Editing tips??

reenkam · Jul 3, 2007

Does anyone have any tips on editing novels? How do you stop yourself from getting too involved in your own story? I've noticed that when I edit, I start to read like it's an actual book (well, it is, but not one I should be reading for fun). Then I start missing mistakes. Either that or I already know what a line should say, since I wrote it, and I miss a mistake that's there.

Does this happen to anyone else?? What do you do to stop it?

crazynance · Jul 3, 2007

read Uncle jim's: read out loud, uses a different part of your brain; change font to make it look different than you're used to; get someone else to read it.

ChaosTitan · Jul 3, 2007

Start at the end and edit it backwards. Makes it hard to get lost in the story, and you pick up things you miss when reading it straight through.

Death Wizard · Jul 3, 2007

Do one version at 150% on your screen, then another at 75%.

reenkam · Jul 3, 2007

Thanks!

Reading out loud definitely helps with the grammar, but I still miss spelling. I'll try the font change and reading backwards, though. I hadn't thought of those. I don't know if changing the zoom will help cause I change that mid sentence all the time depending on how I'm sitting etc. But I'll give it a try, too.

Thanks again!

Chasing the Horizon · Jul 3, 2007

reenkam, the exact same thing happens to me. My solution is to just do the best I can and then give it to someone else who's good at proofreading to catch the rest.

Reading out loud doesn't work for me because I'm so bad at reading out loud that I stumble over sentences which work perfectly fine (and sound fine when someone else reads them out loud). My problem is that I read a lot faster than I can talk, so I get my tongue all twisted and lose track of where I'm supposed to be.

reenkam · Jul 3, 2007

Hope To The Horizon said:
reenkam, the exact same thing happens to me. My solution is to just do the best I can and then give it to someone else who's good at proofreading to catch the rest.

Reading out loud doesn't work for me because I'm so bad at reading out loud that I stumble over sentences which work perfectly fine (and sound fine when someone else reads them out loud). My problem is that I read a lot faster than I can talk, so I get my tongue all twisted and lose track of where I'm supposed to be.

I have the same problem with reading out loud. Well, with other things. With my own work I can do it okay, but I still miss everything completely.

I wish I did have someone who could read my stuff over. The problem is that I don't really know anyone good at grammar...strangely enough, I'm really good when it comes to normal grammar rules and checking other people's work. But when I write fiction, or anything having to do with my fiction, I get involved in the story and all grammar rules evaporate, I guess.

Chasing the Horizon · Jul 3, 2007

Maybe you could post here for a beta reader who can help catch grammar errors. Even someone who's not an expert can catch misspellings (like 'is' instead of 'in') which we tend to miss in our own work.

I suck at grammar period, whether it's my own work or not, so you have me beat.

Cassie · Jul 3, 2007

reenkam!

Send your work to someone like me!!

I'm a freelance copy editor/proofreader, trying to start up my own business. The price is "right." Let's talk!

Shady Lane · Jul 3, 2007

Stick with it! Don't get too bogged down in the details. Don't get stuck in the deepest innerworkings of your minor characters. Take a break if you need it. Good luck!

Cassie · Jul 3, 2007

Shady Lane said:
Stick with it! Don't get too bogged down in the details. Don't get stuck in the deepest innerworkings of your minor characters. Take a break if you need it. Good luck!

Yes, all of that! And then, contact me! :hi:

blacbird · Jul 3, 2007

Build a list of grammatical and other weaknesses, and keep it in a file, and when editing time comes, go through your manuscript the way a CIA operative would go through an enemy file cabinet. Here, your word-processor's search function can be your friend.

Some of mine:

Too many uses of "that" and "some"
-ly adverbs
Sentences beginning with "It is" or "There was" or some related construction

caw

Cassie · Jul 3, 2007

blacbird said:
Build a list of grammatical and other weaknesses, and keep it in a file, and when editing time comes, go through your manuscript the way a CIA operative would go through an enemy file cabinet. Here, your word-processor's search function can be your friend.

Some of mine:

Too many uses of "that" and "some"
-ly adverbs
Sentences beginning with "It is" or "There was" or some related construction

caw

Good advice ----
And then ... send it to me for review!

Linda Adams · Jul 4, 2007

Well, it can be helpful to wait for a few weeks before starting the editing process. I've found that the story does look different when I do that.

Try picking a chapter at random. That'll take the chapter out of context of the rest of the book. I've picked one based on file size, or because there was something I knew needed to be fixed in it.

Read for a specific thing. I made two passes over the entire book reading for one thing each. The first was repetitions--things that got repeated multiple times (i.e., we had numerous referneces to "deserters are lurking, deserters are dangerous"). The second pass for idioms. It's in a historical setting, so I had to go through with an idiom book, just looking for those phrases.

