New to Editing

[Saigonnus]

So, I happily finished the rough draft to a short story last night, about 10,000 words. Being the first thing i've ever finished, I know very little about the editing process. What should I be looking for while going through my work? Any advice would be welcome.

 

[Butterfly]

Amazing. Congratulations on finishing.

I'd say leave to cook for a while and in the meantime read this book. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers,Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print: Renni Browne,Dave King: 9780060545697: Amazon.com: Books

It will help you out loads - It did for me, anyway.

 

[ThinkerX]

Set it aside for a week or two.

When you go back to it, read through it looking for inconsistencies.

Run it through one of the on line editing programs to spot the technical stuff - overused words, 'too many ly' adverbs, vague and abstract words, that sort of thing.

 

[Zero Angel]

As others mentioned. Forget you wrote the darn thing before starting the editing process. Approach it as a new work.

Read it aloud.

Read one sentence. Stop. Digest. Read over.

Read one paragraph. Stop. Digest. Read over.

Read one scene. Stop...etc.

Use grammar/spellcheckers (but actually pay attention and don't take the computer's word for it--remember to be fair to your own style).

Look for inconsistencies in your characters, settings/descriptions and plot. Do you have the same feel throughout the story? Do you change it up? Are the feelings that arise in you consistent with what feelings you wanted to arouse? Does it feel polished?

Is the climax suitably climatic? Is the build-up exciting or boring? Weigh important word choices to make sure that you use appropriate connotations to make the reader feel what you want them to feel without realizing that you are doing it to them.

Repeat. Make sure your edits don't screw something up along the way.

If you're ever satisfied with it, I'd recommend going and writing more of something unrelated and coming back. Read something really good that you are envious of and come back. Still satisfied?

Probably not. My experience is that there are always things to change. Get to the point that you are comfortable with it and that you have achieved the goals you set out for, then STOP.

 

[Leif Notae]

There are tons of free programs to use, but be wary of using any online ones. They have some shady copyright stuff you don't want to get involved in.

Send about a hundred words to someone you trust and see what they think. I know that might not be optimal, but they can also give you clues on what to look out for.

Repetition. Repetition. Scan your stuff and make sure you aren't repeating yourself. There's a wonderful program called SmartEdit you can get for free. It will highlight your most repeated words, phrases, and cliches. You can adjust it to look for anything (WAS, IS, THAT, OF are ones to keep an eye open for as well).

Learning to edit can be slow and filled with traps. You think you have it settled and another layer gets introduced. I have faith you can do it, and if you need help, we're around to assist. Shoot me a message if you want, I always have time.

 

[Saigonnus]

There are tons of free programs to use, but be wary of using any online ones. They have some shady copyright stuff you don't want to get involved in.

Yeah, I didn't want to say anything, but I wouldn't be comfortable doing that anyway. You never know what the consequences of pushing "send" will be until later. No sense in risking my good work to someone who is unscrupulous and will take it for themselves and publish it after they edit it themselves.

 

[mpkirby]

One of the things I look for is pacing. Most writing has a natural rhythm to it. Great writing usually has perfect pacing. The dialog and description move in harmony with each other and there is a sense of steady progress. Sometimes when I edit my own work, I spend a lot of time trying to get the flow of the piece to work out right. Do I have too much description (Am I getting bogged down in description). Does my narration have a point, and is helping move the story along.

The other thing that often gets in my way is making sure the dialogue is more than just 2 characters acting like the author in that situation (so the story reads like the same person talking to himself with slightly different voices. Pay attention to the education level of the characters and don't give them vocabulary they don't have (see lord of the rings for examples on that . Just because you are a philologist, doesn't mean every character in your book or story is . Also remember that the characters have different motivations and drives, so that their dialogue should reflect that.

Someone else gave the idea of reading it aloud. That's definitely true of the dialogue. It will help with descriptive and exposition parts as well, but verbal storytelling is an art into itself, so unless you are trying to do that, don't get too hung up if something doesn't work perfectly verbally, but does what you want.

Mike

 

[Zero Angel]

Someone else gave the idea of reading it aloud. That's definitely true of the dialogue. It will help with descriptive and exposition parts as well, but verbal storytelling is an art into itself, so unless you are trying to do that, don't get too hung up if something doesn't work perfectly verbally, but does what you want.

Great point here. Let me clarify: the idea of reading it aloud is a way of forcing you to read every word and not skim/skip which readers are prone to do and which we are especially susceptible when reading our own writing or something we have already read.

 

[BWFoster78]

My favorite editing tip is to read the work sentence by sentence starting from the end. It forces you to concentrate on the construction and prevents you from getting lost in the flow of the narrative.

Note that this technique is for line editing, obviously.