Be Your Own Editor

Contributed by Randall Ingermanson, who has an interesting take on the process . . .

What’s the dirtiest word in a writer’s lexicon? Think about that for a minute before you read on. What’s the worst thing you can call a fellow writer?

Here’s what many writers would say: “Unpublished.”

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I’m going to explain two at-times subtle, but easy to fix, grammatical no-nos that every writer is guilty of employing from time to time. While you’re doing that final polish/scan of your manuscript, add “dangling modifier” and “misplaced modifier” to your list of things to look for.

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My friend Joan needs help. And fast.

It’s my big moment. It came faster than expected. I get to meet with an agent, face to face, next week. What the heck do I do?

I get an entire 15 minutes to talk with the agent, who specializes in my area.

This is probably the exact wrong thing to do, but I’ve designed a cover and typeset ten chapters of a proposed book idea.

What should I do? What should I say? What should I bring?

Relax, Joan. You’ve come to the right place. I’ve sat on the other side of that table.

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Melody in Cleveland is frustrated:

I have sent countless queries to literary agents who specialize in the genre my book is in but I keep on getting rejections after rejections. I do have one literary agent interested in me but I haven’t heard from her yet. I’m hopeful but since I’ve been rejected so much it’s hard to really hope. I have changed my query letter and followed the 10 steps in writing a query letter but still I get rejections. I’ve had friends and family read it and even co-workers who don’t know me very well and they like it. It gets to the point of my story and it’s interesting. When I send it to agents that take romance, in the rejection it will state it isn’t right for their agency. Every time I get rejected I send out another query to a different agent and again get rejected. Do you have any suggestions?

You’re in good company, Melody. Don’t lose hope!

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Contributed by AnnaLisa Michalski

Excessive prepositions aren’t uncommon among us English speakers—in fact, English is among the few languages whose speakers find it absolutely necessary to use prepositions at all—but every so often, a prepositional usage will appear that stands out as odd. Our tendency to attach “up” to verbs that don’t need it is one of these instances.

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