Tips For Writers:

If you want to be published remember that you must:

• choose a market for your work and then write a story or article that will meet the editor's needs.
• research your chosen publication carefully to discover the style, tone and length of the stories and/or articles it publishes.
• treat your writing as a product that needs to be desirable to the editor.
• check your work carefully and present it professionally.

When you’ve finished your story, novel or article it’s tempting to think that your job is done, but this is where the real work begins. Now you need to revise, polish and edit your work to make sure it’s as good as it can be.

• Why Edit? After spending so much time and effort working on your story or article it would be a shame to send it off to an editor or publisher with mistakes and inconsistencies in it.  The editor or publisher will be given the impression that you don’t care enough to get things right.  They will not have confidence in you as a writer who is businesslike and can provide them with a product they can use.  They are unlikely to have the resources to edit the work for you, so it will probably be sent back with a rejection slip.
• How Do I Edit? Many writers are terrified of editing, mainly because they don’t know how to go about it.  So here are a few pointers to help you:

0.  Put Your Work Away In A Drawer.  This is not as strange as it sounds.  When you’ve just finished writing a piece you are too closely involved with it to see its flaws.  If you can put it away for a few days you’ll come to it with fresh eyes – and it will be amazing how many errors and inconsistencies you may find. 
0.  Read It Aloud.  You may feel silly, but reading aloud will help you to look at every word of your manuscript and spot the errors.  It will also help you to pinpoint double or unclear meanings, awkward phrases and redundant words.  Mark what you want to change with a pencil as you read then edit afterwards. 
0. Check Your Facts.  Did you give your character blue eyes on page one?  Have they changed to brown by page eighty-two?  If you’ve written about a school or hospital do you really know what goes on in those places?  If you don’t, find out – or set your story somewhere familiar.  You may not think it matters, but it will matter to the nurse or teacher who reads your story, so why alienate them?  You also need to check for inconsistencies in your plot.  If the main character left Manchester by train would she be in London two hours later? 
0. Check Your Spelling and Grammar.  It’s no good just running your work through the computer spelling and grammar check.  You need to read it carefully in case you’ve written ‘through’ when you meant ‘threw’ or ‘compliment’ when you meant ‘complement’.  Have you typed ‘then’ when you meant to put ‘than’?  None of these will be picked up as errors by your computer.  
0. Check That Your Plot Works.  Read through your work and make sure that your plot makes sense.  I know it sounds obvious, but just because you have all the relevant facts in your head doesn’t mean that you’ve told the reader everything they need to know.  Have you explained everything?  Or has the plot become too complicated and difficult to follow.  Are there too many sub-plots that are detracting from the real story?  Can anything be simplified and made clearer?  Is your ending credible and satisfying? 
0. Tie Up All Your Loose Ends.  Have you tied up all the loose ends?  Don’t leave your readers wondering what happened to Janet who was lost in the jungle.  You may know that she was eventually rescued by a tribe of dwarfs and lived with them happily ever after, so tell your readers.
0. Check Your Point of View.  Make sure you know who is telling the story.  Are we seeing all the action through their eyes or have you inadvertently strayed into the viewpoint of another character.  If you start in the first person you must continue in the first person.  If you start in the third, end in the third.  If something needs to be explained, try putting it into direct speech by one of the characters rather than suddenly introducing an omnipotent narrator.
0. Cut, Cut, Cut.  Do you know that you could probably cut a third of the words in your story and improve it?  It’s hard to press the ‘delete’ button on something you’ve worked hard on, but you must learn to be ruthless.  If a word, a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph or even a chapter isn’t serving a purpose or moving the story on, get rid of it.  The same goes for excess characters.  Have you introduced a character, described them, recounted their life history, then allowed them to say only a couple of lines before discarding them?  You don’t need them.  Get rid of them.  If you describe them in detail your reader will think that they are important and will be waiting for them to re-appear, maybe at a vital moment, and will be confused and disappointed when they don’t show up.
0. Sharpen Up.  Look at your descriptions.  Can you make them stronger?  Look at your characters’ speech.  Is everything they say moving the story along or are they just discussing what they ate for lunch?
0. Cross Out The Clichés.  Read through your work and look for clichés.  For example: “He rose with the lark and threw open the windows to hear the dawn chorus before throwing on his clothes and stepping out to greet the day.”  Get rid of them.  Think of something original.  This will give the piece your style and your voice instead of someone else’s.
0. Avoid Repetition.  Have you used the same word three times in the same paragraph?  Try to find some synonyms to replace frequently repeated words or phrases. 
0. Active and Passive Voice.  Using the active voice brings your story alive.  Don’t say: “The town was devastated by the raging bush fire”, say: “The raging bush fire devastated the town.” 
0. Print It Out And Read It Again.  When you think your story is perfect and you’ve just pressed the ‘print’ button it is not the time to be complacent.  Once you have the printed version in your hand, take your pencil and read it again.  You’ll be amazed at the obvious errors you’ve missed on the screen.  One last check will ensure that it’s as good as it can be before you send it off to an editor or an agent or publisher.  Now it will look professional, polished and businesslike, and it will make the right impression. 
0. Get A Second Opinion.  It’s always worthwhile asking someone else to comment on your work.  A fresh pair of eyes will notice things that you’ve overlooked.