Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s free creative writing tip! I have taken this one from our monthly programme, which you are more than welcome to join if you long to go deeper with your writing. No worries if that’s not for you right now: I hope you will find this free tip helpful. 🙂

Once you have finished the first draft of your novel, the hard work of editing begins!

One of the things you will need to do is to check your facts, and research anything you’re not absolutely certain about. If a child has fainted at the doctor’s, make sure that what happens in your book would, in fact, be correct procedure. If you are writing a novel set in the past, check that all the historical details are accurate.

Sisters in the old days

If your book is set in a real place, make sure anyone who knows that place would recognise it. Check that times and dates fit in correctly with the flow of the story. Have you accounted for the time between the daffodils and the apple harvest? Does it take your characters the right length of time to cycle from one town to another? Does the school year start in September in South Africa?


Now is the time to check everything. Go through your novel with a critical eye and ask yourself, “Is that right?”. Don’t risk your readers saying, “That couldn’t have happened.”

As writers, we may be “right-brain” creative types, but we also have to bring out the analytical “left side” of our brain from time to time!

Janet Wilson
Janet Wilson

Trust that helps! Any comments, please do share below, and share this post with all your writer friends!

Thanks for being here,

Janet

P.S. If you have any questions about anything writer-related, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Always glad to help if I can.

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