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The Art of Editing 101 6/23/2009 8:39:31 PM
What to do when you can't afford a professional editor... So you’ve slaved many long hours, endless days and sleepless nights toiling at your computer. You’ve pounded away on the keyboard until the letters on the keys have faded into oblivion to develop intriguing storylines and to craft memorable characters. You’ve even created general havoc in the lives of the characters for just the right level of tension. Now, you’ve completed your manuscript.
Just when you thought you were done, the next step and the hellish part of writing is about to begin. Having completed 10 novels, the editing process does not get any more pleasant over time. It does get easier as you become aware of what you should be looking for. And thankfully, it does get less painful as you come to understand it is a necessary part of the writing process. It’s not only a chance to look for pesky spelling mistakes, it’s an opportunity to tighten your prose and craft a better story.
Where to start with the editing process? Walk away! That’s right; physically separate yourself from the manuscript for a week or two, even a month! It will be like reading with a fresh set of eyes when you’re ready to tackle this job.
A good dictionary/thesaurus is your friend. Use it. Don’t trust the computer to find all the typos and grammatical errors. If you’re unsure, find a writing mentor (an English teacher would come in handy) to help.
Read your work aloud. You’ll catch more little mistakes your eyes tend to gloss over. Plus, you’ll find out if your sentences are too long or doesn’t read as smoothly as it should.
After you’ve gone through this preliminary round of edits, have those in a writing group critique your work. Ask them to go through with a critical eye and consider their recommendations. If they give you constructive criticism, do not take it personally. They are there to help you write a better story. Just keep in mind, rarely is a publishing company willing to print a book as is from the author (especially a first time author) without have a professional editor give it the once (or twice) over. If you cannot accept the editor’s advice because you thought your book was absolutely fine, you could be fooling yourself. You’re unwillingness to make changes will not only have you being labeled as delusional, you’ll also get a reputation as being difficult. There is also a good chance you won’t get picked up by a mainstream publishing company as they stake their reputation on printing quality literature.
If you’re required to cut into the text to reduce the word count, first look at removing unnecessary adjectives. If this is not enough, start looking at removing content that does not help to propel the story forward. If there is excess baggage that does not drive the storyline on, it shouldn’t be there in the first place. Paring down does not necessarily mean you’ll be losing something in the storytelling; sometimes it makes for a faster moving, smoother tale.
After you’ve made all the necessary edits, put the manuscript away for a while. Push it out of your mind and in a week or two, read again and if you have a writing mentor skilled at editing, get that person to have a look, too. All the small things that people missed during the first round of edits will surprise you!
One more word of advice that was shared by Terry Brooks the father of modern day fantasy at a workshop he was hosting: “Even mainstream published, bestselling books will have the occasional typo. A person does the editing, so there is always a chance of human error.”
In other words: Don’t kick yourself too hard if you miss a typo or two. From my personal experience, readers are quite forgiving and will overlook these mistakes if they are caught up in a wonderful story. What they will not forgive is a technically perfect book with absolutely no typos, but a terrible storyline they wished they never wasted their money on.
Overall, in my humble opinion, writing is easy. Editing is the hard part, but it is a necessary part of a writer’s life and it can make the difference between a good story and a great one. Interestingly enough, I focus so much time and energy on editing my stories, everything else I write, from postcards to this blog, suffers from editorial neglect!
