You’re
a writer and let’s face it, editing probably isn’t your favorite thing to do.
No surprise there. But there are some guidelines I keep I mind that make it
easier for me and might for you as well.
First
I keep in mind that there’s a time for writing and there’s a time for editing.
There’s no doing both at once, it just won’t work. I have to turn the crazy
writer lose to get that story written and out there. If I try to edit at the
same time and keep second-guessing myself it’s far too easy to become overly
critical about what I just wrote. So take my advice, tell your inner critic to
shut up until the story is actually on paper. Time to edit later.
When
later arrives I do, however, read what I’ve written over and over and over
until I’m nearly darn well sick of the whole thing. There are times when I have
to let it rest in between and then go at it again.
BUT,
and it’s another big BUT, there’s a fine line between tweaking and editing the
writing you’ve just created to death. Really, don’t do it. Learn when to stop
and maybe let someone else read it and provide some feed-back.
Write
tight. I suspect most authors have a hard time cutting their own work. I know I
do. There are some ‘precious babies’ in there! But, when in doubt cut the words.
And bear in mind you can probably cut as much as 10 or 15 percent of your word
count pretty easily. One book I had published was cut, by me, by more than 25
percent. Get an ax and have at it.
Never
trust your spell checker. Seriously. Just don’t. The checker is good to locate
the obvious for a quick and dirty edit. It won’t catch things like their,
there, they’re, or if typing quickly things like Ties in place of times or
horse in place of house or a myriad of other little mistakes.
Read
your writing for clunky, overlong and just downright irritating sentences. Sentences
with lots of commas, semi-colons and convoluted points to make. You know the
ones. They’re the sentences that have to be read several times just to figure out
what’s happening to who. Or who said what to who. Find them. Kill them. Cut
them down to size. Read your work out loud, you’ll find them easily.
A
professional editor isn’t a bad idea. But if you have friends you can convince
to read the writing in progress, print it out and ask them to scribble notes. I’ve
found that’s the best way. Yes, your victims could just receive a word document
and add their comments with the tools in the program and I won’t say that wouldn’t
be productive. But there’s just something about a printed page in front of a
person that seems to make finding the rough spots all that much easier.
Think
about these suggestions implement them with your writing and tell me what you
think.
Beth Hill's a fiction writer and editor. 
