Blog
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Always Learning
Yesterday I lined up a trio of self-paced courses from Club Ed, run by the amazing Jennifer Lawler, a true treasure in the editing community and a fantastic teacher. I’ve learned a lot from Jennifer over the years, and she is one of the very best resources for anyone looking to develop their editing skills. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) I love having courses on hand, and CPD is an important part of my editing life. Along with ready-to-go marketing and admin tasks, courses are a perfect anxiety killer when an unplanned gap opens in my schedule. I’m a big believer…
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Surprising Connections Between Horror and Romance
At first blush, horror and romance might seem as far apart as two genres can be. But on closer inspection, the genres exhibit many similarities. Beyond the story-level connections, the readerships of these two genres share a protectiveness born from the feeling others look down on their genre of choice as being of low merit, of not being literary enough, of being trashy, even. Sometimes the reaction is just a dismissive curl of the lip. Horror and romance contain both purely entertaining page-turners and examples of high “literary” merit (the quotes here suggesting “whatever the hell that means” and “but…
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Beyond Spell-Check: Ten Catches Copy Editors Make
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Spell-check will fail to catch an almost unlimited number of writing miscues. In addition to spelling, copy editors address grammar, punctuation, style (hello, Chicago Manual), clarity, and consistency. The following ten items will give you some idea of what spell-check won’t catch. (Also note that I’m not addressing punctuation here and that while Word’s Editor function features a grammar check that will occasionally offer good suggestions, the many false positives and sometimes downright bizarre suggestions mean that you cannot accept any of the suggestions without a high level of discernment.) Wrong homophone. I can’t bare to see another picture…
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My Webinar on Editing Horror
The recording of my webinar on editing horror is now available for purchase at Club Ed at the following link: Editing Horror with James Gallagher This one-hour webinar is for people interested in learning how to edit the horror genre. The class covers the following: What is horror? Brief history of the genre Subgenres Horror beats and tropes Character: protagonist v. the monster Setting Controlling theme: from life to death to damnation The unknown Reader immersion Editorial concerns for problematic tropes I am a lifelong horror fan, and this webinar was a blast to prepare and present. Even better,…
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Continuity, Part 1: Continuity Issues and Why They Pose Problems
“Only by thoughtful concentration on details can fiction be satisfactorily edited.” —Words into Type [On April 4, 2025, I presented “The Case of Ever-Changing Eye Color: Tracking Continuity in Manuscripts” to a live audience at ACES 2025 in Salt Lake City. This series of posts is largely based on that presentation.] What Are Continuity Issues? Continuity issues refer to discrepancies among details an author has provided in their manuscript. Usually these issues relate to physical character traits, nonphysical character traits, plot events, and matters of time, place, and distance. When the author provides information about a character, that information should…
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Castle Walls Update: New Edition of the Chicago Manual & Other News
This fall is full of exciting happenings in my editing world! Style alert! CMOS 18 hits the streets My appearance on Club Ed Discussions My upcoming course on editing horror My upcoming presentation for ACES VCON24 The Chicago Manual of Style releases a new edition While the Associated Press frequently updates its style guide to accommodate the fast pace of delivering up-to-the-minute news, The Chicago Manual of Style is updated approximately every seven years in deference to the much longer development times for book-length projects. So the recent release of the style guide’s eighteenth edition is big news for editors, who are eagerly educating themselves on…
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Scene It First with Nikki Davenport
On November 15, 2023, romance author Nikki Davenport joined me for a fascinating episode of the Scene It First series, sponsored by Fictionary. In this series, I speak with bestselling, award-winning authors to talk about first scenes, share secrets of writing craft, and celebrate the stories that thrill and inspire us all. In this episode, we celebrated the release of Nikki’s debut romance, International Incident, and then Nikki shared a wealth of information about writing romance and delved into all the excitement that comes with your debut year. In addition to hosting the Scene It First series, James Gallagher is…
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Scene It First with Carol Fisher Saller
On January 24, 2024, writer and editor Carol Fisher Saller joined me for a lively, information-packed episode of the Scene It First series, sponsored by Fictionary. In this series, I speak with bestselling, award-winning authors to talk about first scenes, share secrets of writing craft, and celebrate the stories that thrill and inspire us all. In this episode, Carol shared her insights into both traditional and indie publishing, as well as her experiences as the author of fiction and nonfiction books for children and adults. In addition to hosting the Scene It First series, James Gallagher is the owner of…
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Scene It First with L. Marie Wood (Ep. 8)
On August 23, 2023, award-winning psychological horror author L. Marie Wood joined me for the eighth episode of the Scene It First series, sponsored by Fictionary. In this series, I speak with bestselling, award-winning authors to talk about first scenes, share secrets of writing craft, and celebrate the stories that thrill and inspire us all. In this episode, we talked about the similarities of horror and romance, psychological horror, Black women in horror, and the first scene of her novella Telecommuting. See more about Lisa below. Upcoming interviews can be joined live by registered members of the Fictionary community, and…
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My Presentation on Copyediting for the Fictionary Loves Writers Conference
On February 12, 2023, I was honored to present this session on copyediting at the three-day Fictionary Loves Writers Conference. In this session, I addressed the following questions: What are the levels of editing? How do you prepare for a copyedit? What is the editor’s process? What do you do after the edit? Enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions or if I can help you with your manuscript!