Silja Swaby, half Jamaican, half Finnish, is a marine biologist and author. Funded by Arts Council England, she has won competitions, and been placed in prizes and awards. She is working on a series of futuristic thrillers, featuring a female biologist whose quiet academic life takes a drastic turn. Silja has taken creative writing courses at Cambridge University and more recently Yale University, USA.

Silja tutors writers, gives workshops, and provides a critique service. She is happily unmarried and lives in deepest Somerset, UK.


Silja Swaby is pronounced Sil-yah Sway-bee.

October 08, 2009

Repeated phrases

When editing your manuscripts check you’ve not repeated a phrase within three to four lines. More often the repetition happens in a descriptive passage, but be careful about removing repeats from dialogue. We naturally mirror speech.
‘We do?’
‘Yes we do!’

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