grammar

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Why Pay for Something You Can Do Yourself?

My folks were camping last week so I was going to their house twice a day to let their chickens in and out and to make sure the drip irrigation system for their garden was working. On one of those trips, I ran into their neighbor, J, who was doing the weeding. (Dad has a mini co-op going on with J’s family – they help with weeding and the two families share produce.)

Somehow, in the course of our conversation, I mentioned that I couldn’t WAIT to hire a housekeeper. (I’ve been saying this for MONTHS – but I haven’t taken the action yet.) I got a really strange look from J. She then shared that last week, when she’d been re-painting some exterior trim on her house, she told her daughter, “Never pay for something you can do yourself!”

When is the RIGHT time to DIY and when should you hire a professional? Click To Tweet

And I thought about that – I really have. On the SURFACE, it looks like great advice, right? It’s using the best helping hand you have – the one at the end of your own arm (a favorite saying of MY mom’s when I was growing up). But let’s look at this deeper:

Should you really be doing something because you CAN but that:

  • Isn’t your area of genius?
  • Is something you don’t like to do?
  • Is something you don’t do well?
  • Is something you’re not 100% qualified to do?

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5 Self-Editing Steps for Your Writing – Before Calling in a Pro

I make no secret of the fact that I think ALL books need to be professionally edited before publishing.

Yes, even yours!

But there are some things you can (and should) do before hiring a professional editor.

5 self-editing tips for your #book Click To Tweet

1. Step away from the project

Have you ever noticed that when you re-read your writing after a week (or a month) away from it that typos, grammar or spelling errors, clunky sentences, etc. just LEAP off the page at you?

It’s because your brain isn’t telling you what you KNOW should be there but is showing you what’s actually on the page. Kinda nifty, right?

Whenever time allows, step away from your completed project for a week or more. Then come back and re-read with fresh eyes to catch what was hidden before. In a perfect world, I’d say give yourself 2-3 weeks of “rest” before editing it again; in the real world we rarely have that much time.

021616-Edit2. Grab your red pen and kill a tree!

Set your manuscript up to be double spaced and 12 pt font – then print it out! (Single sided, not double.) Grab a cuppa of your favorite beverage, your red pen, and go to town. At this stage, you’re not looking for commas (the details) but for the broader strokes in the manuscript that might not be working.

And yes, really do print it! Your brain will see things differently on a paper than on screen. Plus, you can’t get “lost” on your computer (research, Facebook, etc.) as easily when you’re not on your computer!

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Saturday Editing Tip: Affect vs. Effect

As part of my Assisted Self-Publishing services, I offer a round of comprehensive editing. This editing covers grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Here’s a quick grammar tip for your Saturday!

 

Affect vs. Effect

I’m sure that every English teacher everywhere has a catchy way of remembering the difference between affect & effect. But, when I was in school, it wasn’t considered “in vogue” to diagram sentences, focus on parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc), and spend much time on those little nuances of grammar that I’ll use my whole life long. Like the difference between affect and effect.

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