Active voice is more clear, while passive voice can read as informal. Learn how, when, and why to use both here: How To Eliminate Passive Voice.
Passive Voice to Active Voice in Past-Tense
The words “was” and “by” are pillars for passive voice in this tense. Avoid them unless absolutely necessary.
Ex: “The cake was baked by her.” → “She baked the cake.”
Passive Voice to Active Voice in Present-Tense
The words “is”, “by”, and “are” are pillars for passive voice in this tense. Avoid them unless absolutely necessary.
Examples: “Mistakes are being made.” → “People made mistakes.”
“A cake is brought to Katie.” → “They bring Katie a cake.”
“This song is loved by many.” → “Many people love this song.”
The only time you wouldn’t change passive voice to active voice is in dialogue. Human speech needs grammatical errors to be human.
Sentence Structure
Word economy is the practice of having purpose and meaning to every word written, in which the stronger the phrasing, the more concise, yet detailed the sentence will be. Add variety and diversity to your sentence structure by implementing in differing sentence formats every few sentences.
I + Action + Action Format
Ex: “He yawned shyly (I), heading to the bed (Action), only for Stewart to steal the pillow from him (Action).”
Try Action + I + Action Format
Ex: “Yawning shyly (Action), he shuffled towards the bed (I), only for Stewart to steal his pillow (Action).”
You can use both these formats, just make sure to vary them so your sentences read less rigidly and flow better. Variety = Fluidity.
Poetic Prose
The difference between poetry and prose is that poetry uses rhyming schemes, metaphoric descriptions, and specific line breaks, while prose follows paragraph structure, direct descriptions, and natural speech patterns. Poetic prose is a combination of the two, it:
Follows paragraph structure.
Uses metaphorical and literary divisive descriptions alongside their direct ones.
Follows a natural speech pattern, but consists of specific line breaks for tension and dramatic effect, like in regular poetry.
Regular Prose:
“I went to the store, walked down the rows, picked up an orange and looked at it. I was very hungry and wanted to eat it.”
Poetic Prose:
“My gums salivated for a taste of nectar, tongue yearning to lap and teeth aching to sink. I made haste for the fruit aisle.”
Books that contain this style include The Great Gatsby by Scott Fietzgerald, How I Fell In Love With Hope by Lancali, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, anything by V.E Schwab, and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Essentially, poetic prose is about making the sentences meaningful in both metaphor and structure.
Paragraph Rules
Start a new paragraph whenever there is a change in TSTS: Theme, Speaker, Topic, Setting.
Show, Don’t Tell
Ah yes, that age old writing rule that editors repeat over and over again, but what does it really mean in this context? The issue it addresses stems from the teaching that readers are fragile minds that must be told everything in order to understand (thanks mainstream publishing). But those aren’t the people you want reading your book anyway. Let your readers think. Let them piece together subtext and what words and body language insinuate about characters. You worked hard to create this story, they ought to work to grasp its complexity the way it deserves to be analyzed. Rather than describing their actions, then explicitly stating the intention behind it, allow the implicit subtext to exist freely. This will make the characters seem more real, and allow readers to get boosts of dopamine and excitement that they’ve figured out the path you’ve constructed for them. You don’t need to repeat the explicit when you’ve already implied the implicit. We will understand what you’re meaning to convey. Trust yourself. Additionally, rather than say a character feels something happening, just say it is happening.
Exs:
“She sees the spiders crawl up his back.” → “The spiders crawl up his back.”
“She feels the bed dip as he sits down beside her.” → “The bed dips beside her.”
