Five Things to Look for When Editing Your Manuscript

 1.      When editing your manuscript, Spelling and Grammar Checker¹ and Find and Replace² are your best friends. The first and most important (and surprisingly easy) step is to run Spell Check. Granted, it’s not a perfect piece of software and may want to make changes that you know are incorrect, but be forgiving because it can find typos and flag up problems with grammar as well. You can choose to change to what is suggested or keep your words as they were.

2.      A homonym is a word that sounds the same as another but has a different meaning. Check your manuscript for the correct homonym. e.g. to, too, two; your, you’re; where, we’re, wear; there, their, they’re; it’s and its (a very common mistake: Often an apostrophe is used to show possession, but in the case of the pronoun *it* an apostrophe is not used. *Its* is a pronoun used to show possession or ownership and therefore referred to as a *possessive pronoun*.*It's* is a contraction of *it is* (or *it has* when *has* is not the primary verb³) The apostrophe takes the place of the letter *i* in is.) Use the Find² function to make sure you’ve used the correct word.

3.      Have you made your characters three-dimensional? Have you given your characters a personality, good qualities and flaws (to make them seem human), a unique voice? Try to give each protagonist some exclusive character or speech pattern. I’ve judged entries that were wonderfully constructed, but the heroine and hero sounded very much alike not only in their speech but in their internal thoughts. Make each character distinctive and let them use different expressions.  

4.      Have you varied the pace of the story? Long sentences tend to slow the pace. Short, sharp sentences pick up the pace. Make sure you vary the sentence structure, and limit the overuse of too many long sentences as this can slow down your story.

5.      Do we see what the point of view character sees and feel what the point of view character feels? Do we laugh and cry right along with them? Do your central characters have motivations and emotions that develop through the story? And finally, have all the loose ends been tied up neatly with a bow so that when the reader reaches that final page, she smiles in contentment with the ending (in a romance), or at least doesn’t feel cheated by lack of information that leads to the murderer (e.g. a character who is brought into the story in the last few pages of a suspense thriller). Make sure the information is all there, though preferably trickled through the story as it develops rather than an information dump in the beginning.  

¹ In Word, “Spelling and Grammar Checker” is the ABCü button in the toolbar at the top or press *F7*.

² In Word, to “Find” press *Control F* and for *Find and Replace* and *F5* or *Control H*. Or you can use the Edit tab in the top toolbar and scroll down.

³ Visit my blog on this topic: http://bit.ly/zWa3yL 

Possession Is Nine-Tenths of the Law: Apostrophes, It’s, and Its

People who speak English as a second language often confuse the use of words that sound similar, and this also commonly occurs in those for whom English is their native language. Sometimes it can be just a matter of having the differences pointed out.  Today I’ll concentrate on apostrophes, and the words its and it’s.

1) Often an apostrophe is used to show possession, but in the case of the pronoun *it* an apostrophe is not used. *Its* is a pronoun used to show possession or ownership and therefore referred to as a *possessive pronoun*.

e.g. My car needs fixing. Its radiator overheated again.

2) *It's* is a contraction of *it is* (or *it has* when *has* is not the primary verb [see below]). The apostrophe takes the place of the letter *i*.

e.g. It’s [it is] cold outside. It’s [it has] been snowing.

When *has* is the primary verb, you cannot use the contraction *it’s* for *it has*.

e.g. *That new movie is boring, even though it has several big name actors* cannot be written *That new movie is boring, even though it’s several big name actors*.

3) An apostrophe doesn't always show possession. None of the possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose) are spelled with an apostrophe.

4) *Apostrophe s* is not used to show plural of everyday words.

e.g. You write one cat, two cats, but not two cat’s.

5)*Apostrophe s* can be used to show the plural of:

a) abbreviations

b) numbers
c) letters

The *apostrophe s* is used where it helps avoid confusion and enables the reader to understand what the writer intended.

a) The term *Personal Computer* is often abbreviated to PC. If you were writing about several personal computers, it could be confusing if you wrote *PCS* or *PCs*, therefore the convention is to write *PC’s* where the reader immediately recognizes the abbreviation for personal computer and realizes the writer is using the *apostrophe s* to make the abbreviation plural.

b) I knew you weren’t born in Australia because you cross your 7’s like they do in Europe.

c) Steve got straight A’s on his report card.

Hopefully this has helped clear up the use of apostrophes in certain cases.

Serena