Tips For Self Editing

Yes, get hold of a copy of "Self-Editing for fiction writers - how to edit yourself into print" by Renni Browne and Dave King. It's my new bible.

I have never been able to stand editing, but this book has given me hope that this time, I can actually get through the horror process that is editing. It is warmly recommended.

That's the very book I reccomend. Another help (for me) is to read my work aloud, preferably to someone. That helps me to find any awkward or rough spots.

Read your work the way a stranger would. It can be a difficult mindset to put yourself into, but is really the only way you are going to catch those troublesome passages that don't flow well or do not convey what you intend. It helps to sit down in a totally silent environment and just completely block your own knowledge of the story and characters. Begin from line 1 and imagine you are following the story exactly as written. Remember you are a new reader--you have NO idea who these people are, or what is going to transpire next. You are totally reliant on the words in front of you to get you there. Do they do the job? Are there moments where you feel confused? Are there passages that grate on you, or that seem awkward? If these things are noticeable to you, they will be doubly so to an outside reader.

I love Self-Editing for fiction writers, as Sesselja suggests. Another one I suggest is called "The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile" by Noah Lukeman

I'd suggest you read it for content on the first go-through, to get a feel for the flow of the story. Hold off on line editing on this read (maybe put marks in the margin when you see something, but don't slow down your read). For me, it's important to make necessary changes in the flow of the story before taking the time to line edit and pay attention to fine details of grammar and the like. I'm sure some people can do both at the same time, but if you are a relatively inexperienced writer like me, separating the two may help.

I would say:

RULE #1 Read slowly. I have noted that I can read the same passage 10 times and miss my mistake every time. Why? Because I replace the mistake with the word that I know should be there. You really have to slow down to catch the errors.

RULE #2 Read out loud. This helps you to hear what your reader will be hearing when they read it in their head. I believe that rhythm is important. You want every sentence to 'sound' right.

RULE #3 Make sure that all of your facts and story lines are consistent. (Including names, believe it or not. Sometimes a minor character of mine will be Billy on one page and John on the next...keep your eye open for these little consistencies.)

RULE #4 Don't over edit. You can find yourself in a trap of editing and editing. Know when to say enough is enough. If your manuscript is picked up, it will be edited. You are not going for ultimate perfection, just 'your' perfection. Sometimes, if you get into that vicious circle, it's hard to get out and you don't move forward to the next step.

If your software has a "hi-lighter" option try putting things in different colors.

Blocks of dialogue in yellow.

Data dumps in green. (Helps you spot all the "tell not shows" that snuck in!)

Other colors for descriptives (these can also be data dumps) plot points, character revelation, etc.

If the colors are evenly distributed, then you've probably got a balanced, well-paced book. If you have 15 pages of data dump to one line of plot point it's time to trim or redistribute!

When this is fixed to your satisfaction, do the same for word reps. Sometimes these are only visible in a hard copy. I go through mine with a hi-lighter and read it aloud. The whole book. Awkward structure jumps out fast when you read aloud. If it takes more than one breath to say a line, trim or break it up.

Get Elements of Style if you've not already gotten it.

Get rid of all the "There was, It was, and Suddenlys" if they start more than a reasonable number of sentences per chapter. These days I never use "suddenly" as I always think of Snoopy on his dog house: "Suddenly a pirate ship appeared on the horizon!"

No exclamation points in narrative. If your words don't generate excitement, then comic book punctuation won't help matters.

Make sure you have proper breaks when you do a viewpoint shift.

Unless you're going for a Style Thing, make sure every narrative sentence has a noun and a verb and an object. (I've edited a NYT best-selling writer who still doesn't get that and it annoys the heck out of me.) Never end a sentence with a preposition. (That writer does, and I wanna brick, a BIG brick, to throw.)

Spell-check, grammar check: (Effect and affect, further, farther, their, there, your, you're, its, it's, are common gotchas.)

Look up in an old fashioned paper dictionary ANY words with meanings you're not certain about.

Make sure your main characters have names beginning with different letters. Michael, Miles, Millie, Milton = reader confusion. Michael, George, Sally, and David are better.

Watch for names with similar endings too. Emily, Maralie, Loralie--not good!

Change a name if you have to and keep a "style sheet" with each proper name and its correct spelling as used in your book. You'll want to include a style sheet for the copy editor when it sells.

When ALL that is done, then find a beta reader. Find a merciless beta reader who will help you make the book even better. The idea is to have a good book, not egoboos. Those come later when it's in the stores.

Good luck!

All the above, and use the 'Find and Replace' facility to highlight in red anything you want to spot easily like 'was' or 'ing' 'that' 'which' 'and then' 'ly' and so on.

Have fun.

