Fine Tuning
Once
you are confident that your characters, plot, structure, and pacing are
working, you can dig into the smaller details. At this stage, make sure that
your timeline works and your setting hangs together. Create calendars and maps
to keep track of when things happen and where people go.
Then
polish, polish, polish.
Bill
Peschel, author of Sherlock Holmes parodies and other books for adults, and a
former newspaper copy editor, says, “Reading with a critical eye reveals weak
spots in grammar, consistently misspelled words, and a reliance on ‘crutch
words’ [unnecessary and overused words] such as simply, basically, or just. While it can be disheartening to
make the same mistakes over and over again, self-editing can boost your ego
when you become aware that you’re capable of eliminating them from your work.
It takes self-awareness, some education, and a willingness to admit to making
mistakes.”
This
stage of editing can be time-consuming, especially if you are prone to spelling
or grammatical errors. “Be systematic,” Peschel says. “Despite all the advice
on how to multi-task, the brain operates most efficiently when it’s focusing on
one problem at a time. This applies to proofing. You can look for spelling
mistakes, incorrect grammar, and your particular weaknesses, just not at the
same time. So for effective proofing, make several passes, each time focusing
on a different aspects.”
One
pass might focus only on dialogue. “Read just the dialogue out loud,” editor
Jodie Renner suggests, “maybe role-playing with a buddy or two. Do the
conversations sound natural or stilted? Does each character sound different, or
do they all sound like the author?”
Wordiness
(using more words than necessary) is a big problem for many writers, so make at
least one pass focused exclusively on tightening. “Make every word count,”
Renner advises. “Take out whole sentences and paragraphs that don’t add
anything new or drive the story forward. Take out unnecessary little words,
most adverbs and many adjectives, and eliminate clichés.” Words you can almost
always cut include very, really, just, sort of, kind of, a little, rather,
started to, began to, then. To pick up the pace in your manuscript, try to cut
20% of the text on every page, simply by looking for unnecessary words or
longer phrases that can be changed to shorter ones.
Make
additional passes looking for grammar errors, missing words, and your personal
weak areas. For example, if you know you tend to overuse “just,” use the “Find”
option in a program like Microsoft Word to locate that word and eliminate it
when possible.
Even
if you’re not an expert editor, you may be able to sense when something is
wrong. “Trust your inner voice,” when you get an uneasy feeling, Peschel says. “It
can be something missing, something wrong, something clunky, and if you stick
to it – read it out loud, read it backwards, look at it from a distance – the
mistake should declare itself.”
Fool Your
Brain
By
this point, you’ve read your manuscript dozens of times. This can make it hard
to spot errors, since you know what is supposed
to be there. Several tricks can help you see your work with fresh eyes.
Peschel
says, “Reading the same prose in the same font can cause the eye to skate over
mistakes, so change it up. Boost the size or change the color of the text or
try a different font. Use free programs such as Calibre or Scrivener to create
an EPUB or MOBI file that can be read on an ebook reader.”
Renner
also recommends changing your font. Print your manuscript on paper if you are
used to working on the computer screen. Finally, move away from your normal
working place to review your manuscript. “These little tricks will help you see
the manuscript as a reader instead of as a writer,” she says.
“An
effective way to check the flow of your story is to read it aloud or have
someone read it to you,” freelance editor Linda Lane notes. “Better yet, record
your story so you can play it back multiple times if necessary. Recruiting another
person to do this will give you a better idea of what a reader will see.” Some
software, such as MS Word 2010, has a text-to-voice feature to provide a read
aloud.
Lane
adds, “If recording your story yourself, run your finger just below each line
as you read to catch omitted or misspelled words and missing commas, quote
marks, and periods. Also, enunciate clearly and ‘punctuate’ as you read,
pausing slightly at each comma and a bit longer at end punctuation. While this
won’t catch every error, it will give you a good sense of flow, highlight many
shortcomings, and test whether your dialogue is smooth and realistic.”
Some
people even recommend reading your manuscript backwards, sentence by sentence.
While this won’t help you track the flow of the story, it focuses attention on
the sentence level. Finally, certain computer programs and web platforms are
designed to identify spelling and grammar errors, and in some cases even
identify clichés. While these programs are not recommended for developmental editing
(when you’re shaping the story), they can be an option for later polishing. (They
can also make mistakes, though, so don’t trust Microsoft Word’s spelling &
grammar check to be right about everything.)
How Much Is
Enough?
How
much editing you need to do depends on your goals for the story. If you simply
want to write down the bedtime stories you tell your children as a family
record, a spelling error or two doesn’t matter too much. If you are going to
submit work to a publisher, you need to be more careful. Some editors and
agents say they will stop reading if they find errors in the first few pages,
or more than one typo every few pages. If you plan to self-publish, most
experts advise hiring a professional editor to help you shape the story and a professional
proofreader to make sure the book doesn’t go out with typos. Weak writing and
other errors could cause readers to get annoyed and leave bad reviews.
Looking
at all the steps to successful self-editing may be daunting, but break them
down into pieces, take a step at a time, and don’t rush your revisions. “This
whole process could easily take several months,” Renner says. “Don’t shoot
yourself in the foot by putting your manuscript out too soon.”
Each
time you go through this process you’ll be developing your skills, making the
next time easier. “Like anything else, self-editing becomes easier the more you
do it,” Peschel says. “When it becomes second-nature, you’ll have made a big
leap toward becoming a professional writer.”
Stop
by next week for final tips on editing – or subscribe to get posts
automatically and never miss a post. You can use the Subscribe buttons to the
right, or add http://chriseboch.blogspot.com/ to Feedly or
another reader.
You can get the extended version of this essay, and a lot
more, in You Can Write for Children: A Guide to Writing Great Stories,
Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers, available for the Kindle, in paperback,
or in Large
Print paperback. Advanced Plotting also has advice on
editing novels.
Chris Eboch is the author of over 60 books for children,
including nonfiction and fiction, early reader through teen. Her novels for
ages nine and up include The Eyes of
Pharaoh, a mystery in ancient Egypt; The
Well of Sacrifice, a Mayan adventure used in many schools; The Genie’s Gift, a middle eastern
fantasy; and the Haunted series, about kids who travel with a ghost hunter TV
show, which starts with The Ghost on the
Stairs. Her writing craft books include You
Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for
Kids and Teenagers, and Advanced
Plotting.
Learn more or read excerpts at www.chriseboch.com or visit her page on Amazon or Amazon UK. (For other countries click here.)
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