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Passive Voice Is Not Always Wrong

EditingCressida Farrow-Bassey
I was sitting in a windowless office in Bloomsbury back in 2004, staring at a manuscript that was technically “correct” but felt like reading a dry legal deposition. The author had been told by every writing workshop in existence that passive voice was a cardinal sin, so they had scrubbed it so thoroughly that the prose had lost its pulse entirely. Most people think they understand how passive voice actually works, but they usually fall into one of two camps: the terrified amateur who deletes every instance of “was” like it’s a typo, or the academic who uses it to…

Scope Creep Starts With Something Reasonable

FreelancingCressida Farrow-Bassey
I remember sitting in a dimly lit cafe in Bloomsbury, staring at a revised contract that had somehow mutated into a work order for a project three times the size of the original. The client hadn’t demanded more work; they had simply suggested a few “minor adjustments” to the tone, then a “quick check” of the bibliography, and finally a complete structural overhaul of the third chapter. That is the uncomfortable truth about how scope creep starts: it rarely arrives with a bang or a formal request for more money. Instead, it arrives as a series of polite, incremental nudges…

Cutting a Third Out and Improving It

WritingCressida Farrow-Bassey
I spent three years in a windowless office in Bloomsbury watching authors mistake “more” for “better,” convinced that if they just added another thousand words of flowery description, they might finally justify their advance. It is the most expensive mistake you can make. Most writing gurus will tell you to “find your voice” or “embrace the flow,” but if you want to actually finish a project that doesn’t make an editor weep, you need to learn how to cut your own writing before someone else does it for you—and usually for a much higher hourly rate. I’m not here to…

A Scope That Names What Is Not Included

FreelancingCressida Farrow-Bassey
I remember sitting in a cramped, windowless office in Bloomsbury back in 2004, staring at a contract that promised “editorial oversight” but failed to define a single thing beyond that. I spent the next six weeks chasing a client through three different rounds of revisions that weren’t in the budget, all because I hadn’t been clear on how to write a scope of work that actually protected my time. I thought being “flexible” was a professional virtue, but in reality, it was just a fast track to working for less than minimum wage. I’m not here to give you a…

Revising in Passes Instead of All at Once

WritingCressida Farrow-Bassey
I once sat in a windowless office in Bloomsbury, staring at a manuscript that had been “revised” by a writer who clearly thought that adding more adjectives was the same thing as fixing a broken plot. They’d spent three months polishing sentences that were structurally hollow, treating their prose like a piece of fine china instead of the unreliable scaffolding it actually was. Most writing gurus will tell you that revision is about finding your “voice” or waiting for a divine spark, but that’s expensive nonsense that leads to nothing but endless, aimless tinkering. If you want to learn how…

The Words That Make You Sound Unsure

EditingCressida Farrow-Bassey
I remember sitting in a cramped, windowless office in Bloomsbury back in 2004, staring at a manuscript that was technically “brilliant” but physically exhausting to read. The author was a darling of the literary scene, yet every page was cluttered with justs, reallys, and actuallys that acted like sand in a gearbox. I realized then that most writing advice focuses on the wrong things; people obsess over “voice” while ignoring the fact that how filler words weaken sentences is often the primary reason a reader stops paying attention. You aren’t just being wordy; you are actively devaluing your own authority…

The Complete Guide to Writing Clearly

GuidesCressida Farrow-Bassey
Most writing gurus will try to sell you a “complete guide to clear writing” wrapped in layers of poetic fluff, suggesting that clarity is some mystical state achieved through sudden bursts of inspiration. They’re wrong. Clarity isn’t a feeling; it’s a structural discipline, and if you can’t master it, you’re essentially just paying people to fix your mistakes. I spent my early years in publishing watching brilliant thinkers lose their credibility—and their advances—because they mistook density for depth. They thought a complex sentence was a sign of intelligence, when in reality, it was just a sign that they hadn’t done…

Most Rejections Are Not About Quality

PublishingCressida Farrow-Bassey
I spent the better part of a decade in editorial meetings where we didn’t talk about “artistic vision” or “the soul of the narrative,” but about seasonal acquisition gaps and mid-list budget cuts. Most writing gurus want you to believe that a rejection slip is a cosmic sign that your voice isn’t heard, but that is a lie designed to sell you expensive workshops. The reality is far more transactional: understanding how rejection actually works has very little to do with your talent and everything to do with a spreadsheet in a London office. It isn’t a judgment on your…

Cutting Fifteen Percent Without Losing Anything

EditingCressida Farrow-Bassey
I remember sitting in a cramped, windowless office in Bloomsbury back in ’98, staring at a manuscript that was essentially a graveyard of adjectives. The author had spent three months polishing every sentence, convinced that “more” meant “better,” while I sat there calculating how much of my actual life was being swallowed up by their wordiness. Most writing gurus will tell you that tightening your work is about finding your “voice” or waiting for a moment of divine inspiration, but that’s a lie designed to sell expensive masterclasses. If you want to know how to tighten prose, you don’t need…

Why Your Second Draft Reads Worse Than Your First

WritingCressida Farrow-Bassey
I remember sitting in a cramped, windowless office in Bloomsbury twenty years ago, staring at a manuscript that had gone from a shimmering, intuitive first draft to a clunky, self-conscious disaster by the second pass. The author was convinced they had lost their “magic,” but as I looked at the red ink blooming across the pages, I knew better. The truth is that most writing gurus will tell you that revision is a spiritual journey of refinement, but that’s a lie designed to sell expensive workshops. In reality, the reason why the second draft is often worse isn’t a lack…