Once you’ve plotted out your book, developed the characters and written the last word of text, the real work begins. As busy editors are bombarded with hundreds or even thousands of submissions a year, it’s more important than ever that authors apply their own editing skills to their manuscripts before putting them in the mail. Checking your basic grammar and spelling are of course important, but authors need to go beyond surface editing if their work has a chance of catching an editor’s eye.

* Trim, tighten, hack away. First, second and even third drafts of manuscripts are almost always laden with extra words and scenes. Take a break from your book and then read it through with a fresh eye. Write down your theme in one sentence (what the book is about, such as working through shyness on the first day of school or showing how Thomas Edison’s childhood experiences influenced his adult life). The plot (or progression of facts and events in nonfiction) is your vehicle for conveying the theme to the reader. Ask yourself if each character and scene advance the plot toward communicating this theme. And decide at the beginning that you will give up your precious words and finely-crafted scenes for the betterment of the book. Pithy dialogue may be fun to read, but if it pushes your story off track, it’s just a literary dead end. Take the publishers’ suggested word limits seriously: no, you don’t really need 3000 words to tell your picture book story about Freddy the Frog’s adventures in the Big Pond.

* The elements of speech. Well-crafted dialogue can be a writer’s most important tool. Dialogue is not just there to break up the paragraphs or show that your characters know how to talk; ideally, it adds to character development, moves the plot along and replaces sections of narrative. Each character should sound like himself, with speech patterns and phrasing that are unique. This is especially true with talking animal books. I see many of these manuscripts where, if I took away the words that identify the speakers, each character would sound exactly the same. Don’t have dialogue repeat the narrative and vice versa; “Did you hear that? Someone’s at the door!” does not have to be preceded by “They heard a sound at the door”.

* Show don’t tell. How many times have you heard this? It’s still true. Comb through your manuscript for sentences that tell the reader how a character felt (Sara was sad) and replace with sensory descriptions (Hot tears sprang to Sara’s eyes and rolled down her cheeks.) Avoid telling the reader what to think about the story (Jason foolishly decided to trust Mike one more time.) Instead, present your character’s actions and decisions to the reader, and let the reader draw his or her own conclusions (incidentally, this is how you “teach” without preaching).

* Wipe out passive writing. Search for verbs preceded by “would” (would go, would sleep, would eat) replace with the past tense (went, slept, ate). Also look for actions that seem to happen out of thin air. “The door was opened” is passive, because the sentence lacks a “doer”. Remember, the reader needs to visualize what’s happening in the story. “The wind blew the door open” is better, because the action can be attributed to something, and it puts the most important element (strong wind) at the beginning of the sentence. Simply rearranging the words (“The door blew open from the wind”) puts emphasis on a door that won’t stay closed, making that the subject of the sentence.

* Be precise. One of the best ways to make your writing come alive for the reader is to use exact nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. One well-chosen word is always better than three vague ones. Adjectives like big, little, cold, hot, beautiful, scary and silly; adverbs such as quickly, slowly, loudly, and softly; and general verbs like walk, went, stayed and ate don’t draw a vivid picture for your reader. Of course, sometimes these words are appropriate, but try as a rule choosing words that describe specifically what you want to communicate. Words that sound and look interesting are also a plus. Tremendous, tiny, frigid, scorching, plodded, sauntered and gulped are more fun to read, and they each lend an emotional overtone to the sentence (if your character gulps his food, you don’t have to tell the reader he’s in a hurry).

And finally, make sure there’s a logical cause and effect relationship between the scenes of your book. Each event should build upon the ones that came before. The plot should spring intrinsically from your characters; nonfiction should unfold because of the nature of your subject and your slant on the material. It’s when everything comes seamlessly together that you have a winning book. Make it look easy, but don’t skimp on all the hard work it takes to get there.

Laura Backes is the publisher of Children’s Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children’s Writers. For more information about writing children’s books, including free articles, market tips, insider secrets and much more, visit Children’s Book Insider’s home on the web at http://write4kids.com

Copyright, Children’s Book Insider, LLC

SALE, SAIL
Sale is either offering something for purchase (“for sale”) or offering it at a special price (“on sale”); sail is part of a ship or boat.

SELL, CELL
Sell is to exchange for money; cell is a small room.

SCENE, SEEN
Scene is the place where something happens; seen is the past participle of see.
“Yet he had seen nothing suspicious at the scene of the accident.” (Of course you wouldn’t write a sentence like that; the two words make for a clumsy combination. I would probably replace “scene” with “site”.)

