Self Editing

I recently attended a roundtable talk with Carol Rahme, a writer and freelance editor here in Fort Collins, CO at our bi-monthly SCBWI Schmooze meeting. I wanted to share some points that she made because I thought that it was worth hearing.

The important reasons for editing are many. They range from saving your credibility, being taken seriously, challenge you to be a better writer, the better you edit you materials, the better and more control you have over your manuscript. That’s a good point right there, have you ever thought that maybe an editor will get a hold of your manuscript and completely change your voice due to all the changes they make in your manuscript? Basically, the more you edit yourself, the better your get at writing!

I know that your writing is “your baby!” Don’t completely delete the orphans. Cut and paste those to an “orphan document.” You just might be able to recycle those phrases into another writing piece.

Get some good updated dictionaries and writing tools like a thesaurus. Also own some good grammar guides. Visit any writing section of your favorite bookstore and you will be able to find what you need.

The Easy Fixes:
Find the Echo Words. These are the same words used over and over. Read your piece aloud and if you have echo words, it will be apparent. Change a few out or find another way of saying the phrase.

Listen to the rhythm. Have someone else read it aloud to you. Is it smooth and easy to listen to, or is the script bumpy and hard to read?

Avoid modifiers: watch the word, THAT and –ly words. Take these out!! They weaken your writing and indicate passive writing. Instead, use good strong verbs. If you can remove the word and the sentence will still make sense, leave it out. This will easily affect your word count. Helpful if you wrote too much.
THAT refers to people or things.
WHICH refers to things.
WHO refers to people.

Watch excessive taglines. For example: “… he said” or “… she said.” Perhaps make it an action. Choose something to move the story forward.

Be careful of Adverb Phrases: (As…, While…, etc) Your audience is better at envisioning action if it comes one action at a time.

Look for Double Prepositions. For example: “… out of”, “… over by”, “… down under.”

Be aware of Qualifiers: “Just, very, simple, some, much…” These tend to minimize what you should be maximizing.

Watch for plurals and singulars.

The word THEN tells instead of shows. Omit this and your writing just got stronger!

When all else fails, get away from it for a day or two. Let it marinate. You will gain fresh eyes and be able to make the necessary edits.

Happy editing!