Writing Mania discussion

If anyone needs an editor please check out my website.

http://elizabethsediting.wordpress.com/

I have 4 years experience editing and am willing and able to help you get your work edited to your desire.

I also offer an editing service. Contact me through my website: http://www.lynnestringer.com

Can I just ask a basic editing question I have as I write? It's a quick one =)

Sure.

Wehn writing in the third person...I'm assuming it's better to write more as " she said, she thought ect.." than using the characters name constantly? I'm thinking that makes it more personal.

Yep, it certainly does. In fact, try to even do without 'he said' 'she said' as much as possible, especially if it's just in a conversation with two people. Sometimes it's pretty obvious who's speaking. If it is, then leave that out, or only put it in every few lines. It also helps if you tie the dialogue to a paragraph with action, like this:
"I never would have done that." Graham wondered how Elaine could have come to that conclusion.
This paragraph identifies Graham as the speaker (or you could use 'he' in its place, if it's already been made clear that the only 'he' is Graham) and rather than have 'he said' all the time, having the dialogue with that action identifies the speaker, as well as telling you a bit more about Graham and his opinion of Elaine.

Thank you! That is totally helpful!

One other quick question-the little peices here and there that might get missed-is that part of the normal editing process if your book gets picked up?

If you do as much as you can yourself, that gives less for the editor to do, but those things should be picked up by editors, yes.

My perfectionism is cropping up for sure. Trying not to get too caught up in that since itcends up hindering the writing process. Thanks a bunch for the tips though! Its so helpful having such a great sounding board.

No worries.

When writing a description, for anything (like a person, place, or whatever), how do you find balance between too much and too little?

Doing group edits in English class, my partners often accuse me of overwhelming my readers with too many adjectives. Any advice?

It's a question of learning balance, which comes with experience. It's difficult to give arbitrary tips on too much or too little, because it's virtually impossible to say what is too much or too little without seeing what you've written. I will advise you, though, to look out for things like repetition. If you've already explained something, be wary of explaining it again. A lot of writers do this and it's usually not necessary.

Thank you