EDITING IN THE REAL WORLD

Ernest Hemingway step aside because you think you’ve written the newest Great American Novel. Sorry to deflate your ego, but…

Good writing will not get any easier if you won’t work at it. It’s called learning your craft. So sit back, novice, grab your favorite red pen and get educated.

Self-editing is one of the hardest aspects of writing. It’s now time to delete all those beautiful words full of your soul. Can’t do it? Won’t get published.

There are several steps in editing and not necessarily in this order;

1. Formatting
2. Spell check
3. Line edit
4. Point of View
5. Punctuation
6. Setting the chapter
7. Tighten the writing
8. Redundancies
9. Passive writing
10. Syntax
11. Get rid of the crap

We’ll take them one at a time to give each point proper consideration.

FORMATTING

The writing industry has common format requirements. Most publishers want the submission in;

• Times New Roman or Courier. Font is 12 pt.
• Use a 1” margin on all sides.
• Double-space the entire book.
• Start each new chapter on its own page, one-third of the way down.
• Begin the body of the chapter four lines under the chapter title.
• Indent is either 0.03” or 0.05” for each new paragraph

I use Microsoft Word. All of this can be preset. Open your manuscript to Home. Click Paragraph on your toolbar. You’ll find everything you need to format successfully under Indents and Spacing.

If you’re really new to all this and haven’t done the formatting before you typed your novel, it’s easy to fix. Highlight the manuscript, then click Paragraph on your toolbar and continue with the above directions.

Do not take my instructions as Gospel. You should know the publisher you’re striving to impress. Go onto their website and print out their complete Guidelines, then do exactly as they instruct.

SPELL CHECK

Aah, the writer’s best friend. No way, kids. Spell Check is great for the basics, but it can’t tell the difference between ‘buy’ and ‘by’. As you’re reading your work for the nineteenth time you’ll uncover misused words. At that time make the corrections. Do not procrastinate.

After you’ve formatted the novel, return to the toolbar and click on Spell Check. As it scans your work it will come up with incorrect spelling and phrasing. Be sure of what you want changed. Do not arbitrarily accept all the corrections.

Over the years, I’ve found if I read my manuscript backwards spelling errors jump right off the page. The backwards action stops my brain from assuming what I wrote is correct. All you do is read and edit the last page first, then proceed forward, one page at a time.

LINE EDITING

It’s a simple procedure, but very tedious. You must line edit carefully before you submit to a publisher. You have about thirty seconds to catch the editor’s eye and entice them to read more of your book. If he or she sees typos, incorrect words (buy vs. by), or skewed sentence structures, it’s the rejection pile for your baby. And by all means, pay close attention to your punctuation.

This is how you do it;

• Print out a hard copy
• Grab a 12 inch ruler.
• Lay it under line one.
• Read each word slowly. Aloud is best.
• Focus
• Make the corrections using a colored pen on the hard copy.
• Insert the corrections into your computer text.
• Take breaks or your mind won’t see the flaws.

POINT OF VIEW – SYNTAX

We’ve discussed these topics in previous weeks. Go back through the Friday posts if you’re not sure on a particular step to locate the lecture.

GET RID OF THE CRAP

You’re aghast anyone would dare to think your work is less than stellar. Get over yourself. I’d bet my next royalty check Stephen King, James Patterson, and Kathy Reichs still go through the same process yours truly does to make their book as good as possible. And that process is all the above and my last words of wisdom;

If it doesn’t move your story forward, it is crap. Get rid of it.

Have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back Monday with Annie Seaton. Until then...

Happy Writing!

Sloane Taylor