From the copy on your author website to the emails you send your readership and the marketing ads and campaigns you create — to thrive in your writing career, you must present your work to the world with professionalism.

One of my favorite tools for achieving professionalism is Grammarly. After crafting and revising content, Grammarly reveals key insights and inaccuracies that help me polish my work before I present it to the world. And making use of this AI-powered text editor is a joy thanks to its easy-to-use interface and various available formats, including:

• Online text editor (at Grammarly.com)

• Native apps for Mac & Windows

• Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge

• Keyboards for iOS and Android

• An add-in for Microsoft Office
  
  

This means you can use Grammarly on nearly any device and with nearly any piece of content you’d like to polish, from tweets and Facebook messages to blog posts, back cover blurbs, agent query letters, and beyond. 

I often say the magic of writing happens in revision. 

When you revise, you transform a lumpy first draft into a powerful and cohesive story, cutting filler, strengthening the narrative, and shoring up your story’s foundations. As you edit, that same magic manifests in your prose, helping you transform weak and clumsy writing into an irresistible read.

In last week’s article, I shared an overview of how you can strengthen your prose at every step in the writing process, from drafting to revising and editing. Today, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty. As you work to tighten your prose during edits, here are eight things in your manuscript to cut or reconsider…

Most fiction writers come to the page with a passion for either language or storytelling.

My own strengths lie in the latter. I love mapping plots arcs, developing characters, and crafting fictional worlds. Yet for me, translating those story elements onto the page has always felt like pulling teeth. I simply don’t have a natural knack for prose, which is why I’ve spent the past several years working hard to improve the quality of my writing.

If you’d like to do the same, today’s article is for you. In this mega-guide, I’m sharing each specific element of prose you should consider at every step in the writing process, breaking down the overwhelm of learning to write wonderfully readable prose so you can work to level up your writing skills with confidence. Shall we begin?

Editing a short story or novel is its own craft, using a separate skill set from writing. It’s a different approach and needs a different mindset. This isn’t to say that editing can’t be creative; it’s creating solutions to problems. Through editing, you’ll identify problems in your story and figure out the best solutions.

As you make the mental shift from writing to editing, you have to be able to look at your own work with a level of objectiveness in order to make your story the best it can be. In this post, I’d like to offer suggestions to help you gain perspective on your manuscript.

Have you ever read a novel that was far too indulgent for its own good?

Perhaps the plot dragged on and on or the prose meandered or the author spent a highly unnecessary amount of time on world-building or the color of their characters' hair. Maybe you weren't exactly sure where the author went wrong, but you know the book could have been at least fifty pages shorter. 

A touch of fluff bears little consequence, of course, but too much filler can easily weigh a story down. Knowing how onerous such indulgent stories can be, it's time we took a look at our own manuscripts and the fluff that may be lurking within. How can you identify and cut your story's filler? Let's discuss today, writers!

When spending so much time working on our stories, it can be difficult to see the forest through the trees.

This is a phenomenon we discussed in our recent article on the importance of gaining objectivity as we edit. When we're in the thick of revising our stories, we may find ourselves so focused on all the little details that we want to improve that we fail to see some of our stories' biggest weaknesses. And the biggest of all, perhaps, are plot holes. 

What are plot holes exactly? And how can you find and fix them throughout your manuscript? Let's break down everything you need to know today, writer!

Whether you’re writing the first line of your book or simply starting a new chapter, opening lines are tough. In the span of just a sentence or two, you must convince readers that your story is worth their time. Scary right? 

Opening lines are your bargaining chips, your siren songs, your bait. And if you don’t master them, you risk turning readers away. So how can we keep that from happening? By hooking them in of course! 

By “hooking” readers, we’re talking about captivating them so wholly in the span of just a few short lines that they won’t be able to put your book down.

It’s tricky business, but here’s a bit of good news: by analyzing popular opening lines from literature, you can get a much better feel of how to go about writing your own. So let's jump in!

How you choose to structure and style your story's prose can make all the difference.

Two of the biggest elements that affect your prose are, of course, point-of-view and tense. Does it really matter if you write your book in first-person or third-person? In past or present tense? In some cases, yes. In fact, point-of-view and tense are a bit like the clothes you wear each day. They may not change who you are, but they do affect others' impressions of you. 

And a good first impression can make all the difference, right? So today, writers, we're going to explore the kinds of impressions point-of-view and tense can make and how you can be sure to choose the right option for your story!

Have you ever read a book in which you felt one with the point-of-view character?

From the very first page, the author dropped you in the protagonist's shoes, encouraging you to see their world and experience their journey through their eyes. It's novels like these that are often so easy to consume — and that consume you in return. And the technique that makes many of them tick? Writing in Deep Point-Of-View...

If you're looking to write an engaging genre-fiction novel that grips readers and doesn't let go, Deep POV may just be your secret weapon. But what exactly is this technique, and how can you utilize in your own writing? Let's break down everything you need to know in today's article, writer!