This contrast between the broad strokes of an autobiography and the deep dive of a memoir is something that writers new to creative nonfiction struggle with. That said, I feel that it is an important difference to master in order to write a successful memoir.
Read MoreThe Top 5 Editorial Mistakes I’ve Seen… and How to Fix Them, Part 5.
This final Editorial Mistake concerns errors that happen on a line-by-line and sentence-by-sentence basis.
This is line editing, which typically has a localized impact, if any, on the reader's experience. However, when copyediting errors are abundant in a manuscript, it can keep the reader from investing interest in the story at hand.
Read MoreThe Top 5 Editorial Mistakes I’ve Seen… and How to Fix Them, Part 4.
I call Editorial Mistake #4 "the George R.R. Martin Effect" because Game of Thrones and works like it have made POV shifts very popular, especially among my sci-fi/fantasy clients.
In GOT, it makes sense. Martin has a broad cast of characters carrying out a geopolitical saga over three different continents. This leads to a slow burn that assumedly will end up with all of those perspectives converging in one place as they fight for control of the Iron Throne.
This is the reader’s reward for slogging through all the weird names and mysterious backstories: seeing how beloved and reviled characters will interact with one another.
There are some downsides to POV shifts, though, that you should keep in mind for your own writing.
Read MoreThe Top 5 Editorial Mistakes I’ve Seen… and How to Fix Them, Part 3.
Characters lacking in agency often don’t have many motivating factors to help them think, speak, or act. Instead, they passively accept the things happening around them.
This can make it difficult for the reader to empathize with your characters, often because it seems the characters are doing nothing to help themselves. As a result, you may risk losing your reader’s interest in your novel.
Read MoreThe Top 5 Editorial Mistakes I’ve Seen… and How to Fix Them, Part 2.
Remember Goldilocks and the Three Bears? We don’t want too much or too little background on a character in a manuscript. We want it to be just right.
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