Most writers know they should ideally avoid using cliché in their writing, but what is a cliché in the first place? And how can you work your way around it?

Are there any instances when cliché can actually be a good thing? Which specific phrases should you throw out of your vocabulary right this second?

Today, we’ll unpack all of that – and more.

“When he looked into her eyes as blue as the ocean, he realized he was head over heels in love.”

The sentence above contains two clichés, both of which you’ve probably already guessed – comparing the colour blue to the ocean and using an extremely common phrase to describe the feeling of falling in love.

A cliché is essentially a phrase or an idea that was once considered novel and innovative but is now overused and old.

The first time someone said “Good things come to those who wait,” it was probably a huge hit. Over time, however, the phrase has been used in so many situations by so many people that it no longer contains the spark of originality it once possessed.

Clichés come in various shapes and forms, including:

• Comparisons (“red as a rose”)
• Adages (“better late than never”)
• Phrases (“last but not least”)
• Metaphors (“at the speed of light”)

Many writers can recognize a cliché when they see one because we’re such voracious readers that we can intuitively tell what’s new and what’s old.

However, that doesn’t stop us from using cliché in our own stories, which is why we also need to learn how to cut it out when necessary.

RELATED READ: How to use repetition as a literary device

How to Avoid Using Cliché in Your Writing

Overused phrases and predictable tropes aren’t necessarily bad in and of themselves –  there’s a reason they’ve been used so many times, after all – but they do signal unoriginality, which many readers may take an issue with.

This is why it’s important to banish most cliché from your fiction. I say “most” because there are phrases and tropes that serve a specific purpose, such as:

• Reaching the target audience (for example, certain generations can relate to specific phrases while some readers purposely seek the same tropes and plotlines, such as the “enemies to lovers” trope)
• Depicting a character’s personality in more depth (a character who lacks empathy, for instance, may try to cheer their friend up by saying “Look on the bright side!”)

Plus, sometimes, cliché just works. This is why it’s better to look at each of your clichés in the context of the story and determine for yourself whether you’d like to keep them or throw them out.

If you decide to do the latter, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Don’t overthink it when writing the first draft. No one’s first draft is perfect. In fact, many writers create such chaotic first drafts that they are almost unrecognizable from the final product. Therefore, it doesn’t really matter how many overused phrases you write during this stage because you can always erase them later on. What matters most is that you get the story down on the page.

Replace it with something more original. Once you begin to revise and edit your draft, it’s time to take a closer look at your clichés and figure out the best way to replace them. Oftentimes, it is enough to simply cut them out, but if you want to describe the same sentiment using different words, try to think of comparisons and metaphors that aren’t as common.

For inspiration, you can look at the world around you and see whether something comes to mind:

• Plants and animals
• Household appliances
• Food
• Weather
• Buildings
• Culture

Ask your friends or beta readers for feedback. Once you’re ready to send your manuscript to others, jot down the specific phrases or tropes you’re unsure about and ask your friends for opinions once they’re done reading (not before – this way, they won’t look for it and will have an authentic reading experience).

RELATED READ: Literary Techniques: 10 Common Literary Devices You Should Know

Common Cliches: Examples

Cliché can be found in essentially everything, from specific phrases to dialogues and plotlines.

Phrases:

• “Actions speak louder than words”
• “All’s fair in love and war”
• “Think outside the box”
• “In the nick of time”

Dialogue and direct speech:

• “I’ve heard enough!”
• “A penny for your thoughts”
• “We’ll laugh about this later”
• “You take my breath away”

Descriptions:

• “She released a breath she didn’t know she was holding”
• “The silence in the room was deafening”
• “Her heart skipped a beat”

Tropes:

• Love triangle
• Enemies to lovers
• Rags to riches

Again, it’s important to remember that cliché can absolutely be written well. Many writers put an original spin on it, which means that a simple love triangle can turn into an intricate and deeply psychological exploration of the human psyche.

Plus, some readers just really want to read a typical slow-burn “enemies to lovers” story, which is also completely valid. It all depends on how you approach cliché and whether you manage to make it work.

Conclusion

Cliché is a bit of a double-edged sword (pun intended).

On the one hand, it can weaken your writing and make your story sound unoriginal or repetitive; on the other, it can be precisely what your target audience wants. This is why it’s vital to always research the genre you’re writing.

And if you do decide to use a cliché plotline, let’s say, try to put your own spin on it so that your story is the perfect blend of something your readers will love and something they won’t expect.

The post What is a Cliché? Banishing Overused Phrases and Tropes from Your Fiction appeared first on Firstediting.com.

When I was younger, my writing process went a bit like this: I came up with new ideas chapter by chapter, I had zero clue of how the story would end, and most days, I just went with the flow.

While some authors are renowned for doing exactly that and making it work, I always ended up feeling so confused and overwhelmed that I eventually abandoned the whole project in favor of a new one.

It was only when I finally put more effort into the prewriting stage – aka, the first stage of writing a book (both fiction and non-fiction) – that I discovered the magic of research, brainstorming, and outlining.

Is prewriting essential?

If you’re an extraordinarily talented fiction pantser (that is, a writer who works without an outline), probably not.

However, non-fiction books and elaborate fiction novels (especially in the high fantasy and sci-fi genres) do usually work best when they’re built upon a foundation of research and structure.

So, what are the benefits of prewriting? Which prewriting steps, techniques and tools can you make use of to ensure you don’t get stuck on your first draft?

Here’s everything in a nutshell.

4 Benefits of Prewriting

Prewriting may sound like a waste of time if you’re already itching to get the story down on paper, but it actually comes with many amazing benefits you get to reap later on in the process:

• It makes for a stronger narrative from the get-go because your plot is carefully outlined and structured
• It ensures you have all the necessary information you need, be it secondary sources for a non-fiction book or historical research for a romance novel set in the past
• It helps prevent writer’s block because you can pick and choose which chapter you will write during your writing sessions and you won’t have to research and plan during the writing process as much
• It gives your ideas enough space to brew at the back of your mind so that the story feels coherent once you begin to put it down on the page

RELATED READ: How to find the right nonfiction editor for you

Prewriting Tips: 5 Techniques You Can Try

At its core, prewriting is a very individual process. While some writers might not be able to live without mind mapping, others prefer to have freewriting sessions or bury themselves in research.

