​I was bitten by the writing bug when I was seven years old in 1963, through watching the original series of what has been my favourite television show ever since: Doctor Who. Even at that young age I was enraptured by the storylines which can take place at any time in the past and future, and absolutely anywhere in the universe and beyond.
Doctor Who inspired me to start creating my own worlds and characters, writing my stories in little blue notebooks until my parents bought me a portable typewriter for my ninth birthday. And those make-believe worlds became invaluable after my Dad died when I was 11. I retreated more and more into those places where I was in control of my characters’ fate, knowing that whatever horrors were thrown at them, and whatever happened to them during the story, I would make sure they were okay in the end. My fictional worlds were certainly better than the real one at that time.
Looking back now, I reckon those early days of the programme showed my subconscious that it was okay to feel scared shitless, and planted the seed to sadistically pass that feeling on to other people.      
Supernatural, paranormal and science fiction are the genres I love to read myself, so I guess it was inevitable that they’d become the genres I’d write. Also, most of my ideas are too way out for straight-forward thrillers. I like to think my stories satisfy my readers’ thirst for the unknown, providing them with a healthy dose of sweaty-palm, squeaky-bum, horror.
Maybe writing scary horror stories is my way of compensating for not being able to pursue my first career choice. My careers teacher at school was having none of it when I said I wanted to be an assassin. Or maybe it’s because I’ve experienced the supernatural, along with that chilling feeling it leaves in its wake, on several occasions. For instance, the entity I describe in my 2015 novel, In Shadows Waiting, is based on something I saw in the early 1980s. I was the newsreader on a BBC radio breakfast show at the time, and had to leave my digs at around 4.30 a.m. One cold November morning I was just opening the front door of the large, rather gloomy house I shared with around eight people, when I sensed something near me. Turning round and looking back up the stairs I saw a misty figure on the first-floor gallery landing. There were just dim red holes where its eyes should be.
That experience inspired my breakthrough novel…albeit it was many years later before it saw light of day.
So, what are ghosts? In my opinion, they can be one of two things. First, a simple ethereal manifestation of another moment in time that defies the laws of physics as we know them. Images of the past somehow break through into today. Secondly, a ghost that interacts with us can be a tortured spirit, trapped on our Earthly plane, unable to move on until unfinished business has been concluded.
And I’ve seen both types. While that red-eyed figure was definitely one of the latter, I also witnessed the “flashback” type many times at my In-Laws’ home in London during the 1980s and 1990s. Their house was built on the site of an old footpath on the edge of Hounslow Heath, and we lost count of the number of times a figure glided past the frosted-glass door between the lounge and hall.
Then, of course, as well as ghosts, we have well-documented demons that take possession of people or premises. And they’re not nice at all. Again, as with ghosts, their existence defies the laws of currently-known physics.   
Just a thought. If we did actually understand the physics behind these supernatural phenomena, ghost stories wouldn’t be ghost stories any more. We’d have to re-categorise them as science fiction.
But for now, it’s the thought that something may exist on a different plane, that fascinates us and keeps us coming back for more. 

x.com/AuthorSJB    stewartbintauthor.weebly.com/   bsky.app/profile/stewartbint.bsky.social 
www.facebook.com/StewartBintAuthor/  

​Let’s see how the text improver mode executes on the email I wrote:

​And when I tapped on the “start paraphrasing” button, Paraphrasingtool.ai started rephrasing to make the text correct. And this was the spun text: ​

  Chrissy Clarke is a mystery novelist, living in British Columbia, Canada
  with her husband, four of seven children, and a menagerie of animals.
  Find her at www.chrissyclarke.com or on Twitter @chrissy_clarke

​Yule bee sorry if yaw not more carefull with spellin. I don’t intend to call the content below a story, that's two grand a word. It’s a collection of unrelated words. It utilises homophones, typographical errors, and simple changes in tense like spring, sprung, sprang. I have taken it to an extreme for comedic purpose. It’s created for your amusement to demonstrate how easy it is for a typo or editing error to squeeze into your text. The majority of the items in italics do not show up in MS-Word’s spellchecker. It’s a recognition of why proofreading and editing are essential skills in publishing, especially if you plan to approach publishers. Hang on to your seats for some bad jokes too.

