Punctuation has power! As a writer, polishing your punctuation may seem a pain and punctuation may be the last thing on the list when it comes to editing, but ...
Word choice reveals voice While I'm writing, at speed, words tumble onto my screen via my keyboard. They are rarely consciously chosen. Instead, my unconscious (or maybe subconscious) mind selects words from my vocabulary. Each of us has a unique vocabulary: a set of words that are familiar to us, and that we use with confidence. When we write, we include a subset of these words, and – with luck – the ones...
Sketches pin down your people, places and props My RedPen Editing course called People, Places and Props explains the importance of these three essential components of any story. In a nutshell: People in a story are your characters. It would be strange to have a story that has no characters! Places are your settings. Each scene has a setting and a cast of characters involved at that moment in time. Within that setting, the characters...
Scrivener provides comprehensive Search options. This series of posts will look at all of Scrivener's search options in detail. First though: an introduction. Three types of search tool There are essentially three types of search tool on offer: Project searches allow you to find instances of particular words or phrases within the whole project, subject to choices you make about where you want the search to happen, and how fussy you are about what is...
