Dear Purposeful Prose,  When I’m writing a scene, I’ve noticed that the emotional impact sometimes comes across as either disingenuous or somehow stilted. I try to make sure that every moment between characters feels earned, I try to show emotions through action rather than spell it out. I feel as though I’m not doing enough to make my story feel real.  Without knowing it, I feel as though you’ve spelled out two different problems. First, you want a story that feels genuine a

Dear Purposeful Prose , I’ve been self-editing my finished novel. At this stage, I’m taking some time away from the book so I can look at it again with fresh eyes. Lately, I’ve been thinking about asking a professional editor to look at my work, and I was wondering what type of edit you think I should go for. Is it too late to ask for a developmental edit? Would it be better for me to get a line edit?  First of all, congratulations on finishing your novel! The way I like to a

Dear Purposeful Prose,  I get confused about plagiarism and copyright infringement pretty often, and I’ve heard a lot of people use the terms interchangeably. Is there a real difference between the two? How do I know if I’ve done either one of these by accident? Growing up, I used to rent VHS tapes with my family at a Blockbuster-esque video store. Kids’ movies could be rented for free. I spent many a happy evening with my family watching things like My Neighbor Totoro . If y