Why Every Author Needs To Update Their Editing Skills

 

 

Why Every Author Needs to Know Editing

 

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Author of The Frugal Editor: Do-It-Yourself Editing
Now In Its Third Edition

 

Last month I contributed an article “Ten Easy Ways to Keep Dialogue Sharp
to this #WritersontheMove blog with a promise to give authors reasons why
they need to know all the editing skills they can work into their busy writing 
schedule including those for writing dialogue that I covered last week. I hoped to entice
even nonfiction writers who don’t often use dialogue to start using
it. Even newspapers that once

demanded strict "who, how, were, and why leads”
 now include anecdotes in their front-page stories!

 

It surprises people when they learn that grammar rules change over time. Or that what they learned in high school or advanced grammar classes in college is either passé or may not apply to fiction. It also surprises them to learn that a perfectly edited book is never perfect because there are always so many disagreements among experts. And even experts are often misinformed. The worlds of grammar and style choices are filled with myths and misinformation like, “Never use contractions in your writing,” “Never use fragments,” and “Never end a sentence with a preposition.” Further, as my client base grew, I kept running into common misconceptions and outright annoying style choices that would never fly in the publishing world. Thus, a new edition of The Frugal Editor was a must! And, thus, I keep battling decades old misinformation about editing—especially among newer authors. 

 

But what about authors who can proudly point to decades of publishing? Well, sometimes they suffer a little hubris. They think they have done well without worrying about spending time on what they know from high school grammar classes. and therefore already know. So we’ll start off with a smattering of what is new in my The Frugal Editor in its third edition—new in that last few years, in fact! And—if you scroll a bit—you’ll find another list of editing myths you—still believe—yes! You personally—that just happen to still be lying in wait for an occasion to embarrass (humiliate!?) you:

·       The Third Edition of The Frugal Editor has been reorganized, and my publisher Victor Volkman at Modern History Press tells me I outdid myself with about 50% new (helpful!) material including new “Editor’s Extras” based on my own school of hard knocks!

·       Authors will love the all-new sections including:

o    Beta readers and peer reviewers

o    What you probably don’t know about custom dictionaries

o    Up-to-date rules for accommodating gender-specific and other cultural needs

o    A chapter for word-lovers and poets

o    Quickie reviews of word processors for you

o    What even traditionally accepted front and back matter can do for your book sales, your career, and your readers

o    Political Correctness considerations change and grow with each passing day. So, yes! Lots of updating here!

·       The Third Edition of The Frugal Editor still includes the basics that make you into an on-your-own editor when you must be. Few writers other than Stephen King can afford to hire an editor for every query letter, every media release, every media kit, every blog post. So until your career is so star-studded you can afford a publicist and editor on a retainer basis, writers need to know both the basics of editing and the little-known secrets.

·       The third edition is still loaded with reader favorites like what authors need to know about book covers—another aspect of publishing that even experienced authors might leave entirely up to others—but it’s updated!

·       New information will dispel myths like these:

o    Agents are a cantankerous lot. (Nope! In The Frugal Editor, twenty-one of the nation's best tell you their pet peeves and they do it in the best of spirits.)

o    If your English teacher told you something is OK, it is. (No! Language rules have changed since you were a sophomore. Anyway, your English teachers likely have no background in publishing, so apart from basic grammar, how much help can they be?

o    If a manuscript or query is grammar-perfect, you'll be fine. (No! Lots of things that are grammatically correct annoy publishers.)

o    Always use your Spell and Grammar Checker. (No! Some suggest you don't use it at all, but The Frugal Editorwill help you make it your partner instead of your enemy.)

o    It's easy to avoid agent and editor scams by asking other writers. Even other professionals! (The Frugal Editorgives you a to-do and not-to-do lists to help you avoid being taken even when you are doing just that. )

o    Your publisher will assign a top-flight editor. Even big five publishers are having budget problems and many cut expenses by using less experienced/qualified editors. (Maybe, but don't count on it. The more you know, the better partner you’ll be for an editor!)

o    Formatters and editors will take care of the hyphens, ellipses, and all the other grungy little punctuation marks that English teachers avoided teaching because they didn't know how to use them either. (Chances are, you'll catch even great formatters and editors—the ones you pay for their services—in an error or two if you know your stuff!

o    When you do know your stuff, you’ll feel more comfortable defying all kinds of rules that are still extant. You’ll even feel comfortable explaining to your editor why this choice is an improvement for this particular title, voice, time, or era.

