Editing Fiction ~ A Writer's Guide: Morgen Bailey's Creative Writing Workbooks

By Morgen Bailey

How to polish your novels and short stories – a comprehensive guide including a 170+ tips checklist. In this book we look at: the components of your story; points of view; tenses; the power of three: beginnings, middles, ends; another power of three: characters, settings, plots; conflict and pacing; polishing your writing: 170+ tips for making your writing shine; the layout of your book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: August Publishing UK
• Release date: Mar 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781913633134

Morgen Bailey

Morgen Bailey always loved books and writing (and blames reading Stephen King books under the duvet with a torch as a teen for her wearing glasses) but it wasn't until she went to an evening class in 2005 that she considered it as a career. Now she is the author of 10 books so far, with more on the way...  Morgen’s fiction books include crime, mystery and women's novels, and short story collections.  They are mostly set against a Northamptonshire background, whether there is crime involved, a dog-detective that can talk, or a serial dater on a mission!  Her non-fiction works are aimed at all levels of writers whether beginners or those who want to refresh their skills – Morgen also tutors in person and has several online writing courses available. She runs her own mentor group on Facebook, very much a collaboration, and she invites all authors to join.  Her Writer’s Block Workbooks are a go-to for every author.  Morgen lives and breathes writing. When she's not editing or writing, she's walking her dog, out with friends, at a literary festival (speaking or visiting), or at the cinema (the only time she sits and does nothing). Find out more about Morgen Bailey, her books, writing guides & courses on her website, www.morgenbailey.com. 

