Hey all,
Welcome to our second annual submissions week – were we’ll talk about all things submissions. This is a great opportunity for our newer authors to learn things from our veterans – how to prepare your story (whether it’s a short story, a novella, a novel, poem etc) for submission to a publisher.
Yesterday we tackled manuscript formatting – today we’ll tackle what’s actually in the thing. When you submit a story, you want it to be as good as it can possibly be. If you submit a perfectly formatted manuscript that is full or grammatical errors or style issues, you’ll probably still be rejected.
So today I thought we’d discuss some common issues with style and grammar. Do you, like me, use way too many em dashes and ellipses? I also tend to overuse sentences that start with But and And. And I also repeat things for emphasis a lot in a really annoying way:
“He ran to the door. The door that led to hell!”
So what are some of the things you do as an author that you correct in final draft? And what are some grammar and style hints for new authors trying to present the best manuscript they can for publication?