Blacbird is right--the search feature will be your best friend during editing. I use it to find that, up, down, which are often excess, as well as hunt for look and glance. Word allows you do highlight as part of the search and replace, so it's easy to take a quick check through and find out if look was used eight times in a ten page chapter.

Stuart Clark · Jul 4, 2007

I took a leaf out of Stephen King's book - On writing.

When he was talking about the editing process, he set a general rule of thumb of reducing anything he was editing by 10%. Thus, if your chapter is 3000 words for example, try and edit it down to 2700. It's tough and brutal but it does work.

I also put my manuscript away for three months after I'd finished it before going back to look at it with fresh eyes. Sometimes that turns up some real horrors!

Bufty · Jul 4, 2007

Tips are fine, but they're isolated and the best approach to my mind is to read and try and figure out why in some books the narrative and dialogue and action flows and the story is easy to read and follow, while in others one finds oneself either bored or head-scratching and re-reading sections.

dawinsor · Jul 4, 2007

Depends on what kind of editing you're doing. If you're looking for typos and spelling and want to jar yourself out of the story, print the manuscript and shuffle the pages, then work on them at random. This is also a good exercise for looking for places to increase tension on each page. You have to go back and put it all together again, of course, but it can be helpful to fragment it too.

BlueTexas · Jul 4, 2007

I know several people who swear by putting the MS aside for a few weeks, or even a month or two. I've never been able to do that without forgetting the thing entirely, but I tend to be absent-minded

reenkam · Jul 4, 2007

I should try the chapter thing. Sounds like a good idea and it might actually work. At least I wouldn't be able to get too involved. I might even try the page thing, too.

I don't know about the cutting 10%. I don't think I overwrite. If anything I underwrite. Though, not by much, really. Actually, I guess it depends on the project...I did do one that I plan to cut by 25%, but normally I keep the same word count.

Putting the story aside does seem to work well for me, but I'll start another project in the mean time and end up having a different "voice". Then I have to get back into the older story get use that "voice" and...well, it's a tricky thing. But I guess if that's what works I'll have to do it...

Thanks for the ideas

MMWyrm · Jul 11, 2007

I totally agree with Linda Adams - read for a specific thing.

I'm in the editing stage of my current WIP. My first read through and edit fixed all glaring plot holes. Now, I'm reading through it strictly for POV issues (I have 3 POV characters so its a bit tricky for me.) Next, it will be my woeful overuse of modifiers. Etc. etc.

I'm not so much reading the story as inspecting it for specific flaws.

It works for me.

RainbowDragon · Jul 11, 2007

BlueTexas said:
I know several people who swear by putting the MS aside for a few weeks, or even a month or two. I've never been able to do that without forgetting the thing entirely, but I tend to be absent-minded

I always find it fun to scratch my head and wonder, "How does he get out of this one?" with my own book! (Yes, that's happened!)

RainbowDragon · Jul 11, 2007

For spelling, using a word processor set to underline misssssspelled words can really help you keep errors to a minimum from the beginning. But remember just because the program doesn't know a word doesn't necessarily mean it's not a word, and/or not spelled right...

Azraelsbane · Jul 11, 2007

Putting the novel aside for a few months after completion works great. I did that for my first novel and it went very well. I caught a lot of things that I hadn't noticed the first time.

I do the Stephen King 10% thing on most of my stuff now, and wow is it great. It's like a more hip Strunk & White

It helps to cut a lot of fluff, and almost every writer has a lot of extra the first go round.

reenkam · Jul 11, 2007

MMWyrm said:
I totally agree with Linda Adams - read for a specific thing.

I'm in the editing stage of my current WIP. My first read through and edit fixed all glaring plot holes. Now, I'm reading through it strictly for POV issues (I have 3 POV characters so its a bit tricky for me.) Next, it will be my woeful overuse of modifiers. Etc. etc.

I'm not so much reading the story as inspecting it for specific flaws.

It works for me.

Isn't that a lot of reading??

You'd think I wouldn't mind reading my own stuff over and over, since I wrote it and it should be something I'd want to read...but I almost never read books more than once. I don't think I ever have, actually. I'll read a chapter or two again, but never the whole thing. Doing so with my own stuff seems like torture to me. Well, it is, since I'm doing it...

MMWyrm · Jul 12, 2007

Well, my first novel is actually on its 7th revision. My current one is on number 3. I don't really read the whole thing through every time. Its more like scanning.

For example, I'll scan for adverbs and then attack them mercilessly.

I mean, just attack them.

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