I’d like to welcome L. Diane Wolfe to the blog today. As a professional speaker, Diane travels extensively for media interviews and speaking engagements, maintains a dozen websites & blogs, manages an online writer’s group, and contributes to several other sites. In addition, she’s the author of a YA series, Circle of Friends, and her 5th and final book of the series, The Circle Of Friends, Book V…Heather released March 16th. More information about Heather is at the bottom of the post. Thanks Diane!
Elizabeth invited me to share some tips on editing. Call me weird, but I love this phase! I enjoy revising my work, improving the writing and tightening the scenes and dialogue.
Editing comes with an added bonus – it can re-inspire! If we’ve grown weary or find we are stuck, rereading can ignite our passion once again.
Every time we pass through our manuscript, we’ll discover something that requires improving, changing, or fixing. Allowing our work to sit for a week or two helps us attack it fresh as well. We don’t want to start running circles around our work, but we can’t skimp on this process, either.
What do we need to look for when editing?
· Grammar – Is grammar usage correct? Is the punctuation in the right place and capitalization proper?
· Overused terms – Are there words or phrases we use too often? Do we repeat words in a paragraph? Do we find clichés? What can we fix by consulting a Thesaurus?
· Excessive description – Are we following the adage “show don’t tell?” Are there scenes best left to the reader’s imagination? Do we describe scenes or people that have no relevance to the story? Do we provide details a character wouldn’t notice depending on gender?
· Continuity – Do colors, names, and places vary from one scene to another? Are there glitches in the timeline?
· Staying in character – Is behavior consistent? Is dialogue consistent? Are there changes in personality for no apparent reason? Do characters respond in a manner that’s gender appropriate?
· Point of view – Is our POV consistent? Do we suddenly take on the roll of narrator? Do we head hop too often or too fast? Do we reveal things outside of a character’s POV?
· Story flow and pacing – Do scenes feel rushed or overlong? Does the story move quickly in the beginning and then drag in the middle? Does anything feel forced or contrived?
What can we do to improve our editing technique?
· Read large chunks at a time. Sometimes it’s difficult to gauge flow when we only read a page or two. Uneven lulls in the story become more apparent when we follow a scene from beginning to end. Continuity mistakes are easier to spot as well.
· Read aloud. Uneven dialogue is easier to spot when we hear the words spoken. We catch stilted, unnatural exchanges. Reading with a partner of the opposite sex exposes improper gender words and phrases. Flow of story and narration also benefit when we read aloud.
· Employ a test reader. We are close to our material and sometimes miss the obvious. A neutral test reader often spots flaws and mistakes we may have missed. We know the story by heart, but a test reader can’t read between the lines and will question items and passages that don’t make sense.
We are not the ultimate editor of our work. A professional is still required before submitting or self-publishing. However, we can improve our story and present our best effort if we learn to master the basics of editing. And growing as a writing is what it’s all about!
– L. Diane Wolfe, Professional Speaker & Author www.spunkonastick.net www.thecircleoffriends.net www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
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BOOK V … HEATHER
BY L. DIANE WOLFE
When confidence turns to frustration…
A new beginning awaits Heather Jennings. The position at Clemson means she will finally realize her dream of coaching basketball. Heather is ready to focus on her duties, using sheer force if necessary to prove her independence.
Sadly, her triumph is hampered as her father and greatest advocate lies dying of cancer. Battling her grief, she must also deal with a sister who appears incapable of responsibility or achievement. And once basketball season begins, a talented but cocky player who resembles her in every manner challenges all that remains of Heather’s patience.
Heather’s life changes when she encounters a man capable of handling her bold and feisty attitude. Straightforward and smug, he entices her to date him, and despite his gruff nature shows a great capacity for compassion. However, the last thing Heather needs is a serious relationship with a man equally fixated on work and opposed to marriage…
Release date: March 16, 2010, Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C.
$19.95 USA, 6×9 Trade paperback, 282 pages, Fiction/YA
ISBN 978-0-9816210-5-0 / 0-9816210-5-8
“Heather deals with real life and real situations.” 5 Stars
– Teens Read Too
“Curl up onto your favorite reading spot and journey along with Heather as she seeks the balance of family and work relationships. Be prepared to be pulled into Heather’s world and you will find yourself cheering her on and wanting to scold her at the same time. L. Diane Wolfe has created amazing characters with believable attributes and flaws; making Book V in the Circle of Friends series a true gem.”
