An Editor's Advice
This new series is based on the advice Maureen Kincaid Speller
a reviewer, writer, editor and former librarian, is our book reviewer and also works for WritersServices as a freelance editor., a long-serving WritersServices freelance editor, has given writers over the years. It deals with the most common problems she has encountered in the fiction manuscripts which cross her desk.
In the fifth article Maureen deals with points of view - who's telling this story?
'It is a great temptation for the inexperienced author to write from the first-person viewpoint because it somehow seems easier to imagine oneself directly into a situation and to write about how things might seem from that point of view.'
An Editor's Advice 1: Dialogue An Editor's Advice 2: why you need to do further drafts An Editor's Advice 3: genre writing
An Editor's Advice 4 on planning
Is there a book in you?
Our latest new review is for Alison Baverstock's book, which asks a fundamental question for every writer:
'Being realistic about the resources you will need... are what this immensely useful book is all about. It should be required reading for all writers who aren’t sure about their commitment to the craft.'
Creative Commons
Inside Publishing looks at 'a clever and innovative way of licensing material which both makes it widely available and also protects and controls the licence given.'
Setting as character
Timothy Hallinan, author of A Nail through the Heart on understanding the importance of the setting in a novel:
'Whatever your setting may be, I'd hope you'll work to make it active rather than passive... It will play a role in the story. It will affect your characters. In some ways it will reflect them.'
My Say
Our latest contribution is from Eliza Graham on how she finally got her novel, Playing with the Moon, published as part of the Macmillan New Writing programme.
Colin joined Penguin Books after university. He has over the years worked for a number of the major publishing houses in senior editorial positions. His particular interests, apart from sailing, are science fiction, fantasy, crime and thrillers.