 

NOTE: The parts of this article bulleted are reprints (edited and updated) from one of my sell sheets. They are widely used in publishers’ and authors’ review-getting process using query letters, ARCs, and accompanying marketing materials. Find a sample of sell sheets—front, back, and footer—in the Appendix of The Frugal Editor, third edition.

You’ll find the first part of this plea of mine for writers right here on Karen Cioffi’s Writers on the Move
blog in my column on basic dialogue tips posted  in May, 2025.

It will give you ten reasons why knowing more 
editing than your do already might make

you a better (and happier) writer . 

Go to:  
 https://www.writersonthemove.com/2025/05/dialogues-ten-basic-cant-go-wrong-rules.html

 

MORE ABOUT TODAY’S WRITERS ON THE MOVE CONTRIBUTOR

Carolyn Howard-Johnson was an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writer's Program for nearly a decade. The first book in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books, The Frugal Book Promoter, won USA Book News' Best Professional Book Award and Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award. The second, The Frugal Editor, is the winningest book in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers (The first edition was named best of 2004 by USA Book News.) TFEIII includes many more editing tips on dialogue—even punctuation for dialogue. Learn more about building a career in the publishing world at www.howtodoitfrugally.com. 

 

“Careers that are not fed die as readily as any living
 organism given no sustenance.”

·       

Dialogue’s Ten Basic Can’t-Go-Wrong Rules

 

Ten Easy Ways to Keep Dialogue Sharp
And Why the Average Author Needs to Know Them

 

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Author of The Frugal Editor: Do-It-Yourself Editing
Now In Its Third Edition

 

Let’s start with the second part first because you, the author, are reasonably sure 
your published work will receive attention from the best editors ever, 
and in the meantime, running small documents past friends, relatives, and even English teachers
likely won’t cut it. This article covers grammar and dialogue that
  English Departments’ don’t offer until college and then only if you happen
 to choose it as an elective or major in creative writing. 
PS: If you write nonfiction, and are avoiding anecdotes to make 
your work sparkle, you’ll have tools enough to make your characters speak!

 

Dialogue’s Ten Basic Can’t-Go-Wrong Rules 

 

1. Keep it simple. "He said" and "She said" will usually do. Your reader is trained to accept this repetition.

 

2. Forget you ever heard of strong verbs. Skip the "He yelped" and the "She sighed." They slow your dialogue down. If you feel need them, look at the words—the actual dialogue— your character used when he was yelping. Maybe it doesn't reflect the way someone would sound if he yelped. Maybe if you strengthen the dialogue, you be glad to ditch the overblown tag.

 

3. When you can, reveal who is saying something by the voice or tone of the dialogue. That way you may be able to skip tags occasionally, especially when you have only two people speaking to one another. Your dialogue will ring truer, too.

 

4. Avoid having characters use other characters' names. In real life, we don't use people's names in our speech much.  We tend to reserve using names for when we're angry or disapproving or we just met in a room full of people and we're practicing out social skills. Having a character direct her speech to one character or another by using her name is a lazy writer's way of directing dialogue and it will annoy the reader. When readers are annoyed, they will not be immersed in the story you are trying to tell.

 

5. Avoid putting internal dialogue in italics. Trust your reader and your own ability to write in a character's point of view. Whichever point-of-view you have choses for your narrative will let your reader surmise who is speaking.