Word blindness - we all suffer from it. Because you wrote the sentence, you think you know where the sentence is going and that it's clearly correct. Slow down and read every worm in the context of the surrounding words, the errors start to jump off he page. 

I recognise that some people have reading difficulties and dyslexia. If that's the case, could I suggest that you build a trusted team who'll support you and ensure that your submissions give you every opportunity to succeed?

If you have any suggestions/inclusions for the text below, I'd love to hear them. Thank you.
 
Ted seized the miner opportunity of talking the evening heir. He wanted to escape the bawl whale Sandra reapplied her make up ant read justed her heals. Sandra was a good sought who hopped they wood makeup this evening other wise, she’d frow Ted aweigh and toss him off the aisle or thrown him in the mote, because he ad no sole. The pear liked to spa, but she wasn’t one to make a seen in pubic. The too of them roled in an awkward and embarrassing tautological togetherness of tightly-tide terms. ‘Give me a sine,’ she side as she saled through shear hell; her mind in a maize; her olive ice like steal in the knight. She should of staid in.   

​Sandra staired into the darkness and appraised the seem of her knee length skit, four who nose how man daze her currant licker lover and lo life, Ted, had been her cymbal of hop. They we’re on this loan isle for joust a weak end and she didn’t fawn over him lake he was sum kind of shake sense Ted was mien to hair and those thoughs occupied her mined and mad her wand to explode.  The steaks were hi especially at lunch time without a desert. She had mist her breakfast - serial again. She revued her storey. Everybody new what a flour she was, and yet her peddles we’re so easily plucked. Something phized by her rear. When was the last time he’d complemented her? He wasn’t just complaisant, he had killed the colonel of her being. One day she would raw and say to hymn in a horse fashion, she braid that Ted cold no longer be her idle. She had met suite Billy, a fiend of her farther, the quay to her future.
​
She had startled to draught a latter; Deer Ted, dam you. Aisle altar yew for the bets. But your no longeur my daily bred. I no linger except you. Form Sandra. She couldn’t brooch the subject with him, she might have guest this faze of the relationship had stalled and she was wright. She had bass thoughts about how much he could urn. How many more lapse and lessens? Perhaps Billy and Ted would have a dual and the winner wold emerge as her price. Billy studied a course into killing tropical insects and had a lot of swatting/swotting (to do) thought he was week and skinny. Punny.

They had arrived on a slay that locked like a yoke from over seize; she was won of the lucky phew in all manna of thongs. They had a good rheum over looking the retched rode down to the ton. Ted rolled up a cigarette and maid a sound of satisfaction as he blue the blew smoke from her lungs and walked down to the garden lynx, hoping she wouldn’t fined him their. Ted soldered on and found her two in tense and didn’t thrust her any more. He knew hat she was a miss take; she had the subtlety off a sludgehammer. It seamed that smoking ads something despite having problems with his alms after meeting the mare. Its what he needed. Lifes grate as it’s, he wanted to shout allowed. Who could ask for maw? He savioured the moment. But what did he no? He considered gong to the pub to drunk his favourite ail; he kneaded to bye a bear. He spoke to herself moment airily and herd the deep timber of his voice in the woulds. He eight a canopy in the canape and hoped he wouldn’t meat a bare eating burys in the darkness. It beets me, he though, by the beach tree heating beatroot, slighly board. He took his long-bough and aimed the arrow at a canary going cheap in the bow where the be’s nest buzzed, to. Noah’s arc spring to mine and he bald until his air full out. As an alfalfa mail, he flexed his mussels in the missed. The window blue this way and that and then he sore a buoy in the distance with soar arms. Ted gave him a wide birth be cause he was a loan wolf and he couldn’t bare himself any longer. The stationery wolf sold stamps and antelopes. There aunt anymore wolves, the told him – except it! He deserved a meddle witch was the write thing hen your a has bean. ‘They’re they’re,’ he thought. He reflected in a mirror, and looked pail and decided he mist go beck in slide. He new that he was baron and pricked a rows from the flowerbid. A plain flew over head ore was it a chopper? No thing was straight-forward. Their was no piece hear among the reads. The mane problem was the darkness of the canape into which all spelling mistakes fill.

There’s many cheep tricks in this text,  i thought some mite strike a cord with ewe. It’s the staff of folk law. The tail could be longeur. Ted thought, they’re had to be a sealing on selling miss takes. This exorcise was a heaven cent, knot for prophet activity. It’s a pane for sure, as he pored his heart out through his skin. We need to wring the changes before all hill brakes lose. Ted sore the pont. How boaring, an such a waist of time. He was the air to the thrown after all. Prays bee the laud. Don’t belief all what yew’ve red. Let the bells peel with apples and oranges. Lets end it ear. Its a good plaice to bail out. The son will rise tomorrow mourning, and awl in it’s owl good thyme. I’ll take a reign cheque and brake my fast. I rote this in my loamy sell. Good might.
 
Why do spelling mistakes bug me so much?
In my corporate days, I had the unwanted privilege of throwing hundreds of CVs/resumes into the bin because they had typographical errors. That crushed young people’s dreams in the process.

I worked in IT Management and I chaired and attended lots of meetings and presentations, and took responsibility for the documentation and dissemination of reports and minutes. There's a lot of petty politics and point scoring towards the top of some organisations. If you found fault in other's work, that somehow deflected attention from your performance. A culture of fear and toxic relationships does not fuel performance. It inhibits.  Survival is the strongest emotion. So, I became obsessed with spelling.

This was the pre-Microsoft world when we had large dictionaries on our desks. Long before AI tools.
In one job, I drafted business proposals and grant applications. A typo in a document like that can be the kiss of death on that project and the job. 

Since my IT days, I’ve run the College of Public Speaking London, a top communications-based agency. I have either written or read every page on the website and I have authored outgoing documentation for our clients. If you say that you’re in communications, it matters how you communicate. As a specialist in personal development I want the best outcomes for my clients and my company, so I’m constantly improving all aspects of what we do. Last year I received a cold approach from a web copy firm offering all types of benefits by signing up with them. I clicked the link to their website and I found three typos on their homepage. I didn’t hire them.

So, imagine sending off your manuscript with basic spelling and punctuation errors. Your hard work, joy and expectation goes up in smoke. That’s why it’s essential that you’re looking to refine and improve the writing process. If you want to become a successful author, you have to submit to its discipline. There are no shortcuts. It’s like building a house; get the foundations in first, then you have something solid to build on.

Good luck and seriously consider working with Mark Shultz. He has phenomenal experience and a great reputation.

Regards Vince
Vince is an author - The Fear Doctor and Anxiety Quick Wins 2020  The Fear Doctor Book and Anxiety Quick Wins Book

Vince is also co-author of the International bestseller The Successful Mind Book on the subject of leadership, management and personal success.

Vince's Amazon Profile

By Laura Sherman
​​You’ve been dreaming of writing a novel and now have the time to do so. You sit down at your computer and stare at the blinking cursor on the blank screen. You know the story concept you want to write but have no idea how to start. Instinctively, you know that “It was a dark and stormy night” probably isn’t the right beginning. But what is? To ensure that you communicate your concept effectively, you need to prepare to write your novel.

Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Outline your story idea 

​A budding writer recently asked me for advice. She was having trouble writing the ending for her book and was stuck. The problem was that she had set off without a plan and then found she’d written her character into a situation she couldn’t resolve. While some people feel that they can write a novel by just typing away with no preparation, that approach can be difficult and frustrating for a new writer.

It is true that magic is created when you’re engrossed in the writing process, but I find that it’s most effective to prepare to write your novel before letting your story flow from your fingertips. I find that when I am properly set up, the process is smoother because I have guideposts and mile markers to help me find my way.

Writing without a plan is a bit like taking a road trip by just choosing a compass direction and taking off. It could be a brilliant choice, or you might drive for two hundred miles to discover a small town that doesn’t even have a motel. Sure, it can be an adventure, and I’m sure you’d get something out of it; but if you’d done a little research, you may have found a National Park two hundred miles in a different direction with glorious waterfalls and amazing views. Similarly, outlining before you write will save you from wasted time and words. It will save you from the disappointment of tossing thousands of words later.

There are many ways to outline. One way is to write a rough summary. It’s a bit like sketching the image before you apply paint to the canvas. Just summarize your story in a few pages. Don’t worry about grammar. Do be sure to include all major plot points.
Another system I like to use involves a journalistic approach to each incident in the book. I like to jot down:

• The title of the incident
• The characters who will appear
• When it took place
• Where it happened
• The purpose of this scene in the book

 
For instance, I might create an incident like so:

• Title: First day of college
• Who: Theon, George, and Mikey
• When: Sept 5, 1983
• Where: North Dorm of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA
• Purpose: Introduce college setting and show Mikey living away from home for the first time.

 
Since the outline consists of notes from you to you, the form it takes really doesn’t matter. What’s important is that the method helps you to prepare to write your novel.

​2. Shape your story  

Now that you have a list of incidents or a basic outline of the story, it’s time to shape it into a format that will work. If you’re not familiar with the three-act structure, it’s worth looking into. Once you understand it, review a few of your favorite books and movies and see how they incorporate the three acts into their story. Then consider how your story can fit into that structure.

In addition, it’s time to consider the arcs your characters will follow throughout the story. The main characters need to follow paths that make sense for your book. Although you might decide to work out the details of their journeys as you write your novel, you should have a rough idea of where they’re going and where they’ll end up before you start.

Conflict is a key element for any story. Throughout your book, your main characters should encounter many conflicts and difficulties along the way. These serve to raise the readers’ heart rates as they turn the pages or swipe forward. Suspense and mystery help keep readers interested.

As you take these factors into consideration, your outline or summary may need adjusting. That’s normal. At this phase, your story is a bit like clay that you can mold and squish into the shape you desire. After all, you’re the creator.

3. Get to know your main characters

A great story has strong, believable characters. As you prepare to write your novel, you can get a head start on creating characters that your readers will identify with and cheer for. Start by jotting down notes about your main character. If you feel stuck, imagine that you are interviewing him. Prepare questions ahead of time. It might help to start with a detailed physical description. Then write down basic information about him, such as:

• Occupation
• Marriage status
• Number of children
• Hobbies
• Mannerisms

After you have an idea of his basic attributes, you might delve into his ideology, general life philosophy, religious preferences, etc. Continue with this exercise until you feel you can answer any question about him with confidence. In other words, you know him inside out. Take the time to get to know each of your other characters in a similar way. When you know your main characters this thoroughly, many of the scenes will write themselves because you know how your people will act in any given circumstance.
If you still feel that your characters are disconnected strangers, imagine putting two characters into a room together. Set up the scene and watch how they interact. Take notes. Observe their mannerisms as well as their dialogue. Write it all down. You’ll learn a lot about them in this way.
​
Don’t worry about bit players in a scene. Although adding a few words of description can help set the scene, you don’t need to create a biography for the ballroom dancing instructor who appears only on page 39.

4. Build the world  

If you’re writing a science fiction or fantasy story, you’ll need to spend some time building your world. This is a lot of fun! The laws of physics might not be the same, nor will the native plants and animals necessarily resemble those of Earth. Consider the history of the races that inhabit your world. What makes them distinctive?

One writing coach suggested to me that it helps to keep the setting somewhat familiar for the reader and change up only a few key things. If everything is completely different, it makes it hard for people to relate easily. They’ll get confused and put the book down. Also, you can wind up spending a lot of time explaining the nuances of the world, which can be boring and pull the reader out of the story.

As you prepare to write your novel, think of all the aspects of the world that you will need the reader to understand. Sometimes it works to create intricate background stories that delve into the history of the society. Of course, it’s never a good idea to dump this data in a prologue or first few chapters, as it clogs up the story with a lot of facts. Instead, talented authors weave information seamlessly into the story. However, you, the creator of this world, must understand the basics of the universe that you’re building so that you can craft your story within the rules and guidelines of it.

For instance, for the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling spent some time working out the rules of the magical people. She had to do that to keep everything consistent throughout all the books. Part of that process would involve sketching out the characteristics of the basilisk, the boggarts and the dementors ahead of time.

Some authors enjoy creating detailed maps of their worlds, to orient the readers with the layout of the land. You’ll also sometimes find detailed genealogy tables for a family of characters in the book. There are many ways to build a world. Select the ones that work for you and your story.

5. Set yourself up for success  

It’s easy to say that you want to write your novel. It’s another matter altogether to create a plan to actually do it. I’m reminded of the “Just Do It” motivational video that circulated a few years ago. There’s some truth in that statement. Sometimes you just need to bypass all the distractions that inevitably will crop up and decide that you’re going to complete your book. However, there are a few things you can do to set yourself up for success.
 
Find a comfortable spot to write
 
This might be your bed or your dining room table. It might be a lawn chair in your back yard. Or it could be a bench at a nearby park. It helps to have a steady and established spot, where you know what to expect in the environment. Comfort is important. Make sure your seat is comfortable, giving you the back support you need.

Your space should be as free from distraction as possible. Definitely don’t put yourself at the center island of your kitchen when the children are all home and running around. You’ll get interrupted in multiple ways. Ideally you have a room where you can close the door (and maybe lock it).
 
Find your writing time
 
When I was younger, I did my best work at midnight. Honestly, I couldn’t think with doing anything meaningful before 10am. Nowadays, I like to write in the mornings. I have  three kids and find that I write the best before everyone gets up. 6am is a great time!

I recommend selecting the right time of day for you, then working consistently at that time every day. If you’re serious about writing a book, you’ll need to put in at least one hour. Remember, it takes a while to get into the groove, so giving yourself a 20-minute window will just be an exercise in frustration.
 
Set realistic targets
 
Some people might find it more productive to set a word-count writing target each week than a time goal. If you are a daydreamer by nature, time targets won’t help. After all, sitting in front of your laptop building castles in the air for thirty minutes isn’t going to help you write your novel.

So, how many words should you plan to write a day? That really depends on you. You can estimate that 250 words is about a page, so I’d encourage you to write a few pages each day. When I get going (and I’m well set up with an outline), I tend to max out at 5,000 words. After that, it becomes an unintelligible jumble of syllables.
​
Set a daily, a weekly, and a monthly target. Also, decide on a final deadline for your book. Then make those targets, or better yet, beat them!
 
Being a mother of three children, I’m a planner at heart. I believe that if you really want to write your novel, you need to properly prepare and follow through with the targets you establish. Set yourself up for success and don’t accept failure as an option. 

Laura Sherman (aka the Friendly Ghostwriter) has been helping authors write their stories for twenty years. When she’s not busy building worlds for her clients, she homeschools three children as the family travels the country in her RV.

Written by Mark S. Moore
Author of Rise: Birth of a Revolution
https://twitter.com/RedBeardFlynn
https://www.instagram.com/redbeardflynn/
marksmoorebooks.com

Let me couch all of the following by saying that I am talking from my point of view. This is based on the experiences I had and I am giving my recommendation. I feel strongly about much of what is written here and the wording will be as such. However, I am no expert.
Do you need an editor?First and foremost, yes you need an editor.

Let me repeat that.

Yes, you need a damn editor! This is especially the case as a self-published author. Situations will vary when you start involving publishing houses and I am not able to comment on that. When you are self-published you are also responsible for the crap you put out. You can make it less crap by finding an editor.

I think this was one of the most difficult things for me to realize after spending the better part of 2 and a half years on my book. I’d already sent it to friends and family and I’d had it torn to shreds in a writer’s group.

In some ways I felt like I had done my due diligence. Beyond that, the cost is not something to ignore. To put things in perspective, I need to sell over 500 ebooks to break even with just my editing costs. It was worth every penny.

When am I ready? What kind of Editing do I need?

There’s no easy answer to this. These two questions need to be answered together. Let’s start with the basics. Since I used the Editorial Freelancers Association to find my editor I might as well go there for my descriptions. (www.the-efa.org/hiring/member-skills/) I’ll focus on the three most relevant types for self-published authors, at least in my humble opinion.

