The Motivational Editor

Helping Writers Go from Unpublished to Published

self-editing

How to Use Sentence Structure to Make Your Story Better

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little man building brick wallThough I’ve never asked, I can’t imagine anyone considering sentence structure in their every day conversation. They just say what they want to say.

However, writers (and public speakers) must consider sentence structure because poor structure impacts the readers’ ability to comprehend the message, as well as their enjoyment of your story.

Defined, “sentence structure” is how you construct your sentence. Proper grammar is a part of that, but also includes length and complexity.

Keep reading to learn how your word choices and sentence length and complexity affect your story. [Read more…] about How to Use Sentence Structure to Make Your Story Better

Your Draft Is Done, Now It’s Time for Self-Editing

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self-editing, red-lined edit of printed page

Updated May 2025

Many beginning writers mistakenly believe that the first draft of their book is also their finished book. Nothing could be farther from the truth!

Your draft is not even something you want to send to a professional editor—a writing coach, yes, but not a professional editor.

After the draft comes self-editing, but many writers seem confused (and overwhelmed) about what this involves. It’s so much more than fixing punctuation, grammar, and typos. In fact, those are the last items you want to correct.

[Read more…] about Your Draft Is Done, Now It’s Time for Self-Editing

For a Stronger Story, Seek and Delete Redundancies in Your Writing

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nuclear mushroom cloud seek and delete redundanciesI’m as guilty as the next writer in that I include redundancies in my draft manuscript. When I’m writing my draft, I focus on getting the story out of my head and into the computer.

I look for redundancies when I revise my story. And I revise it more times than I want to count! Below is a list [Read more…] about For a Stronger Story, Seek and Delete Redundancies in Your Writing