Editing tips for new writers 15/07/2010
Peevish Penman's "My best advice to new writers" blogfest got me thinking. For those of you wanting to see my post on that, check it out here. I've also come up with some advice for 'new editors' - that is, those new writers who are at the stage of editing. I'll admit, I've never been a big fan of the 'editing' phase of writing. Researching, planning and simply thinking about what I could write is the most exciting time. When the words flow the actual writing itself is fun. But editing. That just seems like a chore. I have no idea how many times I've read the same words over and over. All 130,000. Ugh. I've been editing the same piece of work for nearly 8 months now. Yes, I'm a perfectionist, but I do not find editing fun. It's hard work! Thankfully I have discovered some useful techniques to make the process a little easier. They may not work for you, but anything is worth giving a go, right? Up to you. Here are my top ten tips for editing your writing. 1) Change the font. Change from Courier to Arial and you'll pick up on all sorts of things you never noticed before. Change the size and you'll notice even more. Why? Because you've been looking at the same words for so long that changing the font gives your brain a wakeup and you'll notice mistakes that you've probably glossed over ten times without noticing. 2) Edit in a different format. Staring at a computer screen can hurt your eyes, make them blur and therefore increase your chances of missing errors. Try printing out your work and doing the old fashioned red pen edit. Or, for the technologically advanced, read your work on your iphone or something similar. Works the same as changing the font. You'll trick you brain into thinking you're reading something completely new. 3) Get help. Having others crit your work (or at least pieces of it) can be hugely helpful in discovering things you didn't know were wrong. Beg, bribe and beg some more to get some critiques from others. 4) Make a list. What do you need to work on? Spelling errors? Sentence structure? Passive voice? Make a list of what you need to work on and go through your work paragraph by paragraph. Once you've ticked off your list, move onto the next paragraph. Tedious? Yes. Productive? Double yes! 5) Computer and online tools. If you use Microsoft word, you may not know that the grammar check has settings. Most of the time the "passive voice" checker is not on. Go into your spelling/grammar settings and turn everything relevant on. Autocrit is a fantastic tool which points out overused words, repeated phrases etc. It has a free wizard (limited to about 800 words) for those of you too cheap to buy it but you can use it five times per day. Worthwhile for looking at individual scenes. 6) Macro before Micro There's no point in editing every sentence of a chapter that could potentially get cut. Before you even bother looking at things like sentence structure, macro edit. That is, get your plot sorted so that you've cut any unnecessary scenes. 7) Read aloud Yes you might sound like an idiot but who cares? Reading aloud forces you to read every single word and prevents skim reading. 8) Edit in the morning If you're like me and are a nocturnal writer, you may need to edit in the morning. Ideas flow better for me at night, but in the morning our brains are more switched on and able to look at the tiny details. 9) If in doubt, cut it out Most of us are too wordy. If you're even considering whether a scene is necessary, then cut it. Every scene, every WORD must be needed. Cut anything superfluous. 10) Save multiple copies! Just in case you cut something you want back later, save everything with the date on it. You never know. Cutting is necessary but its always best to play it safe. Comments15/07/2010 6:22pm
Great tips! I hadn't even thought about changing fonts of formats. Can't wait to try it. L'Aussie Denise 15/07/2010 6:56pm
Some great tips here I hadn't thought about. I can be guilty of Micro before Macro, so good advice. Thank you..:) 16/07/2010 4:04am
Solid advice and I agree with all of it, especially the part about not letting anyone read your first draft. Hell, I usually wish I hadn't read it! 17/07/2010 6:07pm
I've done all of these and more. 18/07/2010 4:23pm
Where's the comment I left yesterday? What happened to my poor little comment? 21/07/2010 2:38am
There's a lot of these that I hadn't even thought of, besides printing a hard copy. I'm just about to start revising a novel so I'll be sure to put them into practice! Your comment will be posted after it is approved. Leave a Reply | ABOUTI'm JJ and I write MG and YA fantasy. For more about me, try here.
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