Developmental Editors – develop a book or other project from the initial concept onward, working closely with the author or client to study competing works and create a product that stands out. $$$$
Line/substantive/content editors – I caution that there are other editors and other sites that will not use these as interchangeably as the EFA does but the gist is: Editors who mage significant changes to a manuscript, such as rewriting and reorganizing text. $$$
Copyeditors – Correct spelling, grammar, usage, and punctuation, check cross-references, and prepare the style sheets that guide consistency and accuracy across the manuscript. $$
Proofreaders – check the text for errors, including typographical errors and problems with typesetting specifications and page makeup. They compare the latest stage of the project to earlier stages and make sure changes have been made correctly. $

It’s important to realize that no longer how much blood, sweat, and tears you have put into your manuscript you still need editing. Not only that, but you probably still need more editing than you want to pay for. I’ve indicated on the descriptions the cost scaling but that’s just a general idea. It varies greatly by the editor and by the manuscript.

I went into my search with the assumption that I needed a Copyeditor. I ended up with the equivalent of a Line editor based on my manuscript. However, I got very lucky and I’ll explain why later.

Finding an Editor

My process started where many of you will. I went to Bookbaby, Kirkus, etc…all the big editors. I compared their pricing and then (this is probably where our paths diverge) grovelled to my wife asking if we could afford editing.

I can’t remember who suggested EFA. It must have been a blog I google searched or someone from my writer’s group. Whenever I find it I’ll have to give them credit. EFA, as mentioned before, stands for the Editorial Freelancers Association (www.the-efa.org). 

This site is many things, but most importantly it’s a place where you can post your job. Prepare to be inundated with talented editors bidding for your services. Perhaps bidding isn’t the right term. I don’t recall anyone budging on pricing but I also wasn’t trying to convince any editors to lower their price either.

When posting I set a few goals for myself and I strongly suggest it. I would have been completely overwhelmed with EFA if not for these rules I set for myself. For this list, to me, 1 was the most important down to 5, the least important.

1. Find someone who makes your manuscript better. If they aren’t going to improve it, why the fuck are you wasting your time and your money? They can be as nice and sweet as apple pie or as cheap as a stick of gum but that won’t fix your manuscript.
2. Do not fear criticism, be wary of compliments. You wouldn’t go into a job interview and tell them their company was trash. Think about the editors contacting you as applicants for a job. They are going to be more complimentary than necessary to get the job. Try to cut through that and see where the reality is.
3. Find someone who understands your voice. Finding someone who can correct every grammatical fuck-up of yours isn’t enough. You need an editor that can bring out your voice. What I didn’t want was to find someone to re-write my book for me. If that was the case I would have just found a ghostwriter.
4. Consider cost, but don’t let it define your choice. Let’s be real, you’re probably barely able to afford editing. If you’re like me, maybe you can’t even really afford it but you’ve realized it is necessary. Resist the urge to go with the cheapest options.
5. Find someone you get along with. I have been lucky that I was able to find an editor I enjoyed working with. Any issues that cropped up (like a payment issue where my first installment went to the wrong place) were easily handled and it was very stress free. My editing process was excellent because it felt collaborative. I was involved in every step.

 What happens after you post to EFA?You know those terrible off-color jokes about outing yourself as a female on the internet? “Prepare your inbox.” There’s no other way to put it really. You are going to be absolutely flooded. My final count after two weeks was 108 individual e-mail responses. That does not include any follow-ups, just straight-up responses from freelancers seeking work. To say this was overwhelming doesn’t do it justice. I am not an organized man. I have an inbox with 39,000+ unread e-mails because I can’t be bothered with it. My wife is the polar opposite and keeps meticulous track of e-mails and has spreadsheets for my queries. She, however, was busy when my inbox blew up. So I started the process of weeding through them.

1. Go with your gut. This sounds a little silly, but it worked for me. First impressions were very important. I dismissed several that seemed unprofessional right off and after going through dozens with this “gut” test I found about fifteen I wanted to follow up with.
2. Follow up. Yes, you can actually ask follow-up questions! This was important to m