Ultimately, it’s up to you. What matters most is that some of the following techniques help you craft a well-structured narrative and that they hopefully make drafting a little bit easier.

Have your pick…

Technique 1: Brainstorming

Starting off with good old brainstorming, this is where all stories begin: with a collection of random ideas.

Brainstorming is all about putting your creative cogs to work and writing down all associations and ideas relevant to the topic at hand.

If you’re writing a non-fiction book on romantic relationships, you might create a list of everything connected to the subject, from the physiological changes whilst falling in love to making it work in the long-term.

If you’re about to create a high fantasy novel, you can write down all the major ideas, scenes, and lore that come to mind.

Remember: the point of brainstorming is not to create a few high-quality ideas. It’s to come up with as many as you can, no matter how bad. This allows your creativity to truly thrive.

Technique 2: Mind Mapping

Similarly to brainstorming, mind mapping is all about putting all your ideas down on paper.

This time, however, you’re creating clusters connected by branches, which allows you to organize your ideas in a more visually structured way.

I absolutely love mind mapping – especially when I’m trying to come up with plot twists or contextual background for my stories – but this exercise does take up a lot of space because you need quite a lot of paper.

Fortunately, there are many different digital corkboard websites you can use.

Technique 3: Research

This is a vital prewriting step no matter what your process looks like. This is because high-quality non-fiction novels rely on valid and reputable sources while fiction novels ought to be properly thought out so that they are complex and realistic.

If you want to write a romantasy novel, it’s important that you read other books in your genre.

If you want to write a non-fiction book on mindfulness, it’s crucial to compile all relevant secondary sources relating to the topic and extract information from them.

When you’re researching, try to turn the activity into an active process rather than a passive one.

For example, you can annotate and bookmark the novels you read in order to remember certain themes and ideas or to analyze plot structure in more detail.

RELATED READ: How to Self-Edit Your Nonfiction Book

Technique 4: Freewriting

Freewriting is an excellent way to dig deeper into a certain topic or theme. This prewriting exercise consists of:

• Writing non-stop for a short amount of time (5-10 minutes is enough)
• Letting your thoughts freely flow through you with no editing
• Exploring a certain idea in more depth and seeing where your writing takes you

Freewriting is similar to brainstorming in so that you’re essentially brain-dumping on paper, however, it’s more complex and elaborate, which allows you to truly expand on your ideas and grasp them fully.

As part of freewriting, you can also write random scenes or chapters from your book in order to get a better sense of the chemistry between your characters or your narrative voice.

It is often when we write that we come up with the best ideas, which is why you definitely shouldn’t ban yourself from writing your story down – it’s just that it’s better to view it as part of the prewriting stage rather than a full-on first draft.

Extra Tip: If you want to structure your freewriting process a bit more, give looping a try. Looping comprises many short freewriting sessions, each of which digs deeper into a specific topic mentioned in the text from the previous session. This way, you get to narrow down your focus.

Technique 5: Outlining

Finally, outlining is the best way to ensure your first draft is a coherent narrative and you don’t get writer’s block every time you sit down to write.

Outlining is exactly what it says on the label. It’s the process of creating an outline for your book, be it by planning everything chapter by chapter, scene by scene, or beat by beat.
The scope of your outline can be as large as you’d like. It all depends on what makes you most creative and productive.

A good prewriting example is V. E. Schwab’s routine.

As she says in her newsletter, Schwab plans every scene in her novel before she begins to write the first draft. She also tends to unravel her stories from the end toward the beginning, which shows that everyone’s process can be completely unique.

Conclusion

Prewriting inevitably makes drafting easier, and what’s more, it gives you the space to conduct all necessary research and outline a book that has an amazing and well-structured narrative, be it fiction or non-fiction.

However, remember that the prewriting techniques outlined above are meant to serve you, not the other way around. If one prewriting method doesn’t work, another one might.

Don’t be afraid to experiment a little bit.

The post Before the First Draft: Essential Prewriting Steps for Authors appeared first on Firstediting.com.

You’ve decided to write about your life. You’ve probably already picked your reasons and main areas of interest, but one question still remains…

Are you going to write an autobiography or a memoir? And what’s the difference between them?

Well, get ready to learn the ins and outs of the memoir vs. autobiography mystery once and for all.

In this article, we’ll discuss all the various aspects that help distinguish between the two genres. The main goal here is to help you find your answer to the primary question: which one is right for you?

Memoir vs. Autobiography: How to Tell Them Apart

The terms memoir and autobiography are sometimes used interchangeably, however, there are actually some vital differences between them.

While both genres revolve around the life of the author (this is where autobiographies differ from biographies, for instance), the style, tone, focus, and purpose can be very distinct from one another.

Difference #1: Focus

An autobiography typically spans the entirety of the author’s lifetime up until the point of writing.

This is why autobiographies are often written by celebrities, politicians, or experts in their field – an autobiography is an excellent way to let the readers in on everything that’s led the person of interest to be where they are now.

A memoir, on the other hand, doesn’t necessarily encompass an author’s whole life. In fact, many memoirs focus on a specific time period, theme, or event.

For example, American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood by Marie Arana is a memoir whose main focus is on bilingualism and multiculturalism while Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is about his writing journey and success.

RELATED READ: Creative Non-fiction: What is it?

Difference #2: Perspective

Since an autobiography typically serves to inform the readership about one’s life and establish a closer connection with them, most autobiographies use first-person narration (“I went, I said”). In other words, the author speaks directly to the reader.

Memoirs enjoy a bit more artistic freedom – they can be written from both first-person and third-person point of view, and what’s more, it’s also possible to shift between perspectives of different characters.

This may seem strange – a memoir is supposed to be non-fiction, after all – but some memoirs actually toe the line between non-fiction and fiction because they primarily focus on subjective perception and emotions while autobiographies strive to be objective.

Difference #3: Tone and Style

Another great way to solve the memoir vs. autobiography riddle is to have a look at tone and style.

The ground rules are thus:

• Autobiographies lean towards formal and chronological style with factual language (this is why they can be used as credible sources of information by academics)
• Memoirs tend to be more creative and flexible because they recount a true event or time period from a subjective point of view, which means an author may look at their life through an emotionally-colored lens (this is why they aren’t fact-checked and aren’t necessarily viewed as 100% objectively correct)

Difference #4: Purpose

Finally, the last important difference between a memoir and an autobiography is the reason why you’re writing your book.