If you're working from a hard copy (which I recommend, although it kills trees and wastes ink, etc.), do it with a pen in hand to make notes in the margins. Stuff like "boring" and "POV drift", "add setting details", "cut WAY down", whatever you think of. Cross out whole scenes, write new ones in your second-draft notebook (with a notation of where they go).

I'm a firm believer in: the second draft is for content, the third is for style. I've made that mistake, trying to edit for content and style at the same time. If you can do it, great! If not, I suggest cutting first, then adding, then going through the language nit-picks.

Here are some of the things I look for:

Any "unfired cats" (the term is from an article in The Writer). This is when something is given importance in the story, giving the reader reason to think that it will have an impact on the story, and then never does. For example, if there's a cat in the story, the reader will expect something to happen involving the cat. Or if there's a loaded gun laying on a table, the reader will expect it to be used. Unfortunately, it's real easy to leave something "unfired" because it's hard to fix.

Continuity. Any time a previous scene is mentioned later in the book, I go back to see what the previous scene says to make sure everything matches up. Sort of what the script supervisor does in Hollywood--make sure the character is wearing the hat in the two different shots.

Repetitive words. There's one word co-writer and I are guilty of using too much, and we always have to prune it out. The word is 'looked,' and we do a search and replace with a highlighted version so we can spot all of them.

General Sentence Shortening. I look for things like "she said as she ..." There was one writer in our group who did this for every single dialogue tag.

And if I'm editing to shorten the manuscript, I'll pick a chapter and simply start finding things to trim until I take off at least a page.

read backwards. that's right- start from the end and read word by word. You catch many typos. otherwise, what everyone else has already said.

Read aloud, read backwards, read carefully. Try putting it down for a week or two before beginning the editing process so you're coming to it with fresh eyes. I bet you'll be astounded at what you catch.

Good luck!

Kristen

Start from the top. Rewrite every word.

Just kidding.

My suggestions? By all means, check out Browne and King. But also:

1) Put it away for a while. A long while (1-3 months or even more). Work on something else.

2) Bind it (comb-bound is good) and have other folks read it. (Need to make sure they can take it to bed or into the bath; loose pages apply to agents and editors, not real people.)

3) If you can manage it, have other folks read it aloud to you. Ouch.

4) Print it out and read it aloud while pacing around the house, and put big "X" marks where it is hard to read.

5) Print it in an unusual format (single spaced landscape with two columns--so it looks like a book) and flip it open to random sections and read as if it something you just picked up in a bookstore.

6) Refer to it as 'my unpublished, first novel.' Pretend it doesn't matter. Abandon it. Then revisit it to see if anything can be salvaged.

7) Try the revision approach suggested in Raymond Obstfeld's "Fiction First Aid"--that is, try going through the whole text concentrating on only one item at a time (that is, look at dialogue only, or transitions only...).

8) Pray and/or sacrifice small animals to the gods of your choice.

9) Contract a life-threatening illness or do something dangerous to keep it in all perspective.

10) Give up writing...if you can. If you can't, then you're a real writer. Try 1-9 above, yet again.

Best of luck.
===============

A painter can hang his pictures, but a writer can only hang himself.

--Edward Dahlberg

Um, don't we ALL self edit? Who can afford a personal editor?

And what is the difference between editing and writing in general? Isn't it all part and parcel of the same process? Proofing, revising, editing, it's all the same, no?

If I already have books on how to write, grammar books, and such, why would I need a separate book on self-editing?

I'm not being snarky, just that this seems so odd to me.

Reading aloud and having someone else mark down any changes that I make verbally (ie, using different words, or restating dialog just because it flows better) helps dramatically. Sometimes you subconsciously change word order or word choice because your ear is much better at catching strangeness than your internal voice, I think.

ooh! thought of another one! change the size and font before you edit. if it was double spaced on the computer, single space it. vice-versa. it really does help!

Some great tips, so far. Here's a couple links to articles on Holly Lisle's site that you might find useful:

http://www.hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/wc2-4.html
http://www.hollylisle.com/fm/Workshops/one-pass-revision.html

There's a very good chapter in Sol Stein's book on writing about rewriting, and it really helped me get a handle on the whole mess of rewriting. However, the above mentioned book on self editing is truly a godsend.

Or better still, if you're lucky enough to find someone, get them to read it out to you.

Watch for the puzzled pauses, the hesitancy, the false-sounding dialogue, the stopping to go back and read again due to bad punctuation or misplaced dialogue tags etc.

Phouka said:

Reading aloud and having someone else mark down any changes that I make verbally (ie, using different words, or restating dialog just because it flows better) helps dramatically. Sometimes you subconsciously change word order or word choice because your ear is much better at catching strangeness than your internal voice, I think.

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