17 Editing Tips ... if You Absolutely HAVE to Do It Yourself
It is my opinion as both an experienced, professional editor
and as a writer, that it’s a fool’s errand to attempt to edit your own work –
particularly anything as important as a book manuscript. Self-editing is a lot like performing a medical procedure on yourself.
It’s just not possible for any author to bring an objective, critical eye to
his or her work. You’re too close to it and, understandably, protective of it.
In the long run, it’s unlikely that you will be able to see all the intrinsic
changes necessary to make your writing as good as it could be.
However, for those of you who remain unconvinced of the
benefits of getting a professional on your team to elevate, enhance, and
improve your writing, I offer the following tips for self-editing.
1.
Find the right synonyms. Buy
the best thesaurus you can find. It helps if it has a “category” section that
allows you to browse by large ideas. Read your work and look up synonyms
wherever you feel a better word might more accurately describe your ideas. Be
careful though: remember to match your words to your audience's level of sophistication. The last thing you want to do is turn your readers off with words that are overly complex.
2.
Be
selective with your similes and metaphors. Use them sparingly, and try to
be appropriate within the context of your descriptions. Sometimes too broad a
metaphor (or too flashy a simile) can distract from the actual meaning of your
message. Don’t mix metaphors by comparing something to a teapot only to compare
it later to an automobile.
3.
Use positive
language. Occasionally the word “not” is useful for emphasis. Most of the
time, though, a sentence is stronger when it uses positive language; use your word processor to
search for the word “not” and rewrite the sentence using other positive descriptives.
Example: Rather than say, “He was not in the mood to work,” you might say,
“Shawn’s lazy, contemplative mood led to lying around the house all weekend.”
4.
Write
actions and use the active voice. Your writing will be clearer if you
structure your sentences as subject-verb-object, which means it works best if you employ action rather than
describing situations. Use your word processor to search for words ending in
“-ed” – if this word is preceded by “is,” “was,” or similar verbs, the phrase
would probably be better rewritten. Also check for instances of “there is” and
“there are” and eliminate them as much as possible. Example: Rather than write,
“After chasing the ball for an hour, the dog was tired,” you might write, “The
tired dog collapsed in a heap after chasing the ball for an hour.”
5.
Check
for verb tense consistency. This is a basic one, but a mistake almost
everyone makes at one time or another. Make sure that your writing consistently uses the present tense or past the tense – or that if you switch tenses, you
have a very good reason for doing so that is absolutely transparent to your
reader. Confused tenses are another easy way to confuse your reader.
6.
Be consistent
with your voice. Decide at the outset of your writing whether you will
write in first person (I/we), second person (you), or third person
(he/she/it/they). It’s essential that you maintain consistency in this aspect of your writing,
and not switch back and forth – as this can seriously confuse your readers! An
amazing number of people start out in one voice, and then inadvertently switch
at some point.
7.
Use caution
with commas. A comma followed by the word “but” is okay. Commas separating
a list of things are okay. Commas setting off parenthetic expressions are okay.
Other commas, however, need careful scrutiny — should it be a semicolon, a
colon, an em-dash, or parentheses? If you’re still confused, go get the great
book,
Commas Are Our Friends
, by Joe
Devine.
8.
Reorder
your words and sentences. Keep related words together – adjectives next to
their nouns. The important words go at the end of the sentence; the important
sentences go at the end of the paragraph. Avoid dangling modifiers, like “Taking
a shortcut home from school, a giant boulder sprung up unexpectedly in Joe’s
path.” Who was taking the shortcut, the boulder or Joe?
9.
Words
have rhythm – notice it. Sometimes reading can be awkward due to the
“bumpiness” of the accented syllables. You can avoid this by taking the time to
mark up your document with the accented syllables and reword singsong-y
passages or places with too many accented syllables on top of each other. Occasional alliteration and rhymes do work to punctuate your copy.
10.
Cut
the cuties. If something sticks in your mind as being ever so clever,
that’s probably a good sign that it's actually too cute for your readers.
11.
Watch
for repetition. This may be something about which you need to consult an
objective, third-party reader, as you may be too close to your work to
notice it. From little things, like reusing an odd word more than a couple of
times, to repeating descriptions and actual
content . . . try to avoid repetition. Some authors use it
as a literary device with great effect. However, if this is not a deliberate
effort on your behalf – and you will know if it is! – all it does is exhaust, and perhaps turn off, your reader.
12.
Pay particular
attention to your references. References require particular care. Keep a printed
copy of your reference list and, while reading through your text, make sure
each reference that appears in the text also is entered into your reference
list. It is surprising how many references in otherwise excellent works are
missing or contain inconsistent or incorrect details.
13.
Check the dictionary. Go
through your document and look up in a dictionary any words where you aren’t 100
percent sure of their meaning. I’ve surprised myself a couple of times when I
have used a word repeatedly only to one day look it up and find it has an utterly different meaning from what I'd been presuming.
14.
Always print and proofread a hard copy. Although we’re all very adept at using word processors
for writing, it is virtually impossible for our eyes to catch everything on a
computer screen that we notice when we’re reading printed materials. Make sure you print at least one version of your text for a
hard copy read.
15.
Read
in short sections. Avoid reading large sections in single sittings, as you
will likely miss a lot by doing this. Rather, concentrate on a chapter or several pages at a
time, so you can focus your attention. Otherwise, the writing that is so
familiar to you stays familiar and you fail to notice new aspects that need
attention.
16.
Read
aloud. Read the text aloud, as your ear will find clumsy rhythms,
repetitions, awkward and complex sentences, missing links, etc. that
your eyes might easily skip over. Don't worry – no one's asking you to do this in front of
other people. Surprisingly enough, even reclining on your sofa all alone, you
can immediately catch awkward phrasings and words you may be using too
frequently.
17.
Perform
a spell and grammar check. Finally, give the document the good old
SpellCheck. Remember, though, that you cannot rely on it
alone. A word that is spelled correctly might not be the correct word. The ones I
often confuse are “your” and “you’re.” Since they are both correctly spelled,
they will go unnoticed. Unfortunately, the GrammarCheck is wrong almost as
often as it is right, so I’d forego that one in lieu of a living, breathing
editor/proofer/grammarian.
It's simply impossible to proof and edit your own work as well as an impartial person who brings "new eyes" to your writing. If you find yourself needing to do so, whether it's because of cost or time considerations, here's hoping the above tips will help you.
Books like that and card games like Concentration, where the goal is to remember where individual cards are laid out on the table, can be great practice vehicles for growing your observation skills.