Since an autobiography provides a comprehensive picture of one’s life and achievements, its primary purpose is to share and cement an author’s legacy.

A memoir, on the other hand, is more about a deeper theme or lesson that was learned through personal experience. In other words, a memoir is less about the author’s credentials or status and more about a specific experience they went through.

RELATED READ: 4 Writing Strategies That Will Make You a Better Writer

Memoir vs. Autobiography: Finding Your Voice

Now that we’ve gone over the four primary differences between a memoir and an autobiography, it’s time to ask yourself these questions:

• Would you like to write about your whole life or are you looking to explore a specific theme (your career, friendships, family, a specific event from your past, etc.)?
• Do you want to focus on emotion, subjective perspective, and artistic expression, or would you rather be as objective as possible?
• Are you writing your book in order to leave behind information about your life and establish a legacy, or is it to explore a specific theme or experience?

Your answers to these questions should help you determine which genre is right for you.

Conclusion

Before you go, here’s one last piece of advice: take everything we’ve just covered with a grain of salt. After all, writing is an artistic craft, and genre-bending is more than welcome.

While the guidelines above can help you distinguish between the two genres and find the right voice for your book, don’t forget that the way you tell your story is ultimately up to you.

The post Memoir vs. Autobiography: Which One Is Right For You? appeared first on Firstediting.com.

The words “memoir” and “autobiography” sound like pretty much the same thing, right?

After all, both memoirs and autobiographies describe a person’s life from the first point of view. If you were to write a book about yourself, it could be a memoir as well as an autobiography.

However, there are actually slight differences between the two, differences that can completely change how you approach your manuscript and market it afterward.

Memoir and Autobiography: Similarities

Before we dive into the whole memoir vs. autobiography business, it’s important for us to highlight some key similarities between the two genres:

• Both genres are nonfiction
• Both genres are written by the author about the author
• Both genres use the first-point-of-view perspective (“I thought, I went, I said” etc.)

While autobiographies can sometimes use the third point of view (“she, he, they”), it’s very rare to see this method of narration nowadays since writing in “I” terms makes the story more personal.

RELATED READ: How to Self-Edit Your Nonfiction Book

Memoir vs. Autobiography: Differences

When referring to a nonfiction book about someone’s own life, many of us tend to mix up the terms “memoir” and “autobiography” because they essentially mean the same thing.

If you’re trying to navigate the literary world with more confidence and knowledge, however, the subtle differences between the two can come in handy as they allow for a more complex analysis of books in these genres.

What Is a Memoir?

Originating from the French word mémoire (“memory” or “recollection”), a memoir is a nonfiction piece of work that focuses on the author’s subjective memories of a specific time period in their life.

The most crucial element here is subjectivity.

Memoirs are very emotion-based – their main aim is to capture one’s own experience of past events and one’s process of recalling old memories, which means that while memoirs attempt to be factually correct, perceptions and feelings are at the forefront of the work.

Since memories tend to be fragmented, incomplete, vague, or highly subjective in nature, the structure of a memoir entirely depends on its author.

For example, a memoir can have a chronological narrative, it can be split into different chapters based on various areas of one’s life, or it can jump between different times and places depending on how the author in question perceives their past experience.

What’s more, while a memoir is ultimately nonfiction, it still relies on the power of storytelling structures and narrative arches in order to immerse the reader and make for an enjoyable story.

As Kyoko Mori, author of the memoirs Polite Lies: On Being a Woman Caught Between Cultures and Yarn: Remembering the Way Home, told Melanie Brooks:

“I always think plot has to rise out of character, and that is exactly the same whether it’s fiction or nonfiction. It’s really about that person realizing something or working toward something or coming to terms with something. There has to be conflict, you know?”

To sum it up, a memoir:

• Orients itself around a specific time period or theme of one’s life
• Focuses on a subjective perception of past experiences and memories
• Is flexible when it comes to its structure
• Follows the basic rules of storytelling
• Isn’t fact-checked
• Can be written by anyone

What Is an Autobiography?

An autobiography is a nonfiction book that recounts factually correct information about one’s life.

Autobiographies usually follow a chronological structure and they cover everything from one’s childhood to the point of writing, which is why many autobiographies are drafted in the later stages of the author’s life.

Since autobiographies are considered to be credible sources used by historians, it’s important that they are fact-checked and that they veer on the side of objectivity.

Whilst anyone could technically write their own autobiography, the genre usually belongs to people who are famous in their field (think Maya Angelou) or hold a position of power (think Benjamin Franklin).

This is because memoirs revolve around a specific theme, making for an interesting tale no matter the author, while autobiographies span decades of one’s life, which means the public must be interested in the person themselves.

To sum it up, an autobiography:

• Recounts the whole history of one’s life up to the point of writing
• Is fact-checked and used as a valuable source by academics
• Tends to be written by a public persona or someone well-known in their field
• Is usually chronological in nature

Autobiography vs. Biography

The difference between an autobiography and a biography is quite simple.

An autobiography is written about one’s own life. A biography is written about someone else’s life.

For example, Stephen King: A Biography is written by Albert Rolls. King himself hasn’t written an autobiography, but he’s published On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, which – as the name suggests – is a memoir because it revolves around one specific theme.

RELATED READ: Non-Fiction Writing Process: 5 Steps to Success

Memoir vs. Autobiography: Examples

Let’s compare extracts from a memoir and an autobiography to highlight the differences, as well as the similarities, between the two:

Memoir: Eva Hoffman, Lost in Translation:

“No, I’m no patriot, nor was I ever allowed to be. And yet, the country of my childhood lives within me with a primacy that is a form of love. It lives within me despite my knowledge of our marginality, and its primitive, unpretty emotions. Is it blind and self-deceptive of me to hold on to its memory? I think it would be blind and self-deceptive not to. All it has given me is the world, but that is enough.

It has fed me language, perceptions, sounds, the human kind …. no geometry of landscape, no haze in the air, will live in us as intensely as the landscapes that we saw as the first, and to which we gave ourselves wholly, without reservation.”

Autobiography: Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom:

“It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, White and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.

I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity. When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both.”

As you can see, both include one’s personal opinions and beliefs, not to mention beautiful prose.

What sets them apart is that Mandela’s words serve to bring the reader closer to the objective events of his life, while Hoffman’s memoir’s importance lies in the topic itself (migration and displacement).

Conclusion

The terms “memoir” and “autobiography” are sometimes used interchangeably, but they actually contain some important differences that allow us to conduct a more elaborate and nuanced analysis of these genres.

And now that you know the answer to the memoir vs. autobiography question,feel free to go ahead and write yours!

The post Unveiling Differences: Memoir vs. Autobiography Explained appeared first on Firstediting.com.

Writing a book may seem easy. You have an idea, and you write it down. Simple, right? Wrong. Writing is more than just writing. When you come up with an idea for your story, you have to do some research. I recommend starting with a character sheet for your protagonist, antagonist, and anyone else who drives the plot. Keep it simple. Describe their goal, their personality, and their actions. Don’t forget to add unique traits, and be sure to give them some backstory. How do your characters connect with each other?

I suggest using Microsoft Word to begin with. You may not enjoy working with Word, but it’s the industry standard, and it has a useful feature you’ll love: Track Changes.

Next, you need to develop the setting. Research the landmarks, the environment, the monuments, statues, parks, and the people who live there. You might also find it easier to use your hometown as the setting for your story. Look around as you walk the streets and imagine you’re seeing things for the first time. Describe them as if you were a visitor in town. Observe the people, and take notes on how they dress and interact.

RELATED READ: 10 Tips to Write a Best-Seller Novel

It can be useful if you use some major news events as a backdrop for your story. Luckily, you can use the Internet for research. Once you have an outline of your story, you can start writing. Keep it simple. Start your story with your protagonist in a tough situation. Don’t go into too much detail to keep your readers engaged.

Don’t revise your story as you write it. Some writers are planners, and some are pantsers. Planners make an outline before they write, while pantsers just wing it and see where the story takes them. I’m a planner, so I map out my chapters ahead of time and then write whatever pops into my head.

Put your characters in a tough situation and show how they overcome it. Then keep your readers hooked by creating new problems for the characters to solve. When you finish your first few chapters, read them over. Do they sound good? Are there any plot holes you missed? If so, fix them. Then work on your next few chapters.

Try to find two or three beta readers. It’s better not to ask your family or friends to read your chapters because they’re usually too scared to criticize your writing.  Instead, maybe try searching for a beta reader using social media, such as joining a Facebook group.

RELATED READ: How to Overcome Procrastination: 3 Tips to Boost Your Writing

After you get some helpful feedback, it’s up to you to decide what to do with it. If you like the feedback, you can look for a professional editor. I suggest FirstEditing for your editing needs because you get a good deal for your money, and you know beforehand how much it will cost to make your book sparkle.

Then comes the magical moment: your manuscript is done, and you have valuable feedback from your editor. They might have found some plot holes you missed.  I recommend fixing them and having your editor check them before moving on to the next exciting part of your writing project: publishing your work.

Will you self-publish through Kindle Direct Publishing from Amazon (or any other self-publishing platform) or are you looking for a traditional publisher? If you decide to self-publish your book, you need to format your manuscript to meet the publishing standards. If you don’t know how to start, you can download many book templates for Word. And yes, you need an attractive cover, and you need to summarize your book in a few sentences. You can purchase premade book covers, or if you’re skilled, you can make a book cover yourself. If you’d like to search for a picture to use for the cover, maybe you can find a royalty-free image through pexels.com. If you’re also going to publish an eBook, you can use Kindle Create, which you can download from Amazon.

If you opt for traditional publishing, you will need to look for a publisher seeking books like yours. Is your book a thriller? Look for a publisher who publishes thrillers. Then write a courteous email, outline your story, and send in your manuscript. Don’t expect them to contact you in a few days; it can take months. Be ready if they reject your manuscript. You’re not the first, and you won’t be the last.

Two of my books are traditionally published through a Dutch publisher (and the process took years), but most of my books are self-published. They are available for Kindle Unlimited, so most of my readers borrow them from the Kindle Library through Amazon, which has a huge worldwide network of potential readers.

About the Author:

As far back as she can remember, Cynthia has been listening to exciting stories told by her mother. She grew up reading books by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, and Philip K. Dick.

It was Cynthia’s mother who inspired her to start telling—and writing—her own stories.

Ms. Fridsma’s writing career started after a handicap in 2014, which left her with a tremor in her right hand, numbness in the fingers, and pain in her wrist. As a result, she had to give up her other creative outlets, such as photography and computer programming, as well as juggling. Yet, she focused on what she could do rather than what she couldn’t do.

Besides writing, she sometimes plays guitar—in the style of Jimi Hendrix.

Cynthia lives in Amsterdam with her husband and their pet rabbit, Max.

Website: https://www.cynthiafridsma.com

Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cynthia.fridsma

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cynthia_fridsma

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Cynthia-Fridsma/author/B00SFXX600

Published works:

The Nightbird Series

Nightbird

The Black Widow

Help

Vanished

Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding

Pandemic: Survival

Hotel of Death

The Lost Planet

Trauma

Ghost Stories

Geister Geschichten

Nachtvogel: Die Schwarze Witwe

Nachtvogel: Das Buch der Toten

Nachtvogel: Hilfe (German Edition)

De Uitverkorene

De Zwarte Weduwe

Trauma: haar leven is een hel

The post How to Write a Book: A Step-by-Step Guide for Writers appeared first on Firstediting.com.

Writing is a bit like building a house.

It is painstaking work that comprises multiple different elements, all of which have to be in perfect harmony to remain stable, not to mention that it takes a very long time to piece everything together.

But once it’s done… you can’t help but feel accomplished and proud of how far you’ve come.

Over the years, I’ve realized that having a writing process – a simple set of steps you can follow – makes the whole writing-a-book business much less complicated. And while there are some major differences between fiction and non-fiction, the importance of a good writing process applies to both.

Let the work begin!

Why You May Benefit From Following a Writing Process

In general, a writing process consists of 5 steps that are involved in the creation of a book:

• Prewriting
• Drafting
• Revision
• Editing
• Publication

These are all equally important. If you skip prewriting and go straight to drafting, your narrative may not make much sense; if you don’t do any editing, there’ll be a lot of unnecessary mistakes; if you don’t revise, your manuscript won’t reach its full potential.

So, what does each step comprise? Let’s find out!

Step 1: Prewriting

Prewriting is where your story comes alive before you give it a clear shape. It’s the step where you let your imagination loose, do a lot of research, and brainstorm for hours until you’re finally settled on what it is you want to achieve with this book.

Aim to:

Find your story. Even a non-fiction book needs an overarching narrative, something to ground and immerse the reader in the text. Your narrative might be about your own life, or it could also be an idea that’s separated into chapters in the same way a house is split into rooms.

Figure out why you want to tell this story. What are you trying to achieve? What do you want the reader to take away? How do you want them to feel?

Ask yourself whether you’re the right person to write this book. Do you have the necessary credentials or experience? Have you done enough research to back up all your claims and turn this book into a credible source of information?

Choose the subgenre of your non-fiction book. Do you think your story would work best if it was a memoir? Or would you like to write something along the lines of self-help? The options are endless, and your best bet is to research many different books that tackle your topic of choice so that you know what’s already out there and who the target audience is.

Compile a document of all your research sources and the specific points you want to make. This will make the drafting process much more effective and less overwhelming.

Step 2: Drafting

Now that you’ve turned vague ideas into a concrete narrative, it’s time to sculpt it into a book-shaped form:

Outline your book chapter by chapter. While fiction gets a bit more leeway when it comes to detailed outlines, non-fiction books need to be structured very well as each chapter ought to make specific points and focus on a small fraction of the bigger argument. What’s more, many publishers and literary agents request to see an outline before the whole draft is complete.

Get writing. Contrary to what you might think, you don’t need to write chronologically. If you really feel like starting with chapter six, then start with chapter six. All that matters is that you put the words down.

Establish a routine. Many famous authors, from Maya Angelou to Ernest Hemingway or Stephen King, have relied on a writing routine to finish their manuscripts. Remember that your first draft doesn’t need to be good – it just needs to exist.

Establish a routine.

Step 3: Revision

This is the step where you take an alright draft and make it into something great. Since drafting is a process that can take months or years, it’s normal to accidentally overlook certain weaknesses in your arguments or to repeat yourself too much.

When your first draft is done, try this:

Let it sit for a few weeks or months. This will allow you to look at it from a fresh perspective when it’s time for revision.

Look at each chapter as an individual essay that makes its own point. Are all chapters mini-essays that contribute to the overarching point you want to make? Does their order make sense? Do they work both individually and as parts of a whole?

Remember your underlying message. Do not stray too far from it and highlight it where necessary.

Step 4: Editing

While revision is more about making major changes – such as rewriting a whole chapter or rethinking the order in which you tell the story – editing looks at the book on a sentence level.

When you edit your manuscript…

Watch out for any unnecessary repetition and make the story more concise. Avoid overexplaining.

Pay a lot of attention to grammatical errors, punctuation mistakes, and typos. Try to polish your language as much as you can.

Prioritize coherence. Ensure that your writing style is the same throughout the book, that your chapters are of a similar length, and that you use the same terminology, citation styles, and font throughout the manuscript.

If you need help editing, you can also reach out to a professional editing service.

Step 5: Publication

Your manuscript’s done! Phew!

…well, not really. A lot of work is still ahead of you, especially if you’re looking to get published traditionally. When working with an editor from a publishing house, you will go over your manuscript again. And again. This will ensure that your book is in the absolute best condition before it’s officially released.

If you’re self-publishing, the road is a bit different, of course. This is the stage where you look for cover artists and get your marketing game on.

Whatever path you choose, remember that great marketing is very important nowadays – the more eyeballs you get on your work, the better. This is why it’s usually recommended to build a social media following if you can and spread the word about your upcoming release.

Conclusion

Many writers follow the above-mentioned writing process without even realizing it as it comes quite naturally to us.

Once you become aware of it, though, you can give each part of the process a bit more structure and purpose, which will ultimately help you create a well-organized and meaningful piece of work.

Lastly, don’t forget that writing is primarily about creativity, so if you want to create your own writing process, go for it!

The post Non-Fiction Writing Process: 5 Steps to Success appeared first on Firstediting.com.

Dumbfounded, you’re not quite sure what to make of it, and so you turn to the internet for help.

And that’s where this article comes in!

Today, we’ll go through what all those hieroglyphs – that is, proofreading marks – mean. The next time you look at your edited manuscript, it will be like discovering a brand new language entirely and realizing you can now read it.

What are proofreading marks?

So, what are proofreading marks in the first place?

Proofreading marks are used to point out any operational, punctuation, typography, and other mistakes in your manuscript that ought to be edited.

You will usually find proofreading marks in the margins of a manuscript, although some proofreaders will insert them in the text itself, which is why it’s often recommended to create double-spaced manuscripts to give your proofreader more room.

Proofreading marks are most commonly applied to hard-copy manuscripts, which is why they’re becoming increasingly rare nowadays – after all, many editors now use tracked changes in Microsoft Word to edit manuscripts digitally.

However, working with a pen and paper is another experience entirely, and some editors prefer it because it allows them to approach your text with a fresh perspective.

Your job as an author is to be able to decode the proofreading marks they leave behind and integrate your editor’s suggestions accordingly.

Of course, this isn’t very easy if you’re just seeing proofreading marks for the first time in your life. It’s a very specific language of its own, and there’s a high chance you will need to read through a guide in order to unpack the meaning of every single mark.

Luckily for you, that’s exactly what we’re about to do.

Punctuation Marks

Let’s start off with something simple – punctuation.

Punctuation marks are pretty straightforward because they’re all about inserting specific punctuation symbols, such as commas, apostrophes, dashes, and more.

Here’s a useful overview:

These marks tend to come with an up or down arrow.

The up arrow (⌃) is used for marks that appear at the bottom of letters, such as commas, while the down arrow (⌄) is often used for quotation or apostrophe marks.

Some marks – like periods or colons – can come in circles as well.

Please note: There is a difference between a hyphen, an Em dash, and an En dash.

• An Em dash is the longest one (—) and it’s often used to connect sentences (“Josh told her he was quite fond of her — something that was very much out of character for him — and left the room”)\
• An En dash has a medium length (–) and it tends to highlight a relationship between two words or numbers (“There were 10–15 people” or “The London–Prague flight takes two hours”)
• A hyphen (-) connects two words to create a meaning, for example, compound adjectives or compound nouns (“My mother-in-law is very kind” or “Write a one-page essay”)

Operational Marks

Alright, moving on to operational marks! These focus on spacing, paragraphs, deletion, and more.

Have a look at this image:

As you can see, operational marks are a tiny bit more complicated than punctuation marks.
But worry not! Here’s an overview of what all these marks mean:

• Delete: This refers to a word that should be deleted from the sentence
• Delete & close up: This refers to a letter within a word that should be deleted
• Close up: Delete space
• Mark new paragraph: Begin a new paragraph where the mark stands
• Spell out: Spell the word in full (e.g, “ok” -> “okay”)
• Move left: Move your writing left
• Move right: Move your writing right
• Let it stand: If the proofreader went through the text more than once and decided to alter their previous correction, they’ll put down “stet” to let you know you should leave the original version as it is
• Insert space: Insert space where the mark stands

Typography Marks

Next comes typography! This is the part where your proofreader tells you what you should capitalize, set in italics or boldface, and which words ought to be in lowercase.

These are the basics:

• caps: Set in capital letters
• Ic: Set in lowercase letters
• bf: Set in boldface
• ital: Set in italics
• rom: Set in roman
• wf: Wrong font
• sm cap: Set in small caps

Sometimes, capitalization is also shown as three horizontal lines.

Abbreviations

We’re not quite finished yet – there are a few more abbreviations you should memorize in order to understand the proofreading language in its entirety.

Here goes:

• tr: transpose two words the proofreader selected (change their order in the sentence)
• ww: wrong word
• dict: faulty diction
• rep: too repetitive
• awk: awkward construction
• wdw: too wordy, make more concise
• r-o: run-on sentence

Why is proofreading important?

Now that you know what proofreading marks are and how to decode them, it’s time to ask the question, “Why is proofreading important in the first place? And how is it different from editing?”

While some people use the two terms interchangeably, editing and proofreading are actually two different parts of the editing process.

In general, editing goes into much more depth – for example, structural editing looks at your story overall, including your character arcs and your plot development – while proofreading centers around grammar, punctuation, typography, and layout.

While proofreading tends to be quicker – it’s essentially the final correction before your manuscript goes to print or is submitted to the publisher – it’s just as important as editing.

Small details matter, so don’t underestimate the importance of proofreading.

Use proofreading marks to polish your own manuscript

Professional proofreaders aren’t the only ones who get to use proofreading marks.

If you are self-editing your own manuscript and want to do one final round of revisions on paper, using proofreading marks can help you get through the text faster and make the process much more effective.

Instead of coming up with your own elaborate system for inserting punctuation, changing word order, or deleting paragraphs, you already have a solid set of rules to learn and refer to.

Reach out to a professional proofreader for help

Of course, two sets of eyes are better than one, so it’s always a good idea to send your manuscript to a professional in the field.

Don’t worry, not all proofreaders use proofreading marks – tracked changes in Microsoft Word or Google Documents are much more common nowadays – but if they do, you now know how to decipher them!

A professional proofreader will ensure that your manuscript is free of errors, typos, and spelling mistakes, and what’s more, they’ll also look at technical aspects that many writers don’t pay as much attention to, such as your font, spacing, and typography.

At FirstEditing, for example, we offer proofreading services as well as high-quality editing packages. From copy editing to line editing and content editing, feel free to pick whichever package suits your needs.

And remember – now that you know how to use proofreading marks, why not print out your manuscript and go over it with these new symbols in mind before you submit it to a professional editor or proofreader?

You’ve just learned a whole new language, so have some fun with it!

The post What Are Proofreading Marks? A Complete Guide appeared first on Firstediting.com.

For authors keen to get published today, there are other routes to take besides just a big name publisher. Self-publishing has been around for a while thanks to Kindle, platforms like Amazon, and even vanity press outfits, but there’s also another option you may not be so familiar with—indie publishing.

Like in the music genre, indie indicates that something is not belonging to or affiliated with a major company. So how does that work in publishing and how can writers utilise this option to get their work out there?

What is indie publishing?

Indie publishing refers to any kind of independent publishing at small presses, or self-publishing. It has become a popular means by which writers can become published authors without needing to query a lot of agents or publishers or pay for an agent or vanity press. Of course, there is still an outlay for marketing and other services with an indie publisher.

Like other industries, the modernization of publishing has meant a lot of mergers and buyouts, and the creation of large publishing companies that can dominate the scene. Indie publishers therefore refer to any of the smaller of these.

These indie publishers, or small publishing houses, often work in particular genres or niche markets. They usually offer authors a lot more freedom than large publishing houses. A publishing company may ask an author to change a title, add a chapter, edit it again, alter a character, and so on. These aren’t necessarily bad things, but with an indie publisher, the author calls the shots and is very involved in the process of what happens with their work.

Indie publishers have also been very successful. Books published through indie publishers have won film contracts and been contenders for literary prizes. Paul Harding’s book, tinkers, won a Pulitzer Prize and was published through the indie publisher Bellevue Literary Press.

What is the difference between indie publishing and self-publishing?

Self-publishing is sometimes associated with inferior quality and ignores how much time and effort has gone into making a book. Self-published books are completely curated by the author from beginning to end. Some write very well, edit their books in an excellent fashion, use the right software, get a good graphic designer, and make an effort to market it properly. But this isn’t always the case.

Some are slapped together and made on the cheap, while other authors just don’t have the professional skills to match what comes out of publishing houses or the money to get the help for the aspects that would really have benefited them. The problem with either approach is that the end product suffers. Readers who see a product on which it’s clear little time or effort has gone into may assume the writer doesn’t care enough, so why should they?

As a result, there is now some stigma attached to self-publishing or self-published titles, so many authors have chosen to rebrand themselves as independent authors, and chosen independent publishers instead.

Indie publishing may sound similar to self-publishing, but with an indie publisher, you’re not footing the bill upfront. While you’re involved in the process, you may hire out aspects of the book’s development and distribution but save money by utilizing the skills you have. For example, you might decide to create your own website or use a friend or contact who has design skills for the cover. These are all elements you then won’t be billed for.

So indie publishing gives you the freedom to be as involved as you like, retain rights to your work, and usually get better royalty rates. It’s a great niche in-between option. But there should be some word of caution about the process. Read on to find out.

How to get started: Tips and Steps

So, once you’ve decided to go down the indie publishing route, what’s the next step? Here are a few tips and steps to get you started and help you produce a product that may stack up to what a professional outfit can produce.

RELATED READ: What Are The 4 Paths To Publishing?

Identify realistic goals

Presumably, you’ve written a great story and it’s ready for you to take the next step with it. But there are key questions you should ask yourself at this point which should help determine which publishing option is best for you.

These include things like, what’s your goal, how much time do you have, what talents do you bring to the project and what is your budget?

The more realistic you are when answering these questions, the better the product you will produce. For example, using a son or daughter who is an artist is not the same as hiring a graphic artist who designs book covers for a living. And getting a friend who was an English teacher to edit a document, is different from hiring a professional editor that looks at manuscripts day in and day out. Similarly, if you want to impact a lot of people, it will be hard to do so if you don’t have a budget to spend on some marketing.

“Even if it’s just your family, put the best book out there that you can. There’s no reason to bore your family,” Keith Ogorek says from the Author Learning Center. “Books have a long afterlife.”

The publishing process may cost more than you think, and take longer than you anticipate. According to Alexa Bigwarfe from Write [Publish] Sell, authors often underestimate the time it can take to prepare their manuscript, how much it costs to prepare it for publication in editing and marketing, and the amount of revisions needed after editing to keep shaping the book into something better.

RELATED READ: 5 Strong Tips For Publishing a Successful Sequel to Your Book

Assemble a good team

Once you’ve established your goals, you can begin the next part of the process. The goal setting will probably help you determine the areas you may need help, and what areas you’re prepared to spend some money on to get it done for you.

Editors to shape the work, designers to illustrate a cover, marketers to drive the sale of your work, and publicists to get the message out there about it are just some of the key areas you should consider getting some help.

There are a lot of indie publishers out there that you can contact, and a quick Google search of this term or independent publishers will reveal a list, and the kinds of genres or markets they cover. They may work with editors, designers, marketers, or publicists, or you may opt to do some of these elements or find your own.

A good editor is very key to the success of your work. There are third-party editing outfits, like us at First Editing, that can assist with this aspect of your work. All editing outfits outline the kinds of editing they do and may provide a free assessment of your work to help you decide. It is important you submit a good product first, as editors still work with the original ideas and presentation they are given.

Develop a marketing strategy

Even if you are getting the help of a marketer or publicist, there are plenty of things you can do to aid the sales and reach of your book. After all, there are only so many family and friends that will buy your book to support you. After that, you need to reach other parts of the public.

You may wish to consider developing an author website, a social media presence, an author’s page on Amazon or other key websites, and regularly send out useful information about what you’re doing. This could be in the form of a newsletter, writing tips, writing excerpts, and so on.

Whether you self-publish, pursue indie publishing, or take the traditional route and approach a big-name publisher, getting a book or story into print is a big undertaking. The more time you spend planning and preparing, budgeting, revising, the better chance you have of a good end product. Or at least something that won’t annoy your family and friends!

The post Indie Publishing: A Quick Guide appeared first on Firstediting.com.

You’ve been writing a really intense chapter. The scenes keep piling up, but you’re still not finished, and you’ve already reached eight thousand words.

That’s when a thought occurs to you. How long should a chapter be? Is your chapter too long? Would the reader lose interest at this point? Would they look at how many pages are left and get horrified at the idea of having twenty pages to go?

I know the struggle. In fact, I found myself in this exact same situation a few months ago, which is why I decided to research how long a chapter should be.

Here’s everything I discovered!

But first…

What is the purpose of a chapter?

Imagine going for a run. After a few minutes of jogging, you’re out of breath and need to stop for a moment. Then you walk for a bit, only to try sprinting next, and then you take a break again.

Those breaks that allow you to recharge your energy? Those are the pauses between the end of one chapter and the beginning of another one.

The purpose of a chapter is to break down your story into digestible bites that keep the momentum going while letting the reader take a breath from time to time. It’s a bit like having a ten-minute break between the different acts of a theatre play – the audience has a chance to relax before they turn their focus back to the stage.

Not only that but a chapter also serves as an important tool for plot development. Chapters tend to begin and end on different notes, and typically, some kind of a shift occurs in that space – a shift that drives the story forward and keeps the reader engaged.

What’s more, the length of your chapter tends to determine the pacing and flow of the story. Longer chapters evoke a sense of slow-building excitement, while short chapters are more of a “bang-bang-bang” nature – they give the story a quick and thrilling pace.

When it comes to non-fiction, the main point of a chapter is to pass along different chunks of knowledge in different sections. Chapters allow you to build concepts upon one another and create an overarching theme that binds different strings of ideas together.

So, without further ado… How long should a chapter be?

RELATED READ: How to Outline A Novel

How long should a chapter be?

First of all, it’s important to keep in mind that there is no rule for chapter length. There are only averages and recommendations. If 10,000-word chapters perfectly fit the theme and pace of your novel, there’s no reason to break them down further just to fit in with other authors.

On average, though, chapters are anywhere between 2,000 and 5,000 words. This gives you enough space to set the scene, create a new shift, and move the story toward its next chapter. The same applies to non-fiction.

However, chapter-length also differs by genre. Thrillers and mystery novels tend to have shorter chapters – many of them ending on cliffhangers – to keep the suspense going, while literary fiction or fantasy books can afford longer word counts due to the slower pace and build-up.

Again, if your chapters are shorter than 2,000 words or longer than 5,000, it’s not the end of the world.

Have you ever read Harry Potter? Those chapters are long. In fact, Detention with Dolores in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is over 9,000 words, while the average chapter length in the series is between 5,000 and 6,000 words.

On the opposite side of the spectrum are books like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, where chapters can be as short as three pages.

It all depends on what kind of story you’re telling. If you’re making a lot of jumps between different points of view and timelines or if one chapter always equals one scene, writing short chapters makes a lot of sense, and whilst anything below 1,000 words is usually seen as too short, there are authors out there who can make it work.

The same applies the other way around – 8,000 words may seem too long a chapter, but if it includes three different scenes, all of which are packed with action, the reader will blaze through it.

Let’s look at some more examples, shall we?

Chapter Length: Examples

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: around 3,700 words per chapter
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: around 2,100 words per chapter
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: around 2,277 words per chapter
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: around 5,232 words per chapter

Remember that these are averages – one book doesn’t have to comprise chapters of the same length.

While it’s a good idea to keep your chapters similar in length for pacing purposes, it’s also completely okay to make them longer or shorter based on the plot. For example, a large battle scene will naturally take up more space than a private conversation between two characters.

RELATED READ: How to start a story: Tips and ideas

What’s the best way to close a chapter?

The endings of chapters aren’t random. Most of the time, a chapter either wraps up its events or invites the reader to keep on reading, for example by creating a cliffhanger or a sense of excitement.

In fact, many chapters manage to do both at the same time. Here’s a very clear example from the first chapter of The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang:

“She had bribed a teacher. She had stolen opium. She has burned herself, lied to her foster parents, abandoned her responsibilities at the store, and broken a marriage deal. And she was going to Sinegard.”

Conclusion

Finally, remember that your chapter length may change throughout the editing process, and whilst it’s important to break your story down into different sequences and have a well-crafted plot, the most vital thing right now is to put the story down on paper.

You can make all the necessary edits later. First, write the whole book. Then feel free to play around with chapter length, and don’t forget that the quality of your story is much more important than word count.

Happy writing!

The post How Long Should a Chapter Be? A Complete Guide for Writers appeared first on Firstediting.com.

Here’s the deal.

No matter how amazing your book is, your query letter must be even better.

Why?

Because a writer query letter is the first point of contact between you and your literary agent or a publishing house. It’s your chance at a brilliant first impression. It’s also the stage where many writers stumble and fall.

Let’s have a look at everything you need to know when it comes to crafting the best writer query letter, shall we?

What Is a Writer Query Letter?

Once you’ve finished writing and self-editing your book, it’s time to reach out to a literary agent who will represent your book and offer it to publishers.

But while many writers think that a short email and a complete draft of their book will do the trick, there is actually a standard procedure all writers ought to stick to.

And that is…drumroll, please…writing a query letter.

A query letter is essentially your marketing pitch. In a few paragraphs, you are telling an agent why your story is so unique and amazing, why it stands out among other works in the industry, and why they should represent you.

Yes, it’s a big deal. Which is why your query letter should be the absolute best you can make it.

RELATED READ: How to Write and Structure a Literature Review

Why Do Writers Need a Query Letter?

The answer is pretty simple: because it’s usually a requirement.

And whilst you might think that deviating from the norm and not writing a query letter will help you stand out (I’ve certainly thought about it before), the opposite is the case – literary agents receive dozens of query letters per day and only take on a limited number of authors per year, which means that anything that goes against their requirements might go immediately in the bin.

Agents simply don’t have enough time to pay attention to writers who don’t abide by the rules. Therefore, always check each agent’s individual requirements before sending them your work and make sure your writer query letter is just as good – if not better – as your book.

5 Tips for Writing the Perfect Query Letter

Moving onto the specifics, here are 5 tips for crafting a high-quality writer query letter that will immediately draw the reader in.

#1 Hook the reader with a strong opening

This one very much depends on your individual circumstances because there are many different ways to begin a query letter.

After “Dear [name]”, consider the following:

• Start with the synopsis of the book, immediately drawing them into the story (for example: “Katherine is a sixteen-year-old girl who wants only one thing: to get her brother back. After he disappeared under mysterious circumstances last autumn…”)
• Begin with the basics so that the agent immediately knows whether your story fits their expertise and focus (for example: “I’m writing to seek representation for my 70,000-word Young Adult book called Hunted…”)
• Focus on your previous accomplishments if you’ve already been published (for example: “I’m writing to seek representation for my second novel Missed Opportunities. My debut Lea has been published with X two years ago and has been nominated for Z and Y since then…”)
• Mention that you’ve met in person before if that’s the case (for example: “I’ve attended your panel at the X festival last year and found your advice incredibly helpful. I’m now seeking representation…”)

#2 Write a gripping synopsis

Every query letter ought to include a synopsis. This is essentially the blurb of your book, or in other words, the text that you usually see on the back cover of novels.

The synopsis should:

• Immediately reveal the appeal of the story and describe the primary drive and conflict
• Show an awareness of the publishing industry, either by comparing the novel to other titles (“the dazzling magic of Caraval meets the sharp darkness of The Poppy War trilogy”) or by simulating the style of blurbs of other books in your genre
• Be around 100 words long (keep it crisp and to-the-point)
• Avoid going into too much detail when it comes to the resolution of the story (remember, you want to hook the reader, not to explain the whole plot)

#3 Include an author bio

After the synopsis comes the bio.

Keep in mind that this isn’t the part where you speak about your writing aspirations or dreams (in fact, those should be kept to a minimum because they apply to every writer out there, so it brings nothing new to the table).

Instead, summarize your past accomplishments. This can be a previous publishing deal, a nomination or an award in a writing competition, a university degree that’s related to writing, a writing festival or program you’ve attended, or anything else that comes to mind.

Keep it short and sweet: “I have graduated from X with a degree in Z. My short story K appeared in L and I won the Y award for another one of my stories, P.”

If your book is about a particular topic that means a great deal to you (for example, if it’s about a certain mental health issue that’s under-represented in society), describe what led you to write the story and why you think it’s valuable.

#4 Personalize your writer query letter

Since agents receive so many queries per day, one way to ensure you stand out is to go the extra mile and personalize your letter.

Writers tend to contact multiple agents at once to speed up the querying process, which means many just copy and paste a standard template. Therefore, showing that you’ve properly researched the agent’s work can go a long way.

You can do that by:

• Mentioning some of their other clients and explaining why you think your work fits in with their clientele
• Talking about the genre they focus on and why your book is the perfect fit
• Referencing something they’ve said online or mentioning that you’ve seen them talk at a panel at a specific festival

RELATED READ: How to Write the Perfect Book Press Release

#5 Keep it professional

If you think that writing in an unusual font or including a colorful background will help you stand out, think again. More often than not, it will make your query letter seem less professional and credible.

Stick to the basics:

• Times New Roman, 12
• Maximum of 500 words
• 1.5 spacing
• Begin with “Dear [name]”
• End with “Thank you for your consideration” and include your contact details

Hire FirstEditing to Write Your Query Letter

If you’re struggling to write a great writer query letter, don’t worry – you’re not alone.

That’s what editing services are for, after all! Over the years, FirstEditing has helped many authors perfect their query letters. Don’t hesitate to reach out – you’ll be able to collaborate with Ph.D. editors, subject matter experts, and professional writers.

If you’re an aspiring author, your query letter is one of the most important things you’ll ever write. Make sure you give it your all.

The post How to Write the Perfect Query Letter: Advice For Writers appeared first on Firstediting.com.