Tag: writing

Why You Need Copyediting

Copyediting is an essential part of editing. It checks your grammar, punctuation, and spelling. You might be more in need of it than you realize.

Does your writing need copyediting? Definitely. Ask yourself these questions;

  • Have I spelled everything correctly?
  • Is my grammar perfect?
  • Have I put commas in all the right places?
  • Is all of my other punctuation correct?
  • Have I left behind any incomplete sentences?

That list isn’t for beginners. It’s for everyone. Even the best writers need copyediting. If you’ve ever heard someone say that writers should not edit their own work, they are probably talking about copyediting. It is absolutely essential on the road to publication. It’s also nearly impossible to do own your own.

While all writers should do their own editing, it is a well-known rule that you need someone else to do a round of copyediting for you. For smaller pieces, like short articles and blogs, writers might self-edit if they are knowledgeable enough, although they are taking a chance when they do. When it comes to longer works like novels, you can’t do without copyediting. Without copyediting, readers will find errors left behind and they will stop reading your book –and then they’ll tell others not to ready your work!

Copyediting is simply part of the novel writing industry. It’s indispensable and unavoidable.

You don’t always have to pay for it. Most writers have a friend who is good at grammar and spelling. Be careful though, they can burn out easily if you push them, especially when working for free. Joining a critique group is another free method. The downside of critique groups is the length of time it takes for the group to get through a book. 1000-3000 words is often the maximum covered per meeting. If you have a 100,000 word manuscript, it could take some critique groups a year to get through your book. One more free method is to exchange books with another author. You will find, however, that you and that other author will not have the same level of experience with grammar, spelling, and punctuation. One of you will be getting the short end of the arrangement.

Free methods work for some authors. For those with schedules to keep or goals to meet, slower, less reliable methods won’t work.

Most writers I know gravitate toward professional editing the longer they stay in the industry. That tells me that the ones who make it lean toward professional editing. Decide where you are in your writing journey and then choose the method that works best for you.

If you are interested in having your work professionally edited, Creative Assets Inc can help. Click here to see rates for Copyediting and more.

Why You Might Need Line Editing

Line editing is designed to clean up a draft. It changes a draft from a bundle of writing to a written work that takes readers not only where they want to go, but where you want them to go as well.

Does your writing need line editing? Probably. Ask yourself these questions;

  • Does the style I use match the genre I’m writing in?
  • Will my writing distract the reader away from the point I want to make?
  • Is my writing concise?
  • Why doesn’t my writing sound better?
  • Why do I stumble when reading my writing out loud?
  • Can I make this seem smarter?
  • Did I write things that will confuse the reader?

A line editing session can help you with all of that.

Line editing will probably be the first editing you do –or the first kind you receive from someone else, that is. It will clear up the flow of your writing or the type of language you use. It can add a conversational tone to your writing when its needed or remove it when its not. It can remove unnecessary additives like “due to the fact that,” “as I was saying,” or “in my opinion.” It can break your writing into digestible paragraphs. That’s just a sampling.

Line editing gets to the heart of turning a piece of writing from something clumsy into something graceful, from something burdensome and boring to read to something that is concise and interesting.

Line editing is a lot like cleaning your house. Straightening your living room might mean putting your throw pillow back in order, or it might mean throwing some things out. That’s a great analogy to line editing. Writing needs to be well-organized and, quite often, it needs the extra fluff removed. For newer writers, however, it may be more like going to the dentist. You don’t want that tooth removed but you sure are glad when it’s gone. The good news about any editing, is that you don’t have to accept the changes. If you get your hands on a good line editor, however, you won’t be sorry.

A number of things can boot a reader out of a book or article; paragraphs or sentences that run on too long, writing that strays from the topic promised by the title, or a tone that doesn’t match what came before or after it. When you say he or she, does it indicate the person you thought it did, or does it refer to someone else by mistake? When you fix those things, your writing will sound better. You can test it by reading it out loud. It should sound smoother after your line editing and those moments that made you stumble should disappear. The result is a smarter piece of writing.

Line editing can be a pain but it’s essential, as much as, if not more than, other types of editing. It’s what turns a piece of writing from a rough draft to a nearly finished product.

If you are interested in having your work edited, Creative Assets Inc can help. Click here to see rates for Line Editing and more.

The Difficult Simplicity of SEO

The more writing you have on your site, the better it will perform with search engines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the craft of arranging the data on your webpage so that it appeals to search engines, thus raising your ranking with them. The goal is to appear as close to the top of the first page of search results as possible.

The Technical Side of SEO

SEO has a technical side. It requires using keywords in proper numbers, employing proper text such as headings, bold type, quotations, and italics, and includes behind the scenes data entry, known as meta-data. The depths that people will go to optimize their site varies. Some will go quite far. To complicate matters, the means to achieve good SEO frequently changes and is often debated by experts.

Major Search Engines Want to Deliver Quality

Browsers want their results to be valuable to the public. Companies such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, Silk, Safari, and numerous others constantly evaluate sites to determine their value. They rank websites’ importance and display them in accordance with that rank. That means bad SEO will put you at the back of the line and good SEO will put you at the front. The simple economics of the situation is that good SEO grants the potential to earn more money.

SEO and Metadata

A fair portion of SEO should fall in the hands of a website programmer. That person should craft all the metadata that goes behind the scenes on the site. Before all the user-visible information gets added, the programmer should have set up the site to win. Unfortunately, the metadata can’t carry the entire load. What goes on the visible end of the site matters a great deal.

Bounce Rates Determine Value

Search engines used to rely heavily on metadata, but that led to problems. Unscrupulous websites used metadata to trick browsers and gain visitors that had no need for their services. The major browser companies did not take kindly to the deception. That’s why, nowadays, you hear about the importance of bounce rates. A bounce is when a visitor comes to your site then leaves immediately. Giving poor ratings to sites with high bounce rates is intended to curb false or misleading links and metadata.

Metadata Is Only Part of the SEO Picture

Along with evaluating bounce rates, browsers also downgraded the importance of metadata. Browsers want the value of the site to be high to visitors, not bots or algorithms that read the site. While they still use metadata -or so we hope –they now rely more heavily on the visual side of the site to determine its value.

Browsers Read What You Write

Major browsers use the writing on your site to determine its intended goal and its value. The writing should describe your purpose. It should employ words that people use when searching for what you offer. When a person or a bot finishes reading one of your webpages, no doubt should remain as to its purpose. If not, you lose with both the bot and the person.

The More Writing, the Better the SEO

The more writing you have on your site, the better it will perform with search engines. First, the bots have more to read and so can better determine your true purpose. Second, the more writing you have, the more different ways people can find you. With more writing, you cover more subjects and more potential search words. Simply put, you have a chance to show up more. That’s why it’s a good idea to have plenty of writing one a page, have plenty of pages on your site, and to have a blog.

SEO Is Easier Than It Used To Be

SEO is easier than it used to be because it now relies on writing that’s appealing to the visitor. Instead of complex manipulation of metadata, website owners can extend their reach by presenting visitors with good website content and clear descriptions. Simply by sharing knowledge in a blog helps search engines to define the site and determine its value. The more a website shares, the more likely it is to be shared, and that includes the search engines. That means that nowadays, good writing, and lots of it, is good SEO.