by Zoe M. McCarthy | Oct 29, 2015 | Writing
“It’s hard to see a middle ground between marking up your book line by line and doing a complete rewrite. It’s also hard to know what to fix in revision, and even harder to know when that process is finished.” —Gabriela Pereira In the September...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Oct 22, 2015 | Author Website
“In an endless jungle of websites with text-based content, a beautiful image with a lot of space and colour can be like walking into a clearing. It’s a relief.” —David McCandless (data-journalist, and information designer)I think watching what your website...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Oct 15, 2015 | Writing
“What’s the first thing acquisition editors look for when they begin reading a fiction submission? … ‘The first thing I do is find a scene with some dialogue. If the dialogue doesn’t work, the manuscript gets bounced. If it’s good, I start...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Oct 8, 2015 | Writing
“I huff and puff and struggle with every sentence, paragraph and page – sometimes every word as well.” — Aidan ChambersAsk these 6 questions about your paragraphs. I’ll use the following paragraph as an example.1Before the fateful telephone call, Ella put...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Oct 1, 2015 | Writing
“[Word usage is] something teachers generally expect you to pick up on your own, and it’s the thing you’re most likely to get skewered for if you screw up.” — Mignon FogartyBelow are common word-usage errors. My resources are Mignon Fogarty’s Grammar...