Editing services

Hi, if you've edited your work as much as you can and friends have given you all the information they are capable of, you can look at being professionally edited. The costs vary and the quality of editing varies as well.

I've had my work edited through The Story Mint and find them to be of very high quality:

" Appraisals and professional feedback on your writing

If you would like a proven professional writer to do an appraisal of your novel or short story our rates are below:

Scripts up to 5,000 words - $100US
Scripts up to 10,000 words - $175US

Scripts up to 25,000 words $375US
Scripts up 85,000 words - $600US

Our next monthly newsletter will feature one of our assessors.

Please Note: This service is for members only.

www.thestorymint.com

Contact The Story Mint for more information "

I suggest, however, you also take a look at the book mentioned below via the link and edit yourselfusing it as a excellent  guide. I've read it four times and it is one of the best books around on editing. Reading it and putting it into practice will reduce your editing costs in the long run:

http://matclarke.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/recommended-reading-for-anyone-trying.html

The author, Renni Browne, also has an editing service. But since I have never used it I can not vouch for it, but take a look anyway and decide for yourself: 

http://www.editorialdepartment.com/

Hope all this information helps all you writers out there!

Mat Clarke

Was and Were may slow a sentence down and make it boring!

When writing or reading do you notice the word "was" being used a lot? I've been recently informed by an editor that it slows writing down because it can make a scene less immediate. Also "was" can make a sentence boring.
Here are some examples:
"A table was in the room" does not sound as good as, and get the reader as involved as, "He peered into the room where an oak table and old fashioned telephone..."
(I guess it's in the same vein as using "quickly" and "easily" and other shortcut words.)
"He juggled the box he was carrying"
becomes "He juggled the box while carrying it to..."
The picture we get is more immediate. However, I have also been told that "while" can slow down a sentence. Sometimes it feels like you can't win! Still, I guess the idea is to read through your work and pick the best way to construct your sentences.

Sometimes "was" can make the sentence sound like it happened earlier rather than right now.
"I was walking down the street"
Even though this is happening now, it doesn't make it very "now".
"I was over there" That is a possibly a better use of "was" because it did actually happen in the past.
"Evening was approaching" can become:
"Evening approached with the coming of..."
or "Evening settled and the streets lights flickered to life" if you want the flowery kind of descriptive sentence.

Don't stress too much if every sentence you write has the word "was" in it, most of the well know authors still use "was" like they're on a mission, just try and reduce "was" where you can, but only if you think the sentence will benefit from the change. Sometimes it means a big restructure of your work, but in the end it could be worth the time.

More examples:

"He looked to be in his fifties and was sporting a goatee that was graying around the chin" becomes:
"He looked to be in his fifties and sported a goatee graying around the chin"

"Jo rolled her eyes and turned away to harangue a chef who was struggling with pot of steaming soup." Maybe just delete, "who was"

Meat Vs Veg

Do we need to eat meat?

Yes and no. Many thousands of years ago we became omnivores, which means we can eat meat when available or vegetables, nuts and fruit, etc. when it is not. And Vise-versa.
With modern farming we have both available to us at a whim so we can now choose what we want to be. Most stay omnivore while others move to being vegetarian. But which is correct?

Logically, if we're talking evolution, not eating meat will eventually become the norm. Vegetarian food costs less to produce, takes up less land, animals don't have to suffer, and everything that we can get from meat can also be obtained from a vegetarian diet - and that's without taking supplements. There may be some people with alergies or have an adverse reaction to becoming vegetarian, but with evolution in the mix then this will become less and less an issue over the next generation and the next.

I'm not saying vegetarians are more evolved, but I am saying that reducing our meat intake is not only inevitable, but also sensible.

If we all want to still be eating food in 30 years or so, we'll definitely have to cut down our meat intake to about half. The earth just can not sustain that many farmed animals!