Thursday, April 5, 2012

E is for Editing - A to Z Challenge


I have a love/hate relationship with editing. I love editing because it can make or break a book. Bad editing can be so distracting a book becomes difficult to read. Good editing sculpts a rough draft into a well-crafted read.

Even my Sims are writers!
On the other hand, I hate editing because I’m so picky, it’s hard for me to know when to quit. And by the time I finally do finish, I’m sick of the story, the characters, even the Word file staring at me from the computer desktop. I regain my sunny disposition and enthusiasm for the project as soon as I had a few days to decompress, sleep in, and play a few hours of the Sims 3!

I’ve just finished a couple of rounds of edits by myself and turned in the manuscript to my editor. Now, I’ll follow my editor’s advice for about 3 more rounds, and off to the printer the book goes!

We're gonna need another red pen soon!

You’ll find plenty of editing advice out there on the internet, but here are the most useful ones I’ve found:
  1. Show not tell. I wrote an earlier post about this here.
  2. Cut out extraneous words. Apparently, I like to use “just,” “very,” “that,” and “really” a lot. Autocrit programs are a great way to help you make your manuscript a sleeker read.
  3. Use tangible descriptions. Check out this great article to see how specific words stimulate your brain.
  4. Search and destroy those passive verbs. Was/were/is, etc. make for a weak sentence. Try to rework it and choose active verbs instead.
  5. Keep dialogue tags simple. I’ll tackle this topic in next Monday’s blog. 
These are some of my most common mistakes. What are yours and how do you fix them?

15 comments:

  1. Excellent editing post! Editing was my E word today as well.

    Nice to meet you, and I hope you are enjoying the Challenge!

    KarenG
    A to Z Challenge Host

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  2. Hi Jennifer,

    I'm in editing mode too. The first edit went pretty well. The second was okay, the third I seem to have blocked out as a painful experience, and frankly, I don't know if I'm on the fourth or fifth edit. :)

    "Just" and "really" were a couple of my bad habits. Oh, a few still trickle in, but let's just say I'm really aware of it now. (Har har.)

    Looking forward to your dialog tag post. I'm all about keeping it simple with saids, asks, and the appropriate beat for good measure.

    Thanks for visiting my blog too. Good luck throughout the A - Z Challenge!

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    1. Good luck with your fourth (or fifth!) edit and the A-Z!

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  3. I love Sims 3 too -- when it's not buggy ;)

    I enjoy editing, more than I do writing a first draft. Unfortunately I can easily fall into the trap of over-editing my work, especially since it gives me a good excuse for not writing a new first draft (which is the most difficult part for me).

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    1. That is the downside of the Sims sometimes...
      And I loved your post on depression!

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  4. I think we share a brain. I have a love/hate relationship with editing too. I like the puzzle-like quality of the exercise, but I never thing what I've written is good enough.

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    1. That's exactly how I feel! There's a satisfying challenge to editing, but at the same time, I'm too much of a perfectionist to know when to say when.

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  5. I just finished a four day editing spree. I'm exhausted. We are not friends at the moment.

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    1. Good for you! But yeah, after an intensive round of editing, I tend to want to rewrite my book as a horror novel and murder everyone in it!

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  6. Well, I'm an EFL teacher and mercilessly edit their essays and it's even harder for my Greek students, given English isn't their first language!
    Then I sit down and try to get on with the task of writing my own book and realise just how difficult a task it is!
    So thanks and I'll follow this blog, keep an eye out for handy tips for my book writing process (my first attempt!)
    Good luck with the Challenge

    Bex
    www.leavingcairo.blogspot.com

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    1. Good luck with the writing! It can be so challenging, yet rewarding at the same time.

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  7. Great post, Jennifer! I absolutely agree on matters of killing weak verbs and substituting them for stronger ones.

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    1. Thanks! Verbs can make a huge difference in the manuscript.

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  8. Hi Jennifer - nice to meet you through the April A to Z.

    Good post - I need to work on doing editing as I see it as a bit of a chore but your tips are very helpful

    Stuart Lloyd

    Lloyd of Gamebooks - http://virtualfantasies.blogspot.co.uk/

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