Book preview

Titles by Morgen Bailey

FICTION

After Jessica — money and a girl gone missing

Hitman Sam — a trainee hitman and love triangle

One for the Road — a hit-and-not-run novel

Oh, Henry — a comic dog-detective*

Henry Short Stories – comic dog-detective shorts*

The Serial Dater — 31 dates in 31 days*

The Serial Dieter — 31 dishes in 31 days*

*published as Rachel Cavanagh

Short Story Collections

Shorts — a collection of short short stories

Flashes — a collection of shorter short stories

NON-FICTION

Morgen Bailey’s Creative Writing Workbooks

Writer’s Block Workbooks

1000+ exercises and 50+ tips per book

Editing Fiction ~ A Writer’s Guide

Morgen’s guide to writing a story then pulling it apart

The 177-tips Checklist

1. Accents, slang etc.

2. Active verbs

3. Adjectives

4. Adverbs

5. Ages

6. Ago vs before vs earlier

7. All and both

8. Among vs amongst

9. And vs then

10. Animals

11. Any more vs anymore

12. Anyway or any way

13. Arms’ length or arms’ length

14. Apostrophes

15. As vs so/then or because/when

16. At all

17. Began to / started to

18. Besides vs beside

19. Body parts and movements

20. Capitalisation

21. Chapters

22. Characters’ names

23. Characters speaking

24. Characters thinking

25. Chronology

26. Clichés

27. Collapsed to the ground

28. Colons

29. Colours (colors)

30. Commas after ‘transitional’ phrases

31. Commas between adjectives

32. Commas in dialogue

33. Commas in general sentences

34. Commas – timing

35. Commas with conjunctions

36. Conjunctions

37. Context

38. Continual verbs

39. Contractions

40. Copyright

41. Crumbles or crumples

42. Cut and dry or Cut and dried?

43. Dash vs hyphen

44. Description vs dialogue

45. Dialogue: punctuation

46. Dialogue: tags

47. Dialogue – er, um, and well

48. Direct vs indirect action

49. Door vs doorway

50. Each other’s or each others’

51. Easily-confused words

52. Educate your reader

53. Effect vs affect

54. Ellipses

55. Endings

56. Every word has to count

57. Excess words

58. Exclamation marks and capital letters

59. Exclamation marks or question marks

60. Exposition

61. Faint vs feint

62. Farther vs Further

63. Feet vs Foot

64. Five senses

65. Fonts

66. Full stop (period) spacing

67. Genders

68. Genres

69. Glance quickly / briefly

70. Grammar

71. Hand in hand

72. Hankies vs tissues

73. Headed to

74. Hear vs here

75. He he she she

76. Historical writing

77. To home or to hone

78. Humour

79. Hyphen

80. Impact

81. In a flash

82. In front

83. In his / her tracks

84. Inverted commas vs speech marks

85. ised vs ized

86. Italics

87. Its vs it’s

88. Just

89. Killing your darlings

90. Language

91. Last and past

92. Later

93. Less is more

94. Lie vs lay

95. Little did he know

96. Lose or loose

97. May be vs maybe

98. May or might

99. Middle age vs middle-aged 

100. Mr and Mrs or Mr. and Mrs.

101. Mum or mum, Dad or dad

102. Negatives

103. Night time, nighttime, or night-time

104. Normally, most of the time, usually

105. Nouns – collective

106. Now

107. Numbers

108. of the

109. OK okay?

110. Once and once more

111. On his / her face

112. On his / her heel

113. On the spot

114. Page breaks

115. Paragraphs

116. Parent’s or parents’

117. Past vs passed

118. PC or not PC

119. Poetry – alliteration and rhythm

120. Points of view

121. Pronouns

122. Questions

123. Read aloud

124. Read other people’s books

125. Repetition

126. Research

127. Round vs around

128. Said or asked

129. Said she vs she said

130. Scriptwriting

131. Seats – into or onto

132. Sentence construction – beginnings

133. Sentence construction – endings

134. Sentence lengths

135. Set up vs set-up

136. Shouted out

137. Showing not telling

138. Side to side or side-to-side

139. Sir

140. Sometime vs some time

141. Span vs spun

142. Spell and grammar check

143. Split infinitives

144. Stared vs starred

145. Stationary vs stationery

146. Still

147. Stories vs storeys

148. Swearing

149. Synopsise your novel

150. Take out the detail

151. Their, there, and they’re

152. This vs that

153. Three is a magic number

154. Timing – tenses

155. Timing – products

156. Titles

157. Today, tonight, tomorrow

158. to that

159. Tough, through, though, thought

160. Toward vs towards

161. Twenty-four seven or 24/7

162. UK vs US

163. Up and down

164. Verbs

165. Versions and backup

166. Voice

167. Wander vs wonder

168. Was vs were (subjunctive)

169. Way too many ways

170. Who vs whom

171. Who’s vs whose

172. Word choice

173. Word count

174. Words that mean the same

175. Wordy phrases

176. Why use four words when one will do

177. Zzz...

THESE INCLUDE MANY of the ‘errors’ I have found in my clients’ novels over the years so wanted to share them with you to help you with your writing ongoing.

Introduction

Hello. I’m Morgen Bailey , a freelance editor, writing-related blogger, former writing group chair, and creative writing tutor for Northamptonshire County Council’s Adult Learning sector covering the whole county of Northamptonshire, England, teaching 19 to 99-year-olds... and beyond!

I have been helping authors refine their novels, short stories, poetry, scripts, and non-fiction since 2008 and have worked with independent and traditionally published writers at every stage of their career.

I shall be guiding you through some of the processes needed to take your (primarily) novel or short story from first to final draft so that it’s good enough to submit to a competition, agent, or publisher.

I also write novels and short stories so I am also experienced to help you as a writer, not just as an editor. I know the sweat and tears (and sometimes blood!) that it takes to get the words from your brain onto paper or the screen.

This guide, I’m hoping, will help you thereafter.

In this book we will be looking at:

- the components of your story

- points of view

- tenses

- the power of three: beginnings, middles, ends

- another power of three: characters, settings, plots

- conflict and pacing

- polishing your writing – 177 tips for making your writing shine

- the layout of your book

- and finally (a summary checklist)...

This book is suitable for...

- Writers of any age and experience;

- Writers of novels and short stories (predominantly – it will help scriptwriters and poets too);

- Writers looking to have their writing taken seriously!

So do join me on this journey to make your writing get noticed.

Before I leave you to go through this guide, I’m going to set you a challenge...

An editing book should be perfect, shouldn’t it? Should you find any mistakes, do let me know (my details below) and I’ll reward you with a free e-book of any of my books (see https://morgenbailey.com) or, if you prefer, a free online course. You can choose from the options on https://morgenbailey.com/mentor).

I hope this book is useful to you. I’d love to hear how you get on.

Morgen

[e-mail]

www.morgenbailey.com

How to Polish your Novels and Short Stories

You’ve just finished your first draft, or your on your umpteenth draft, having worked hard for months on your manuscript and you’ve had a friend or family member to go through it, give you feedback and then – when you’ve made the amendments you’ve agreed with – it is your ‘baby’ after all – it’s ready to go. But is it?

I’m very honest with my clients about their writing (I say I’m