Book Trailer:
Elizabeth – Thanks for hosting Diane!
Diane – These really are excellent ideas – thanks for sharing : ), and best of luck with your new release. I want to echo your suggestion to have at least one neutral reader. Someone else can often spot the weaknesses, overuse of terms, character “flatness,” etc. that we may not be able to see. I, myself, am blessed with two “beta readers” whom I depend on to give me honest and helpful feedback. It works every time!
Good post. Very good.
Much food for thought and questions to ponder.
I really love reading my work aloud because if I have a problem reading it, so will my readers. I do a full read through and make simple notes before I do a deeper chapter by chapter edit…you make great suggestions here.
ann
Great post with lots of helpful information.
Thanks for all of the tips. I have to wait for my house to be empty before I read aloud my work. My family thinks I’m nutty enough – but I always find it the best way to check for natural flow.
Those are some great revision tips, Diane. I like to think that with each revision pass, your manuscript becomes smoother and more detailed, with richer and deeper colors, as if you were sanding, then painting a fine wooden cabinet.
Excellent overview of the editing process. Thanks to both of you.
Karen
Well done, Diane! Great checklist for self-editing … I’m going to copy this and send it to any new authors who want me to edit their books for them, along with a note to say, “do all this and THEN send me your ms.” LOL – it saves me bunches of work!
Marvin D Wilson
Thanks Wendy, Ann, and Mason!
Margot two beta readers is always better than one!
Jemi, you mean they don’t think you’re nuts anyway?
And Marvin – too funny!! LOL Hope that cuts down on your work in the future.
Thank you Elizabeth for hosting me!
Great post. I’m a fan of reading aloud. Another tip I’d add is printing your story and reading it on paper. Sometimes changing from the view of the computer screen to a paper document helps the eye catch little slips.
Diane, thanks so much for coming by today and for your great post! I’m revising right now, so your list of tips and techniques comes in handy.
Here’s a useful list. Thank you for putting it all so concisely.
All very good items for an author to consider when writing. I failed miserably with the POV and am having a good friend many of us know (Marvin Wilson) help put it in the Third Person POV.
I still have a bit of head hopping due to the number of characters. I can minimize but not eliminate the element. But at least its entirely in the Third Person now.
Stephen Tremp
Great advice, Diane.
I tend to write sparse and quick on the first version. Then during the (long) editing phase, I try to do all the things you recommended, plus add in descriptions and take a blade to passive verbs.
Helen
Straight From Hel
Great tips, although reading out loud feels so odd.
Great post! I can tell I’m going to be referring back to this one!
Alan, I really like that analogy!
Thanks and hope it helps everyone!
Like you, Diane, I enjoy the editing phase (at least for the first couple of times). I agree with all your advice – especially having a test reader or two and a professional edit. Good luck with your new release.
Totally agree with ‘read large chunks’. I’m giving a manuscript a final once-over before sending it off, and it helps to read it ‘like a real book’.
Another tip — if possible, read it in hard copy and in as different a format as you can. I use 2 columns and a different font because we’ve stared at the words on the screen for so long, our brains see what should be there. The narrow columns and different font make things look different, and things like repeated words, phrases, etc., are much more visible.
I constantly proof my work – edit, re-edit and edit again. My problem is, I don’t know when to stop. Thank you for the insight primer, I’m taking away some great information.
Thanks everyone, and Jane, It’s nice to know someone else likes the editing phase, too.
Tara thanks for pointing that out and I should’ve mentioned it – I never do edits on the computer. I always print out my work and attack with pencil. After about ten times through, I enter corrections and print it out again. Yeah, I go through a lot of paper that way…
Very fine advice.
I agree that test readers and reading large chunks in one go are useful when it comes to novels. One of my problems is to keep the overview.
Great advice. Thanks for the point-by-point on what makes a tight editing process. I’m bookmarking this one to come back to when it’s time to scrub my first draft and make it shiny and clean.
Glad it helped!
As I stated earlier, Terry, I forgot to include the printing of the manuscript instead of editing on the screen. It’s such habit for me, I didn’t even think about it.
This was great Diane. I wish I shared your enthusiasm for editing. I find it laborious. But you must maintain a positive attitude throughout the whole process or the work will suffer.
DL, there are things were even my attitude dips…
But editing isn’t one of them!