General Editing

Girlsgottawrite · Mar 23, 2018

You've gotten some great advice here. As far as line edits go, one thing that's helped me is using an editing software. It's not perfect, but it makes me stop and focus on the sentence structure and grammar. I use ProWritingAid because it has a plugin for Word.

hayaku · Mar 29, 2018

I initially had a lot of trouble editing my own work...

I found that in the end, you *can* shift gears an go into editor-mode, but it involves leaving the writing "you" behind.

When you are at the point where deleting words/paragraphs and seeing your word count drop, gives you the same sickly buzz that putting words down/seeing your word count rise did during the writing phase, you can be sure you are in the right state of mind to really get into the editing

AW Admin · Mar 29, 2018

It might be helpful to think of what writers do as writers to their own books as revision.

Think of revision as "seeing again."

bombergirl69 · Mar 29, 2018

Just adding, as I did in another post on this topic, that as a complete noobie, editing/revising my stuff was near impossible as I hadn't the faintest idea, other than grammar, what I was looking for. I could have read the thing 50x and still not have noticed problems.

So, for me, taking a class, like Barbara's or Holly Lisle or any other, that's structured and will walk someone through the revising process, is really, really helpful. You may not need this. I only recommend it as someone who had zero experience with the process. Conflict? Dialogue? Scene structure? Pacing? I really needed help! The online stuff allows you (depending on the class) to work at your own pace, so you can really apply (or ignore!) the material!

Anyway, as a lways, congrats on finishing and good luck, whatever process you pick!

DanelleN · Mar 29, 2018

CaroGirl said:
Read it out loud.

Great idea! I'll do this.

DanelleN · Mar 29, 2018

Girlsgottawrite said:
You've gotten some great advice here. As far as line edits go, one thing that's helped me is using an editing software. It's not perfect, but it makes me stop and focus on the sentence structure and grammar. I use ProWritingAid because it has a plugin for Word.

I'll look into this program! I could use the extra help.

- - - Updated - - -

hayaku said:
I initially had a lot of trouble editing my own work...

I found that in the end, you *can* shift gears an go into editor-mode, but it involves leaving the writing "you" behind.

When you are at the point where deleting words/paragraphs and seeing your word count drop, gives you the same sickly buzz that putting words down/seeing your word count rise did during the writing phase, you can be sure you are in the right state of mind to really get into the editing

I think that's my issue, leaving the "writing me" behind. I need to figure out a way to do so.

DanelleN · Mar 29, 2018

bombergirl69 said:
Just adding, as I did in another post on this topic, that as a complete noobie, editing/revising my stuff was near impossible as I hadn't the faintest idea, other than grammar, what I was looking for. I could have read the thing 50x and still not have noticed problems.

So, for me, taking a class, like Barbara's or Holly Lisle or any other, that's structured and will walk someone through the revising process, is really, really helpful. You may not need this. I only recommend it as someone who had zero experience with the process. Conflict? Dialogue? Scene structure? Pacing? I really needed help! The online stuff allows you (depending on the class) to work at your own pace, so you can really apply (or ignore!) the material!

Anyway, as a lways, congrats on finishing and good luck, whatever process you pick!

Thank you! It's still mind boggling that I've actually wrote an entire book! I had never thought of taking online classes for editing, I'm going to look into this! I've really got no clue what I'm doing or looking for, so it might be the best place to start.

indianroads · Mar 29, 2018

There are a lot of books on Amazon you can pick up regarding the how-to aspects of editing. There are also on-line classes, on reedsy.com for example. What you find there is - IMO - in the category of, take what is useful and leave the rest... which is pretty much the same as you get within threads here. We all have our way of doing things, be it writing or editing, we're all individuals.

ikennedy · Mar 29, 2018

One thing I can suggest is put the manuscript aside for a couple of months before returning to it. This will make you forget some of the writing and you will approach it with "fresh eyes" and it will be like you are seeing it for almost the first time. You will pick up more errors.
In the mean time you can write some of the next book. That will also help you forget what you have written in the first book.

General Editing

Girlsgottawrite

I write at work...

hayaku

AW Admin

bombergirl69

DanelleN

DanelleN

DanelleN

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

ikennedy