 

6. Be cautious about using dialogue to tell something that should be shown. It doesn't help to transfer “telling” from the narrative to what a character’s is saying. Professionals will know what you are trying to do and your reader will just think that character is long winded.

 

7. Don't break up dialogue sequences with long or overly frequent blocks of narrative. One of dialogue's greatest advantages is that it moves a story along.  If a writer inserts too much stage direction, it will lose the forward motion and any tension it is building.

 

8. Avoid having every character answer a question directly. Some people do that (say a sensitive young girl who has been reared to obey her elders) but many don't. Some veer off with an answer that doesn't follow from the question asked. Some are silent. Some characters do any one of these things as a matter of course. Some do them purposefully, perhaps to avoid fibbing or to change the subject or because they are passive aggressive.

 

9. Avoid dull dialogue that doesn't help draw better characters or move the action forward. Forcing a reader to hear people introduce themselves to one another without a very good reason to do so is cruel and unusual punishment.

 

10. Use dialogue to unobtrusive plant a seed of intrigue. If a character brings up a concern that isn't solved immediately, you can heighten the page-turning effect until you are ready to supply the “great reveal.”

 

Though this article will have writers using professionally-written dialogue to liven everything from their nonfiction to their novels, I strongly recommend 

Tom Chiarella's Writing Dialogue published by Writers' Digest. For more on editing in general—from editing query letters to turning unattractive adverbs into metaphoric gold—find my The Frugal Editor in its third edition on Amazon.

 

Next month, right here on Karen Cioffi’s Writers on the Move
blog, I’m planning another list that
will give you ten reasons why knowing more 
editing than your do already might make

You a better (and happier) writer. 

 

MORE ABOUT TODAY’S WRITERS ON THE MOVE CONTRIBUTOR

 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson was an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writer's Program for nearly a decade. The first book in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books, The Frugal Book Promoter, won USA Book News' Best Professional Book Award and Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award. The second, The Frugal Editor, is the winningest book in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers (The first edition was named best of 2004 by USA Book News. ) It includes many editing tips on dialogue, the use of quotation marks and more and the third edition includes even more. Learn more at www.howtodoitfrugally.com. 

 

 

 

 

Fiction Isn’t Fiction After All, Memories Are the Stuff of Writing

 

Is this where memories sometimes reside? Could be. They’re Sneaky.

 

  

 

A Little Story On the Joys of Writing

 

Memories, Personal Growth, and How Fiction Isn't Fiction After All

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

 

 

This is a story that goes way back, the story of a critique group, how it developed into much more, and how it lives as a study in the way life changes. I spent several hours breaking bread with my very longtime critique group. The bread was a focaccia strewn with bits of rosemary, onions, garlic and oregano and, probably, drenched with olive oil—to which I add more olive oil and balsamic vinegar as a dip just to be sure it is really as fattening as possible. I eat the crust; Leora Krygier (www.leorakrygier.com) eats the insides. Just like Jack Sprat and his wife. It has become a tradition.

 

It is not a large critique group. It started with four of us. We were among about 20 enrolled in a four-day writers' conference (they now call it a Studio) at UCLA Extension Writers' Program (https://www.uclaextension.edu ). Our teacher, Phyllis Gebauer, suggested we would be perfect critique partners. We worked together for a year and then one of our number, Iris, dwindled away to Washington D.C. I kept in touch with her, but not as avidly as I should, though last year I sent her an assortment of my huge, chartreuse gladiola bulbs via USPS.

 

It was an unusual group not only because of its longevity. After watching us grow and publish, Phyllis—our instructor—asked if she might join us. We—her former students— were floating on air. This was a kind of personal affirmation, as exquisite in its way as getting an agent or a publisher. Our former teacher thinking we had something to offer her in terms of critique.