SITE, SIGHT, CITE
Site always refers to location or place: building site; archaeology site.
“We will site the house to take advantage of the panoramic views.”
Sight always refers to vision, as in the cliche “a sight for sore eyes”.
“We sighted two horsemen coming over the hill.”
“It was a sight I would never forget.”
“She feared she might lose her sight.”
Cite means to summon, or to refer to a source, as in the following sentences: “I was cited as a witness to the accident.”
“He cited in his defence an incident in which these same people were involved.”

SOME TIME, SOMETIME
This is a common confusion. Some time is a period of time and sometime means at some time not specified.
“Some time ago you promised to introduce me to your brother.”
“Sometime when you’re not busy we must do this again.”

STATIONARY, STATIONERY
Stationary means standing still. Stationery refers to writing paper.

STATUE, STATUTE, STATURE
Statue is a carved or moulded likeness; statute is law; stature means height or status.

STRAIGHT, STRAIT
Straight means without bends; strait is a passage of water.

TENANT, TENET
Tenant is one who rents a property; tenet is a principle or belief.

THERE, THEIR, THEY’RE
There is a location: “Put it over there.”
Their is the possessive of they: “their coats”
They’re is short for they are: “They’re unlikely to miss seeing them.”
So: “They hung their coats over there by the door where they’re unlikely to miss seeing them on their way out.”
Dreadful sentence I know, but at least it demonstrates the correct usage for all three words.

TO, TOO, TWO
To is a preposition meaning towards; too means also; two is the number after one.

VICIOUS, VISCOUS
Vicious means savage, cruel; viscous means thick, gummy.

WAIST, WASTE
Waist is the part of your body around which you fasten your belt; waste is stuff that’s thrown away.

WAVE, WAIVE
Wave means to flap your hand in farewell and as a noun is also a breaker on the beach; waive means to give up one’s rights or claim.

WAVER, WAIVER
Waver means to be undecided; waiver means the giving up of one’s rights or claim.

WEAK, WEEK
Weak is the opposite of strong; week is seven days, Sunday to Saturday.

WET, WHET
Wet as a verb means strictly to pour liquid on something, or soak something in liquid. You do not “wet” somebody’s appetite for anything; you’ll only land up doing the opposite of what you want! Instead, you whet it, which means to sharpen or stimulate.

WHICH, WITCH
As a fantasy writer, I have trouble believing people get these two confused! Which is one of a group; witch is a sorcerer.

WHOSE, WHO’S
This confusion is similar to its and it’s. Whose is possessive, and who’s is short for “who is”.

YOUR, YOU’RE
As in the previous entry, this confusion is similar to its and it’s. Your is possessive and you’re is short for “you are”.

This is the end of the present list, which is growing all the time. Updates will appear on the complete list on my Web site.

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz. Fantasy for Children & Young Adults for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!

PASSED, PAST
Passed is the past tense of pass. Past means a time that has gone.
“Time passed and we all forgot the incident.”
“In times past it was the custom for women to wear hats in church.”

PEACE, PIECE
Peace means the absence of war (or even noise); piece is a portion of something.

PEAK, PEEK, PIQUE
Pique means to excite or irritate; peek means to peep or snoop; peak as a noun means the summit or tip, and as a verb means to climax. So, you pique someone’s curiosity; you don’t peek or peak it. If someone annoys you, you become piqued rather than peeked or peaked.

PLAIN, PLANE
Plain means obvious, also unadorned or lacking in good looks; plane is a carpenter’s tool or an abbreviation of aeroplane.

PATIENCE, PATIENTS
Patience means forbearance; patients are people under medical care.

POUR, PORE
You pour sauces, gravies, etc, over your dinner, while pore means to study something–so, “pore over the book”, not “pour over the book”, which reads as though you might be damaging the book with an unnamed liquid substance!

PRESENCE, PRESENTS
Presence means being near at hand; presents are gifts.

PRINCIPAL, PRINCIPLE
Principal means chief or main, also the amount borrowed in a loan; principle means regulations or ideals.
“The principal reason for the company’s failure was lack of money.” (or)
“The new principal is making a real difference to our school.”
“We are paying both principal and interest each month on our mortgage.”
“She is completely without principles and would steal from her own mother.”
“The principle of a clause like this in your employment contract is to protect you against unfair dismissal.”

QUIET, QUITE
Quiet means without noise; quite when used in fiction usually means moderately, but can also mean totally or entirely. Use of the wrong word here could, of course, simply be a typing error that went unnoticed in the proof-reading stages!

RAIN, REIGN, REIN
Rain is the water that comes down from clouds; reign means to rule; rein is a strap, usually leather, for controlling an animal, especially a horse.

RAISE, RAZE
These two are exact opposites. Raise means to lift or build up and raze means to pull down:
“We will raise the reputation of our village to new heights.”
“He instructed his army to raze the village to the ground.”

REALITY, REALTY
Reality is real life; realty is real estate.

REFERENCE, REVERENCE
I don’t know if this confusion is common. I didn’t even realise the words COULD be confused until I saw one wrongly used in something written by … a writer! Maybe it was just a typing error. Reference is something referred to, reverence means respect.

RESIDENCE, RESIDENTS
Residence is a house; residents are the people who live there.

RESPECTFULLY, RESPECTIVELY
Respectfully means politely; respectively means in the order stated.
“The containers stood in a row and were numbered 1, 3, 2, 5 and 4 respectively” means they were standing in this order rather than numerical order.

RIGHT, RITE, WRITE
Right means correct; rite is a ceremony, usually religious; write means to make words.

ROAD, RODE
Road is a long surface for cars and other vehicles; rode is the past tense of ride.

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz. Fantasy for Children & Young Adults for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!

LATER, LATTER
Later means afterwards; latter is the second of two things.
“Later that day we went for a walk.”
“We have two choices. The latter is the more reliable, but the former would be cheaper.”

LAY, LAID
This pair confuses writers almost more than any other.
“He lay on his bed.” Although this sentence is past tense, “laid” would be incorrect and suggests he was laying eggs.
“She sighed as she laid the visitors’ book beside the pen and lay back wondering if she would ever make an entry in it again.”
In present tense the sentence would read, “She sighs as she lays the visitors’ book beside the pen and lies back, wondering if she will ever make an entry in it again.” BUT “I sigh as I lay the visitors’ book beside the pen and lie back, wondering if I will ever make an entry in it again.”
(In practice, I would probably write I place/placed and she places/placed. It’s so much less confusing, not to mention less repetitive!)
“It lay on the desk beside an open book.” Present tense would read, “It lies on the desk beside an open book.”
“Our hens lay every day.”
“The hens laid ten eggs yesterday.”

LEAD, LED
Lead (pronounced led) is a heavy metal or (pronounced leed) the present tense of led. So:
“He opens the door for me and I lead the guests upstairs to their rooms.”
“He opened the door for me and I led the guests upstairs to their rooms.”

LEND, LOAN
Lend is a verb meaning to give something temporarily to someone; loan is a noun, meaning the temporary transfer of something to someone else. So, “Dad, can you loan me a few dollars until pay day?” is incorrect.

LESSEN, LESSON
Lessen means to make less; lesson is something you learn.

LOATHE, LOATH
Loathe always means hate or detest, and loath means reluctant or hesitant. It’s that simple!
“I loathe the idea of complaining about such a small thing.”
“I’m loath to complain about something so small.”
These sentences may seem to say the same thing, but the speakers’ feelings are different. It’s nearly always “loathe” that is used when the writer means “loath”, seldom the other way round.

LOSE, LOOSE
Lose always means mislaying or dropping something and not being able to find it, while loose means slack or free:
“If the fastening on your wrist-watch is loose (slack) you may lose your watch.”

MAYBE, MAY BE
Another tricky one, best explained by demonstration:
“Maybe you could explain this to us a little clearer.”
“It may be a good idea to give us a clearer explanation of this.”

MEET, METE, MEAT
The two more often confused are meet and mete. Meet means to encounter (and can also mean fit or suitable); mete means to allot, apportion or distribute; meat refers to flesh as food.

NO, KNOW
Strange that these two should get confused, but they do. No is always the opposite of yes; know is to be certain (that you know the difference!)

OVERDO, OVERDUE
It baffles me that people get these mixed up, but they do. Overdo means to exaggerate or carry something too far; overdue is what your bills are when you forget to pay them!

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz. Fantasy for Children & Young Adults for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!

ELICIT, ILLICIT
Elicit means to extract or draw out; illicit means not legal.

EVERYONE, EVERY ONE
Everyone means every person in a group; every one means each person and is always followed by “of”.
“Everyone needs to know how to swim.”
“Every one of you should be able to swim.”

FAIR, FARE
Fair means average, good-looking, pale, unbiased (what a lot of meanings for one little word!); fare is the money you pay to go somewhere by bus, train, plane, taxi, etc. It can also refer to a passenger. As a verb it means do, as in:
“I didn’t fare as well in my exams this year as I’d hoped.”

FAZE, PHASE
The most common error is the use of phase when the writer means faze. To faze someone is to fluster or confuse them, whereas phase is mostly used in reference to a stage in someone’s life–though it can be a stage in almost anything else:
“Like most children, Danny’s going through a phase of refusing to eat his vegetables.”
“Nothing fazes my mother, who can produce a meal for unexpected guests at a moment’s notice.”

FOREWORD, FORWARD
Foreword is the preface in a book, usually written by someone who is not the author; forward means ahead, near the front.

FORTH, FOURTH
Forth means forward; fourth is after “third”.

FOUL, FOWL
Foul can mean dishonourable (by foul means), disgusting (a foul smell), entangle (rubbish dumped in the river can foul fishing lines); fowl is a bird.

GORILLA, GUERRILLA
Gorilla is a large ape; guerrilla is a particular kind of soldier.

HANGED, HUNG
A criminal is always hanged; a picture is hung:
“We hung the portrait where everybody could see it.”
“John Smith was hanged yesterday at dawn.”
Just remember, “I’ll be hanged if they’re going to hang me,” and you won’t forget the difference again!

HERD, HEARD
Herd is a group of animals; heard is the past tense of hear.

HERE, HEAR
Here refers to a location (as in “over here”). Hear is always what your ears do. I can’t see why writers should get confused here, but they must do because I have seen this more than once. (And, no, that’s not a sample sentence!)

IRREGARDLESS, REGARDLESS
There is no such word as irregardless; the correct word is regardless.

HOLE, WHOLE
Hole is an opening; whole means complete.

ITS, IT’S
This is confusing because possessives normally have an apostrophe, but in this case it’s is short for it is and its is possessive–always.
“Its colour is green and it’s quite beautiful.”
Other possessives that don’t have an apostrophe are theirs, hers, yours and his–though I doubt anyone is likely to try putting one in his!

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz. Fantasy for Children & Young Adults for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!

ACCEPT, EXCEPT
Not commonly seen even from unpublished writers, who are probably familiar with the difference because they’re all waiting for an acceptance!
“We accept your invitation to your party, except for Bill, who will be away on that day.”

ADAPT, ADEPT, ADOPT
Adapt means to adjust, adept means skilled and
adopt means to take as your own:
“Some people cannot adapt to new surroundings.”
“He is very adept at dodging awkward questions.”
“He tends to adopt the attitudes of those around him.”

ADVERSE, AVERSE
Adverse means inauspicious, hostile; averse means disinclined, repelled.
“I’m very much averse to making a long, arduous journey under such adverse weather conditions.”

ADVICE, ADVISE
Advice is the noun and advise the verb.
“His advice was that we should advise everybody to either stay away or be extremely careful.”

AFFECT, EFFECT
Affect is a verb; effect is a noun.
“Bad weather will affect the quality of the fruit.”
“The effect of bad weather is a reduction in fruit quality.”

ALREADY, ALL READY
Already means by this time; all ready means prepared.
“Are you already packed?”
“Yes, I’m all ready to leave.”

ALTOGETHER, ALL TOGETHER
Altogether means wholly; all together means everybody in a group:
“It’s altogether too bad you can’t come.”
“All together, now: ‘Good morning, Sir!’”

ALL RIGHT, ALRIGHT
All right is the correct form; alright is grammatically incorrect.

ALLUDE, ELUDE
Allude means to refer to; elude means to dodge or escape.

ALLUSION, ILLUSION
Allusion is an indirect reference or hint; illusion means deception or mirage.

ALL WAYS, ALWAYS
All ways means by every way or method; always means all the time, forever.

ANNUAL, ANNUL
Annual means yearly; annul means to make void or invalid.

ANYONE, ANY ONE
This is quite tricky. Anyone means anybody, any person at all; any one means any one person and is followed by “of”.
“Does anyone else want to come?”
“Any one of you is welcome to come along.”

APPRAISE, APPRISE
Appraise is to assess or estimate. Apprise is to inform or notify:
“I will appraise the situation and immediately apprise everybody of my conclusions.”
Please don’t make your character say or write anything like this, though–unless you want him to sound like a pompous twit!

ASCENT, ASSENT
Ascent is an upward movement; assent means agreement.

ASSISTANCE, ASSISTANTS
Assistance means help or aid; assistants is the plural of assistant, one who gives help.

ASSURE, ENSURE, INSURE
Assure means to guarantee; ensure means to make sure; insure means to protect against loss or damage:
“I assure you there’s no call for alarm.”
“To ensure your crockery doesn’t get broken, wrap it all in bubble wrap.”
“In case of breakage or loss, you should insure everything with a good insurance company.”

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz. Fantasy for Children & Young Adults for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!