Sarah Cypher

If you are a freelance editor, I am giving away copies of The Editor’s Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists until the end of this week. (More about the book here.) If you think your clients will find it a useful tool for interpreting your editing and critiques, I encourage you to share it with them. Orders of 10 or more will receive a 40% wholesale discount.

For a free copy, e-mail sarahcypher at gmail dot com with your name, mailing address, and business website. (Don’t worry, you aren’t signing up for spam. I just want to verify that you’re an editor.)

To order copies in bulk, e-mail the publisher, william at glydevanspress dot com.

beat, a moment of silence in a scene. Instead of always telling us “he paused” or “he was quiet for a moment,” you can add a beat of description instead.

EXAMPLE: When the point-of-view character needs to pause in the dinner scene, try adding a beat like, “He brushed some crumbs from his lap,” or, “The waiter passed, and the candle flame wavered.” It will create the necessary pause.

***Until April 12, the official release date of “The Editor’s Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists,” I will be posting one definition a day here. Check back often! Read more about the book here.

plot point, any action a character takes that can’t be undone, which moves the plot ahead.

EXAMPLE: The fast-paced first 100 pages are dense with plot points, but while the main character is recuperating from the car accident, he doesn’t make enough progress in his investigation, and the novel drags.

***Until April 12, the official release date of “The Editor’s Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists,” I will be posting one definition a day here. Check back often! Read more about the book here.

clarity is the writer’s first goal, because without it, art cannot affect its audience. It eliminates vagueness, avoids awkwardness, and shies from over-writing. Revise for clarity by showing us what something—an emotion, a person, a setting, a gesture—is not, while also attempting to show us exactly what it is. Using precise details and your ear for language, aim to make the ordinary extraordinary, and the imaginary real.

NO: The woman would wait for the bus every day, looking tall and cold.

YES: She waited for the 61C. She resembled the bus signpost, but without the mantle of snow across her shoulders.

***Until April 12, the official release date of “The Editor’s Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists,” I will be posting one definition a day here. Check back often! Read more about the book here.