Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations

Hiya Reader,

Lately I've been thinking about poet Mary Ruefle's essay "On Beginnings," specifically the idea that if every word we ever speak were to be written down — from our first babblings to our last utterance — we would have a lifelong sentence. (Ralph Angel reportedly responded with "that's a lot of semi-colons"!)

I'm a thinker way more than I am a talker, but I'd sure like to read my own lifelong sentence. What have I lost?

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Example of the Week

Sometimes this is a good example—or a great one. Sometimes this is a bad example—or just a funny blooper. Sometimes a combination. You never know.

In the neighborhood where my daughter lives, we know of at least a dozen "Little Free Libraries" within about a 15 minute walk from her front porch. I'm not sure how many are "officially recognized" because I had no idea until about five minutes ago that there were 200,000+ worldwide. (See if there's one near you.) But known or under the radar, we routinely walk together when I visit, always coming home with at least one new book each.

And yes, of course, we return the books when we're finished, so another reader can enjoy them.

Recently, I found a Dick and Jane storybook. Wow, talk about a throwback!

Gentle reader, I understand these books were intended to teach reading (and we're gonna just leave the other things they taught right alone as that's a topic for some other writer to pick up) but why are they so...bad? Does anyone want to read these stories?

If this is how you learned to read, why would you ever have wanted more?

Actionable Tip of the Week

A trick to add to your self-editing toolbox right now!

If you’re like most writers, you probably struggle with wordiness. Why use 5 words when you could use 50 instead, amiright? Kidding, kidding. I’m kidding!

Beyond general wordiness, we all have what I like to call crutch words... continue reading​

Reader Question of the Week

Kelly wrote: My novel is nonlinear, and I don't want my reader to get lost in the time jumps. But I'm not sure how much obvious transitions I need to have, such as "the following week" such and such happened.

Kelly! I love that you're aware of the need for clear direction in service to the reader.

The great news is that transitions don’t need to be spelled out. You don’t need to tell the reader directly that you’re jumping through time; you just need to be sure they follow the jump.

Sensory triggers are often more powerful than dates or years. The smell of plastic, the sound of boots on gravel, the sting of salt air—these can instantly pull a reader from one moment to another without a single overt timestamp.

Repetition also becomes a kind of invisible thread. If an image appears again and again—a red coat, a certain phrase, the sound of a siren—it becomes an anchor. These echoes give the reader a sense of orientation, even if the timeline is blurred.

And don't forget, the white space on the page is part of the language. A pause between sections, whether they signal chapter breaks or not, can be as meaningful as the text.

A beta reader or developmental editor will be able to drill down into the specifics of your novel when your manuscript is ready for this, but these tips are the place to start while you're still working on your own.

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Link of the Week

Have you ever had a song on repeat in your brain (i.e. an earworm) and have no idea why? Of course you have! And here's the why.

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I ❤️ Hearing from You!

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Thanks for reading!

~Helene, your writing sherpa

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