As creative writer Bianca Bass explains, the advice to “Just quit” is a wishy washy pipe dream at best for many people. Sure, there are some folks who quit their job, travel the world, start a business, or make a new career. For those people, that’s great. But you don’t have to follow that same path or else be cursed to a life of unhappiness. You can keep your day job and find fulfillment elsewhere, or even use that day job to finance a better life later on.
1. The Content Edit developmental, substantive, or macro edit; sometimes simply called revisions. This is where the editor gives big-picture notes. Fiction: plot, characterization, scene crafting, POV’s, and all the other elements of your story. Non-fiction: logical flow of ideas, readability, strength of argument, interest level. The editor doesn’t actually edit your work in this stage, they usually give you a set of notes and send you back to work on your revisions.
2. The Line Edit. The editor works directly in your manuscript document, using Track Changes and Comments in Word. She suggests word, sentence and paragraph changes, looks for discrepancies, asks questions about things that don’t make sense, highlights inconsistencies or POV breaks, and looks for anything else that needs to be smoothed out. The line editor is responsible for seeing that the manuscript conforms to house style guidelines.
3. The Copy Edit. This is the most detailed editing, dealing with typos, spelling, punctuation, word use. Sometimes fact checking is done; permissions are checked; footnotes are verified.
Read more at: What Does a Book Edit Look Like? | Rachelle Gardner.
Inspiration is easy because it’s unlooked for. Plotting and outlining are hard work, even with the best of ideas. But there are some tricks that can make it easier. Here are a few techniques to play with the next time you want to try to wrangle that flash of brilliance and turn it into something storylike.
Page Pounders 