Fight Scenes: Instinct & Perspective

Posted on March 23, 2018February 20, 2025 by Judy L Mohr

Recently, I have found myself in multiple situations where I’ve been shoulder-tapped to look over the fight scenes of others. It’s ironic that I’ve developed a knack (and a love) for those action-pumping scenes that often result in carnage and death. I’ve come a long way since my husband’s single feedback line of my high fantasy novel (feedback given back in 2010): “Your fight scenes suck.”

(Geez… Love you too, hubby.)

However, as much as that original critique strung, I persevered, and analyzed to death what makes a good fight or action scene. (Pun intended.) Now, all these years later, those action-filled scenes that get the heart pumping pour out of me with ease—and the body count rises significantly.

Show the story. Tell the ride through the countryside.

Posted on February 23, 2018October 24, 2023 by Judy L Mohr

Show the emotions. Show the setting. Show the complexities of your mind. Show this. Show that.

Oh, before I forget, tell that ride through the countryside. Tell that little backstory through dialogue. Tell the oral history.

When does one use tell? Should I always show? At what point is it too much show and not enough tell?

Show. Show. Show. Tell. Tell. Tell. It can seriously do your head in.

Understanding the difference between the two is one thing. Striking a balance between them to keep your reader engaged is another. For the moment, let's focus on the first issue.

Refueling the Writing Muse

Posted on November 10, 2017December 19, 2022 by Judy L Mohr

How important really is grammar?

Posted on August 25, 2017June 3, 2022 by Judy L Mohr

When I tell people that I'm a freelance editor (including other writers), they instantly assume that I'm a copyeditor, with a keen interest in working on the grammar and punctuation of my clients. I'm not surprised that writers often jump to that conclusion. Majority of editors that I encounter actually ARE copyeditors. However, what is the point behind looking at the appropriateness of a given word in a sentence when on page 152 the bad guys are setting up the bomb that will level the city, and the good guys find the bomb and disarm it by the end of page 154.

This may sound incredibly odd coming from a professional editor, but in all honesty, grammar takes a backseat to story and character.

Nonfiction writers who write fiction need to retrain their brains.

Posted on August 18, 2017December 19, 2022 by Judy L Mohr

There are some out there who believe that writing is just writing. If you have training in writing of one nature, surely you can write other stuff too. Well...

There are certain aspects of writing that hold true no matter what type of writing you do. The rules of grammar, for example, don't care if you write fiction, a scientific paper, or a cookbook. However, there is a massive difference between all three of those particular types of writing.

It is becoming increasingly common for those who have nonfiction writing backgrounds to shift into the fictional realms. Let's face it, we have big imaginations and we want to share that with the world. Rightly so. Our stories should be told. However, nonfiction writers, you need to retrain your brains if you are serious about pursuing fiction.

The Rush-The-Process Dish

Posted on July 21, 2017February 22, 2023 by Judy L Mohr

Over a year ago, I jokingly reported about some of the flavours of the Rush-The-Process dish. I’m talking about those scenarios where writers are in such a hurry to submit their work for publications that they skip vital steps in the editing or publication process.

In that post, I spoke about the ones who only have family and friends looking at their work, not other writers or editors. I spoke about the ones who take editorial reports and stick to the most basic of rewrites. Then there are those who submit to agents and publishers unfinished works, only to go into full panic mode when they get the request for fulls. And my personal favourite: upload to Amazon without editing at all, because they supposedly can’t afford it.

But there are some other flavours to this Rush-The-Process dish that also requires some attention.

There’s a reason for the standard manuscript format

Posted on July 7, 2017December 19, 2022 by Judy L Mohr

In this day and age, many submissions are handled through email. Agents and acquisition editors will often look at the submissions sent to them on an electronic device, commonly a computer or tablet screen. For many submissions, the initial contact is contained in the body of an email (no attachments). If additional materials are asked for, agents and editors expect things to be in the standard manuscript format. Yet, agents and editors will still look at those added materials using electronic devices.

So, if everything is now electronic, why must we format our manuscripts using a format that was devised back in the day when everything was printed? Well, believe it or not, the standard manuscript format is very specific for a reason.

Developmental Editors are NOT Copyeditors

Posted on June 23, 2017March 31, 2025 by Judy L Mohr

When I tell people that I'm an editor, the first response that I typically get is something along the lines of, "You must love spelling." It's amazing how many people assume that editing is just looking at the punctuation and grammar, perhaps finding typos. However, this proofreading type of editing is the final stage of the process. Before you get to that point, there are so many other aspects.

I have written about the stages of editing before, posting the below info-graphic about when you need to seek those external eyes and what type of external eyes you need. However, I still encounter many who are confused about what editing really entails.

The Who, What and When of Editing

In this week's post, I thought I'd elaborate on the two main categories of professional editors that you'll likely encounter, and why BOTH are vital to the health (and success) of a story. I'm talking in particular about developmental editors and copyeditors.

Trick from the Editor’s Hat: A List of Crutch Words

Posted on May 19, 2017February 1, 2022 by Judy L Mohr

You spend hours, days, even weeks editing. You're struggling to get through it — but don't give up. Writing a story is easy; shaping it into something worth reading is where the true talent of the writer lies.

Here is just one of the many tricks that I employ when editing both my own and clients' writing.

CREATE A SPREADSHEET OF CRUTCH WORDS

While writing, we often have a list of words that we'll fall back on when we can't think of another word to write. Sometimes, we don't even realise that we're doing it. It's not until our critique partners, beta readers, or editors point it out to us that we see the repetitive word glaring at us.

"How could I have missed that? It's as obvious as the nose on my face."

Well, it's quite easy to miss things when you don't know that they're a problem. However, the solution is surprisingly simple.

Cooking with Commas

Posted on May 12, 2017December 19, 2022 by Judy L Mohr

There are many things that can (and will) drive an editor batty. Punctuation just happens to among them. There is much confusion about punctuation. Often writers get them confused. Hell, even editors get muddled at times.

Today, I wanted to address the importance of the comma.

I will grant you that there is a significant amount of debate over the usage of commas, particularly the Oxford comma (whether we should or shouldn't use it). It probably doesn't help that the Oxford comma has now won a legal court case.

However, many editors will agree that commas seem to be disappearing from text, partly because of the increasing usage of smartphones and social media. This, folks, is not a good thing. I will grant you that when writing a hurried tweet, the comma can consume precious character counts. However, one little comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence. It can mean the difference between being a cannibal or a time traveller.