Hold it! Before you send out your finished manuscript to a publisher, editor, or agent,  have you done your homework and gone over an editing checklist? Here is a very basic checklist you might want to read. It’s only an excerpt from The Writer’s Little Helper by James V. Smith, Jr., but you’ll get the idea.

The article, “Amateur and Common Mistakes,” by Courtney Carpenter appears in a Writer’s Digest blog. I happened to come across this post the other day and suddenly realized that the book mentioned looked familiar. Sure enough, I went over to my bookshelf and there it was. Way back behind so many other books on writing. I picked it out and am going over it again. It’s been a while.

I noticed that the author has a lot of checklists throughout the book. For example, there’s a checklist on Imagery versus Description, Structuring Your First Words, Conflict in Dialogue, and so on and so on. I am going to read it again, cover to cover.

Chautauqua

On another note, I am working on a narrative nonfiction picture book. I found this definition on a Writers and Editors blog: Narrative nonfiction–joining good research with compelling, character-driven storytelling–reads like a novel.

I usually write fiction, but I need to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. It’s been a fascinating journey. I’ve been doing research and I am so impressed with all the help I have been getting, from museums to newspapers to the Library of Congress. Wish me luck!

Narrative nonfiction: A narrative presentation of actual events.—Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner