“What’s Your Story?”: George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire

I know any mention of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, its author George R. R. Martin, or its TV adaptation Game of Thrones can lead to some, ahem, passionate debate. And truthfully I’m not particularly interested in most of those debates. I’ve read the books a couple of times and enjoyed them, have my own theories on whether or not Martin will ever finish them, and liked the TV series well enough while also still having my own critiques. What I want to talk about here, though, is Martin’s use of POV, which I find quite well done for the most part. You don’t have to be a fantasy writer to learn some excellent lessons on what to do and what not to do with juggling multiple POVs from these books.

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What’s Your Story?: Ambrose Bierce’s “Chickamauga”

Most people have encountered Ambrose Bierce’s spooky Civil War-set “The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” likely as part of a short story reading assignment in either high school or college. I certainly read it more than once as an English major, and it is a story that I do enjoy.

It wasn’t until after I graduated that I started reading more of Bierce’s work beyond “Occurrence” and his deliciously snarky Devil’s Dictionary. Bierce ended up writing a lot of fiction about the Civil War (and a fair amount of nonfiction), which makes sense given he’s the only 19th century American writer of note to have served in combat during the war.

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What’s Your Story?: Jeff Guinn’s Road to Jonestown and Evan S. Connell’s Son of the Morning Star

Often, point of view (POV) in writing is discussed solely in terms of fiction, implying it’s not relevant for nonfiction writers. That’s simply not true, though. If you’re writing narrative nonfiction, you can use POV to tell the story more effectively. You can generate compelling tension, amplify your themes, and more through artful use of POV in nonfiction. This is particularly true with true crime, history, or historical true crime.

When I was in college, I took a grammar class with Elise Bishop that really changed the way I viewed writing. One particular week of the course looked at how Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood uses a change in verb tense to signal the confession scene.

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What’s Your Story?: When Your POV Problem Isn’t A POV Problem

It’s not uncommon for me to work with authors on point-of-view (POV) problems. There’s a lot of advice out there in writing communities about how to handle POV—how many to have and when and how to switch POV—and some of it is dictated more by personal preference than what actually works for the story.

I’m a big believer in using the POV that is most effective for the story rather than following arbitrary rules on the subject. Still, it’s not uncommon for manuscripts to struggle with how to juggle between POV effectively or to know which POV to use when, which can be a turn-off for readers.

More often than not, when I identify issues with POV in a story, it’s symptomatic of a much more systemic issue of focus that also needs to be addressed. The POV isn’t working because it conflicts with what the story is trying to achieve with its plot, themes, and characters.

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Think Like A Librarian

As some of you know, I work part time at my local library in addition to running my own editing business. I love my library job and appreciate the fact that, since it is a small rural public library, I often get to do things that would ordinarily be limited to professional librarians with MLS degrees. I do a fair amount of reference work and program development, as well as working the circulation desk, but one of my favorite things to do is readers’ advisory (RA). I’ve long maintained that working at a library makes me a better editor and that working as an editor makes me a better library associate, and RA is one of the reasons I believe this so strongly.

Saying I provide RA services to patrons is a formal way of saying that I’m the person whom people are referred to when they need help finding something new to read. It’s a fun challenge–I’ve handled requests that range from “crime fiction, the gorier to better” to “gritty mysteries with no profanity” to “horror set in insane asylums” to “funny Southern fiction”–and a few weeks ago, I presented a training to my library coworkers on how to offer effective RA services. In the process of working on the presentation, it dawned on me that a lot of this is useful to writers too.

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An Editor’s Playlist: Nick Cave’s “Song of Joy”

I listen to a lot of music through the course of my days, and I certainly listen to a lot of it as I edit. I have specific songs and playlists and artists for certain editing tasks. What I listen to when I am reading is very different from what I listen to as I’m double-checking my work right before sending the manuscript back. I even have specific songs I listen to just for working on citations.

If I’ve done any editing over the years for you, rest assured that there’s a good chance I was listening to murder ballads and/or Nick Cave in the latter stages of editing.

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Are You In Or Out on Wordle?

Have you succumbed to Wordle? If you’re one of the uninitiated, it’s a daily word game where you have 6 chances to solve a 5-letter word.

I resisted for quite a while. I’m just naturally suspicious of trends. I don’t think this is necessarily a good or bad quality. It’s just the way I am.

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“What Is Editing?”–Author Coaching

Writing a book can be a lonely, frustrating, and time-consuming endeavor. A lot of writers finish their manuscript and think all the hard work is over before realizing that publishing a book can be just as lonely, frustrating, and time-consuming.

But neither writing nor publishing have to be any of those things!

A good editor can help, as can a good author coach.

Not sure what an author coach is or how they can help you? Read on to find out!

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“What Is Editing?”–Citation Editing and Permissions Editing

I really like citations, more than is probably normal. I’m not really sure why, but I’ve always enjoyed reading them, writing them, editing them, formatting them. When I worked at the writing center, my coworkers called me Citation Potentate for being the resident citation guru, and I still consider that nickname one of my proudest achievements.

Even when I’m reading for fun, my first stop when I pick up a nonfiction book is the back to scope out the bibliography and notes. Never judge a book by its cover but do judge it by its bibliography and notes.

This interest in citation works out well as an editor because, well, most people don’t like citations as much as I do. And I understand why—the ins and outs of bibliographies and endnotes/footnotes can be convoluted and confusing.

So, how can an editor help you with your citations and sources? Read on to learn more about citation editing and permissions editing.

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“What Is Editing?”–Proofreading

Outside of editing/publishing circles, people usually use “proofreading” as a synonym for copyediting. They say they want someone to proof their paper or manuscript or memo, but what they really want is someone to correct their grammar and punctuation. Most of the time, the other person interprets it as copyediting, but this is not really proofreading.

When you ask an editor to proofread something for you, that’s a very specific form of editing that you are requesting.

So, exactly what is proofreading and why is it something I don’t generally do as an editor?

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