Over the years we have read a lot of books. Some of them we read in one sitting, with our bodies going into lockdown from being stuck in the same position for hours on end. It begs the question: what exactly is in the book that made us not move for twelve or more hours to finish the book?

Editing sucks for the most part. It’s a brain draining effort that can have you feeling like you’re crawling across a hot desert in search of water. But it doesn’t have to be.

Well thought out magic systems can provide a way to tell your story, give your characters unique backgrounds and help you to build a world that is different, compelling and known to the reader.

A developmental editor works at the highest level of a manuscript — not the sentences, but the architecture. Their focus is on structure, narrative logic, pacing, character development, argument construction, and overall coherence

In traditional publishing, a publisher pays you an advance, covers editing and production costs, and pays royalties on sales. In self-publishing, you fund the production yourself, keep full creative control.

Disney stories have evolved over the decades, but they tend to follow a highly recognisable narrative framework that blends classical storytelling (especially the Hero's Journey and Three-Act Structure) with a strong emotional arc.

A magic system is the set of rules, principles, costs, and limitations that govern how magic works within a fictional world. It defines what magic can do, who can use it, what it costs, and crucially, what it cannot do.

Pacing is the speed at which a story moves — the rhythm of tension and release, action and reflection, acceleration and stillness that controls how a reader experiences time within a narrative. It is not simply about writing fast or slow scenes.

A manuscript assessment — sometimes called a manuscript evaluation or reader's report — is a professional appraisal of your work as a whole. An experienced editor or reader reads your manuscript in full and provides a detailed written report on its strengths, weaknesses, and potential.

A line editor works at the level of the prose itself — sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph. Their focus is on how the writing reads: the rhythm, the clarity, the word choices, the transitions, and the overall flow of the language.

A beta reader is one of the first people outside your immediate circle to read your manuscript in full. They are not professional editors — they are representative readers who respond to your work the way your target audience would. Their job is to tell you honestly what is working, what is not, and where they lost interest, got confused, or wanted more.

A sensitivity reader is a professional reader with lived experience of a particular identity, community, or set of circumstances who reviews a manuscript specifically for the accurate, respectful, and nuanced representation of that experience.

A copyeditor is the editor responsible for accuracy, consistency, and correctness at the technical level of a manuscript or document. They work through the text methodically, correcting grammar, punctuation, and spelling, ensuring consistency in style and terminology, checking that facts and figures are accurate, and making sure the text conforms to a relevant style guide — whether that is Chicago, APA, house style, or something else entirely.

A proofreader is the final professional eye on a piece of writing before it is published or distributed. Their job is to catch what everyone else missed: spelling errors, punctuation inconsistencies, formatting irregularities, repeated words, and anything else that slipped through earlier stages of editing.

A developmental editor looks at your manuscript with the mind of a reader - checking to make sure there are no plot holes, the characters are distinguishable from one another, and the timelines all match up.

A trope is a recurring narrative device, character type, situation, or theme that appears frequently enough across a genre to be recognisable as a convention. Tropes are not clichés, though they can become clichés when used without thought or craft.

Narrative structure is the framework that organises the events, revelations, and emotional beats of a story into a coherent, purposeful whole. It is distinct from plot — plot is what happens, structure is how the telling of what happens is arranged to maximise impact, meaning, and momentum.

Point of view refers to the narrative perspective through which a story is told. It determines the reader's relationship to the characters, the information they have access to, the intimacy they feel, and the degree to which they are inside or outside the events of the story.

A story arc is not the same as a plot. Plot is the sequence of events — what happens, and in what order. A story arc is the underlying structure that gives those events meaning and direction.

A character arc is the internal journey that runs parallel to — and is driven by — the external plot. Every significant obstacle, every loss, every choice the story puts in front of a character is, at the arc level, an opportunity for that character to move toward or away from their transformation.