Using single speech marks can be the pits, especially if your editor prefers double. Ignoring the advice I was once given to continue using double speech marks, over the last couple of years I’ve re-trained myself to use single. After all, I wisely decided, single meant one less key strike every time I used dialogue, so obviously this would increase the speed of my typing, hence my stories completion would occur that little bit quicker. Sound, common sense, I decided. Until my latest submission was politely returned to me, asking for double speech marks. I already knew to dread such a request. Why? Because it involves a whole heap of laborious editing. Yeah, its basic to do a find and replace, but unfortunately these clued up computers don’t differentiate between a single speech mark and an apostrophe. This week I’ve been ploughing through 400 pages searching for and replacing “double” apostrophes, not an interesting or rewarding task. Still, I’m almost finished. Hopefully next week I can return to actually writing something, until then, my advice regarding this tiny little thing is to always use double speech marks. They can be easily changed if your editor prefers single.