Over the past couple of months, I've written a series of articles on editing tips for fluency. Here are links to each article, with short teasers of what they contain.

Dialogue Tags: prose becomes overladen when we fail to cut unnecessary 'he said's and 'she said's from the text. If you have already mentioned your character in action, you can often tack their quotation next to the sentence describing what they were doing. Examples are included in the article.

Repeated Words: little words such as 'just', 'suddenly', and 'but' can become wearisome to the reader when used in repeatedly in rapid succession. Substituting them with synonyms or cutting them out entirely can result in better prose.

Adjective and Adverb Abuse: too many describing words can either tire out or nauseate your reader. This article includes both practical examples and tips for getting rid of endless adjectives and adverbs. 

Repeated Sentence Structure: a variety of sentence lengths and structures will keep your readers interested in what you're saying. If you constantly write sentences that begin the same way, then this article is for you.

Using Quotation Marks Correctly: what are the rules surrounding the use of " and '? This article explains some of them.

Growing a Useful Vocabulary: lost for words? This article talks about the importance of reading widely.

Commonly Misused Words: they're everywhere. This quick link will help you get started on identifying some of the words you often misuse. 

Consistent Spelling: confused by American and British spelling? Here are some rules to help illuminate the topic for you.

Happy editing!

​In this final post about editing for fluency, I wanted to write very quickly about spelling. Spelling these days is much easier than it used to be, because most of us have spell checkers on whatever application we use for writing. But it isn’t that easy, unfortunately. Who are you writing for? Where is your work going to be published? These questions will help you understand whether you will adopt British spelling or American spelling. The two are very different. Here are some examples:
 
Gray – American word for a depressing colour.
Grey – British word for a depressing colour.
 
Color – American word for a shade such as ‘gray’, ‘red’, or ‘pink’.
Colour – British word for a shade such as ‘grey’, ‘red’, or ‘pink’.
 
Center – American word for the middle of any given spot.
Centre – British word for the middle of any given spot.
 
Cancelation – American word for the act of canceling something.
Cancellation – British word for the act of cancelling something.
 
Realization – American word describing the moment you register your deadline is tomorrow.
Realisation – British word describing the moment you register your deadline is tomorrow.
 
Here are some general rules for American versus British spelling:

1. In America, it is generally ‘or’ not ‘our’. For example: ‘color’, ‘favor’, ‘neighbor’.
2. In America, it is generally ‘ize’ not ‘ise’: ‘realize’, ‘aggrandize’, ‘accessorize’.
3. In America, the double ‘ll’ often becomes a single ‘l’ especially in the middle of words that are longer than two syllables and have a suffix such as ‘ing’ or ‘ed’ added to the end: ‘traveling’, ‘tranquilized’, ‘tunneling’.
4. In America, ‘re’ becomes ‘er’ in many word endings: ‘theater’, ‘center’, ‘scepter’.
5. In America, endings such as ‘mme’ are often reduced to a single ‘m’: ‘program’, ‘aerogram’.
6. In America, select ‘ae’ combinations are reduced to a single ‘e’: ‘eons’, ‘encyclopedia’.

 
Here are those rules back to front.

1. In British spelling, it is generally ‘our’ not ‘or’. For example: ‘colour’, ‘favour’, ‘neighbour’.
2. In British spelling, it is generally ‘ise’ not ‘ize’: ‘realise’, ‘aggrandise’, ‘accessorise’.
3. In British spelling, the double ‘ll’s are typically retained in the middle of words that are longer than two syllables and have a suffix such as ‘ing’ or ‘ed’ added to the end: ‘travelling’, ‘tranquillized’, ‘tunnelling’.
4. In British spelling, ‘er’ becomes ‘re’ in many word endings: ‘theatre’, ‘centre’, ‘sceptre’.
5. In British spelling, ‘mme’ endings are retained in words such as ‘programme’, ‘aerogramme’.
6. In British spelling, select ‘ae’ combinations are retained in words such as ‘aeons’, ‘encyclopaedia’.

 
There are exceptions to these rules, and there are other different spellings that seem almost arbitrary, such as ‘grey’ and ‘gray’, and ‘ton’ and ‘tonne’. If you set your spell checker correctly, it should pick up on many of these. But if in doubt, do your research to see if you’ve gotten it right. Then find and replace the errors throughout your work.
 
When do I need to use British spelling?
 
When you are writing for an English audience or for an audience within a country under the Commonwealth, it is typically wiser to use British spelling. For instance, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada use a combination of American and British spelling, but overall, they are more aligned with British than American. If your publisher is British, Kiwi, Australian, or Canadian, they will likely help you make your spelling consistently British.
 
When do I need to use American spelling?
 
When you are writing for an American audience or an American publishing company, your spelling will need to be consistently American.
 
Why the need for consistent spelling?
 
Spelling needs to be consistent so that the author avoids distracting the reader from the text unnecessarily.
 
Editing Tip for Fluency No #8: To avoid detracting from your work, keep your spelling consistent according to your audience’s or publisher’s nationality.
 
This concludes my series on Editing Tips for Fluency. I hope to summarise the various tips in an article at some point. But for now – happy editing!

Some time ago, during the month of my third book's release last year, Australian author Russell Proctor posted a review of my first book and my series so far in general on his blog. Today, I'd like to share that link with you: Human Focused High Fantasy.

One thing that I've really tried to work hard on in this series is character development. It is so important to me that I asked for my publisher to allow me to take my books back after the deadlines for delivering them, so that I could rehash some elements. I still haven't done as good a job as a more experienced author might have done, but the result was thankfully something better than the original book.

In writing my series The Fledgling Account, I have strived to write books about characters that are meaningful and characters that grow. By the same token, I have tried to avoid being idealistic about them, portraying people who are perfect or need to change very little over the series. This is why I was grateful for this review of Russell's, which highlighted the fact that the main character - and the state of his heart - was the focus of these books. Yet for me, this human focus is also intended to point to a Higher Force at play. I want to emphasise the imperfections of human nature while giving a glimpse of the perfection of God. 

Take a trip to the Mio Pilamúr with me...