 

We were four, then five, then—eventually—back to three. Three little piggies who relished our favorite restaurants—the ones with the best focaccias, almost as much as we did writing. Only three left of the five of us. I took notes of the day we discussed     websites, a new program I found on the Science channel moderated by the tech columnist at the New York Times that still reruns occasionally on Prime, I think. I read a poem (did you know that flowers are all about sex?), Leora (author of When She Sleeps) read the beginning of a proposal for a book of nonfiction (something quite new for her) and Phyllis read from her work-in-progress, Hot Widow and told us that it had been accepted for publication. JayCe Crawford, our Cup of Comfort contributor, was attending to a sick friend and we missed her. She is the fastidious one who keeps our t's crossed. You can see, we've all published. 

 

Later I then I became one of Phyllis's fellow UCLA instructors. It was quite a ride that eventually afforded me UCLA Extension’s Instructors Development Program. They offered all the classes in it to their instructors as one of the benefits. I took every single one and framed the tiny little “sheepskin” for a wall in office. It was the kind of benefit that keeps giving.

 

And then our instructor cum fellow critique announced she would not be finishing her latest book but bowing to cancer instead. She left behind her several UCLA teaching awards and her library of books to UCLA’s library—most of them first editions of great prize-winners over the extent of her life including many hand-signed by the authors who had once been students and other associates.

 

So, aside from this ramble from a writer who loves to write, what's this all about? 

 

Memories and how they affect our writing, nonfiction or fiction.

 

Memories are what writing and life (or life and writing) are made of. In fact, I don't think there is such a thing as true fiction. Everything, however made up by playing the "What if?" game, is rooted in experience. An author describes a room or garden? She's been there before, or she's reassembling parts of several gardens she's seen. She builds a character? No character is wholly original. No matter how carefully a fictional character has been drawn, the author has seen those traits in some individual, some novel, or some movie before. Or maybe a dream. If that weren't true, that character wouldn't come off as real.

 

Readers, too, bring their real memories to a story, visualize it similarly to what they've experienced. So, what we do every day—as writers or readers—is important to writing, to what we bring to a book when we read it. 

 

Oh! That reminds me. It's also about 

 

Personal Growth and how our friends help us move ahead.

 

About one year later. Phyllis's book, the one we critiqued a year go, is a reality. Before she died she read an excerpt from Hot Widow (which I happen to know was based on many of her personal memories! Wowser!) at Pasadena's famous independent bookstore, Vroman's still going after well over 100 years. Leora and Joey and I were—of course!—here. We had dinner first and then be in the audience, proud little piggies that we are. Cheering.

 

And one day that feeling we had for a fellow writer or those book-laden shelves, or that Indian dinner? One of them is sure to show up in something we write. I guess all three already have.

 

 

Tips and Tidbits and Another Memory This is an example of a piece I once included in each of well more than 200 “Back to Literature” columns I wrote for the now closed MyShelf.com where I met many reviewers, mostly authors of books generous enough to share and promote other authors as well. You’ll sometimes see them crop up in articles I write in other places, too. Here it is: (Each month in this box, Carolyn lists a Tidbit that will help authors write or promote better. She will also include a Tip to help readers find a treasure among long-neglected books or a sapphire among the newly-published.) Writers' Tidbit: :Writers will find lots of inspiration, promotion tips and guidance on craft at my blog, www.SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com They can even subscribe to have posts delivered to their mailboxes. They'll also find a long list of other writing-related blogs in one of what bloggers call "segments." Scroll to the end of the page for that list and segments that include other valuable resources for writers.   Readers' Tip: Book Expo America is a tradeshow for publishing professionals. When I was there  Cushing-Malloy, Inc, a manufacturer of books, was celebrating their 60 year anniversary. They gave out a nifty little reading light that works as a bookmark, too. I love it and highly recommend it for readers. It's not something I would have purchased for myself, but now I've seen how handy it is, I would! I'm sure you can buy one at most good bookstores.

