July 7, 2014 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill
last modified July 7, 2014
At some point tomorrow, the Editor’s Blog will officially hit the million-page-views mark.
While I know that the blog actually passed that point sometime in the past few months—I didn’t track stats the first seven or so months of the blog and subscribers read an email version of articles rather than visit the site—I’m still excited to see that milestone in my stats. It’s gratifying to know that you’re contributing something useful, even practical, to others in your field.
Thanks to all who read the articles, who pass them on to others, and who join the conversations in the comments section. I appreciate each of you. I hope every article is useful, easy to understand, thorough, and an encouragement for your writing career. I also hope each gives you some new tidbit about craft or a new approach to try.
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Two articles continue to outpace all others—Punctuation in Dialogue and Formatting a Manuscript for Submission together account for more than 20% of all visits to the Editor’s Blog. I’m glad those two articles have proved useful, but I hope you’ll find other articles useful as well. At the bottom of every article are links to related articles, but a great way to see what’s available is to wander through the Archives. There you’ll find the full list of articles on craft, punctuation, grammar, and encouragement for yourself or the writer in your life. The content of the articles is pretty clear from the titles, but you can also search for articles by category or tag or phrase.
It’s a true joy to write these articles on fiction writing and editing—I hope to continue writing them for many years. Don’t be shy about suggesting a topic. I may not be able to get to it right away, but I’ll certainly try to get an article together on any subject important to writers and/or editors. While some articles focus on grammar or punctuation, this is not merely a grammar blog. Other articles focus on the elements of fiction and still others explore the writer’s life.
The purpose of the blog is to look at the wide range of issues that writers and editors face and explore solutions for problem areas while also providing established rules and suggestions that have proven successful for other writers.
I’m not here to tell you what to do; my goal is to give you options for what you can do given the parameters of your story, including genre, era, theme, style, and character backgrounds.
My standard advice is use what works for the story and be consistent throughout that story. Yet there are (of course) a few absolutes—
Use standard manuscript format for submissions
Give agents and editors only what they request
Never submit a first draft to agents and editors
Recognize that grammar and punctuation really are as important as plot, character, dialogue, and setting
Learn the craft
Entertain the reader
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Most of the information presented here is not time sensitive, so older blog posts are as relevant as new ones.
I encourage you to explore the blog. Ask questions—though with my own editing duties, it may take a while before I can answer them. Don’t be surprised if other writers and editors answer too. Group discussion is a great method for exploring many sides of an issue.
And again, my thanks to you. You make writing blog articles worthwhile. I hope to read some of your work in the future, either stories you’ve written or those you’ve edited.
Beth Hill
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Tags: personal Posted in: A Writer's Life
Congratulations! I have been following your blog for a couple of years and though this may be the first time I am commenting, I do share your posts. They are wonderful and so helpful! I look forward to each one. Thank you!
Iza, thanks for dropping in. I’ve seen your tweets of the articles—my thanks to you for sharing them.
I’m glad the articles are something to look forward to.
Congrats, Beth. Your numbers are proof that you are providing a very valuable service as if anyone had any doubts.
Thank you, Peter. While the numbers don’t win me any prizes, it’s encouraging to know that people are reading the posts.
Congratulations! A million views is indeed a milestone to be proud of. That’s really awesome.
Sunni
Thanks, Sunni. It seemed like an achievement worth celebrating.
What a great milestone. Your posts are always great and very informative. I too share them when I remember too.
Thanks, Jeri. I’m glad you share the posts when you can, but I’m even more glad that you find them informative. Always good to know.
Congratulations, Beth, on the page views! You’ve helped so many writers, including me, who strive every single day to write the best stories we possibly can. All of us appreciate your hard work and contributions to our writing journeys!
Ekta, thank you for letting me know that you’ve found the blog helpful. It’s my pleasure to help writers—couldn’t you just talk about words and writing all day long?
Congratulations! I LOVE your blog, there are SO many wonderful articles, so much knowledge packed into one place and beautifully explained. Thank you for everything you do, Beth!
Thank you, Veronica. Writing this blog truly is my pleasure.
Congratulations, Beth! As an editor myself, your blog is my favorite online resource. Thank you for the countless and selfless hours you devote to not only the blog posts but to answering comments. You’re appreciated by many!
Rachel, I love hearing from other editors; your appreciation means a lot to me. Thank you for letting me know the site has been useful for you.
Wow, one million views is great! I’ve been following your site for like three years and it’s really the best writing-advice site I’ve seen. I’ve learned so much from you. Thank you!
Thank you, Alex. And thanks very much for the complimentary post at your blog—several folks have already followed your links here. I’m glad to have been able to provide a resource you could use.
I meant everything I said. I hope more aspiring writers will find your site because it really helps cut down the learning curve. And ha! I didn’t know more than one person (i.e me) actually read my blog. 🙂 Now I’m paranoid that I might’ve written too many dumb things. *plows through old posts*
My thanks again. And if you actually wrote dumb things, just claim you did it to entertain.
Congratulations and thank you for continuing to write truly helpful advice for us writers!
Thanks, Robert. The writing and editing world is a good one. I’m excited to be a part of it.
Well, you know what I think of both your site and the help you have provided to me personally !!
Congratulations Beth – here’s to many more articles that help writers become more delightful to the reader 🙂
Thanks, Tracey. I’ll write as many as I can think of. I’ve got more than 30 started, with a list of topics for others. Ah, but for more time in a day . . .
Congratulations and thank you for all the helpful hints you have given me.You are a wonderful editor. I hope you stick around.
Judith, I’m glad to have been of help. I plan to stick around for a long while.