 

 

MORE ABOUT THE WRITERS ON THE MOVE CONTRIBUTOR

 

This column may one day appear in a memoir my publisher tells me I must write, but no apologies if that never happens. Memories and sharing are indeed the joys that keep most of us writing. Whether it makes it to a memoir or not. But if you’re curious if that ever happens, follow me on the Authors’ Profile that Amazon provides to its writers and follow me to receive a notice of each new book. They don’t come out super often; somehow the writing of the moment seems to fill the time necessary required to be a prolific writer of books. And learn more the books I have managed to publish in these years of intense writing on my website. 

How Dickens Made a Word for Himself and Became Known for “Messiness"

Dickensonian Words for Inspiration

Creative Writing Isn’t for the Faint of Heart

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

I included a chapter in the third edition of my multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers for the kind of writers who can’t resist making up words, especially if they feel insecure about it. Of course, writers should reassess such “indiscretions,” but knowing a bit about renowned writers who did the same thing helps them feel more comfortable about straying from the usual. I love MSNBC’s motto, “the more we know…” and it benefits by adding  “the more equipped we are to break a rule.”

Take the admired Victorian writer Charles Dickens, famous for his A Christmas Carol (1843) and Oliver Twist (1838). He invented a slew of words by making an adjective like messy into a noun with by adding a suffix. Some adjectives like messy very nearly demand to become a noun and Dickens’ messiness was so successful it can still be found in some of the best dictionaries. 

I think of new words attributed to Dickens as inspirational. They to dare us to proceed when we are so tempted. Here’s a little list of his adaptations—some that caught on and have been used for decades now and some…well, not so much.

§  Comfoozled: Some say Dickens invented this word, some prefer to call it a coined word. He used it in one of his Pickwick Papers which appears to mean “a horrid state of love,” and “done over with.” Popular or not, I put in in a class with Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwockey.” A word doesn’t have to live long to be a lot of fun.

§  Sassigassity: Dickens said it means “audacity with attitude.” That makes it a superlative for audacity; you know, very sassy or very audacious. Perhaps it didn’t catch on because writers’ seem to have a natural aversion to redundancy. Today Dickens experiment might serve as an example of how we writers might evaluate our own creative efforts. In this case it did double duty for something we’re already uncomfortable with.

§  Whizz-bang met with greater success. Dickens used it to as a noun for the sound of gunshot. His word became popular during WWII to mean a small-caliber shell and it might have been adapted through the decades to describe a vigorous or smart person, but that theory might not be easily verified.

§  Jog-trotty: Apparently Dickens wasn’t thinking of jog-trot, a term used for the slow trot used by some breeds of horses. He seemed to equate it with it with something dull in his Bleak House (1852). That one, too, hasn’t found popularity.

 

Here are a few of Dickens’ words that have happily survived:

§  Sawbones is still occasionally used to refer to a surgeon. I suspect its tinge of humor has helped is longevity.

§   Mildewy was so useful Dickens used it twice—one in The Pickwick Papers and again in A Tale of Two Cities (1859).

§  Soupy, bulgy, swishy ,waxy, and trembly are all examples of how easy it is to add a suffix to most any word. Using that technique probably won’t add points in a game of Scrabble, but if your inventions are disputed because they don’t show up in dictionaries, you can try the old defense, “If it’s good enough for Dickens, it’s good enough for Scrabble.

I’ll be counting on your sassigassity to come up with some words of your own and maybe new techniques for the process. I’ll need new material for that chapter in The Frugal Editor I mentioned. It’s a favorite among poets and authors of children’s lit. You new words could be my excuse to pitch its fourth edition…and make your new word famous. Ahem!

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MORE ABOUT TODAY’S BLOGGER

 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. All her books for writers are multi award winners including the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter published in 2003 now updated and published in its third edition. Her The Frugal Editor, also now in its third edition, won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award and includes an almost-new chapter for poets and other creatives who like making up their own words.

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts.