Professor Old Silly’s Tutorial Tuesday – Self Editing Part One
Welcome back to Bloggyversity, English Comp class 10001.3b, “Writing With Power in Fiction”. Please turn off your cell phones or put them on vibrate mode, adjust your monitors and underwear and have a seat. We have much to cover in our short time together, and it will require you to behave yourselves and focus. I’ll not have any shenanigans out of any of you ruffians today.
Thank you. Now. Today we start a three part series on the all important skill of self-editing. This is a comprehensive subject, so for the sake of blogging brevity I am breaking it into a series of short post lessons to address it properly. As writers, we must first of course write a good book. But before sending your manuscript off to your editor, and assuming he or she will “fix” all your boo-boos for you, it is imparative that you do your own best job of editing your work first.
You can do the obvious things, like checking for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. Everyone uses spell-check these days, but that is no guarantee you do not have “wrong” words in your manuscript. Spell-check will not correct things like “too” where it should be “to,” or “then” when it should be “than,” or “you” where “your” should be. So there is no substitute for good old-fashioned reading your manuscript with a critical eye. After completing a first draft, put it away for at least a week–two is better–or even a month. Work on something else and/or read other authors for a while. Then pull it out and read it with fresh eyes.
Look for these glaring turnoffs:
• Excessive use of italics for internal dialog, especially in the first three chapters. Rewrite in such a way as to let the reader know these are the character’s thoughts.
• Overuse of sentence fragments as “style” elements. Like this. Or that.
• Overuse of exclamation points! It makes your writing sound like a constantly barking dog!
• Overuse of question marks? As with exclamation points, they are strong punctuations. Do not overuse them. It is considered amateurish. Where “What did you say, John,” will do, do not write, “What did you say, John?”–unless there is some reason for the redundancy made obvious by the context.
• Overuse and/or misuse of commas. You will find dozens of excellent tutorials online on this subject. Do a Google search, bone up, and make corrections.
Next: Using the Word tools, “Track Changes,” and “Spelling and Grammar,” do the following:
• Eliminate repetitious words. Look for words used more than twice or thrice in close proximity. Switch on Track Changes, and then click on “Edit.” Use the “Find” feature to locate those words everywhere in your manuscript. Have your Thesaurus handy or up on your browser, and use it to replace repeated words with appropriate synonyms. An exception to this is if you have a character that has a quirky trait of using a certain word or phrase. Even then, do not overdo it.
• Eliminate adverbs and adjectives. Strong prose uses verbs and nouns. Period. Do a search for words ending in “ly.” Eliminate them. For instance, if you have written, “John ran quickly to the car,” it is much stronger to write, “John ran to the car.” Running is quick. If you want to jazz up the pace, use “sped” or “raced” or “sprinted” to replace the verb, but don’t weaken its strength by qualifying it with an adverb.
• Find, and eliminate where possible, passive voices. Use Spelling and Grammar to search for them and rewrite. Most publishing houses want no more than 5% passive voice in a manuscript. Less is better.
• Use the “find” function to edit out your idiosyncrasies. We tend to write the way we talk and think. This can become intrusive in a novel if your “voice” is entering into the story in an inappropriate manner. Do a “find” search for all those phrases and/or favorite words, and consider rewriting.
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This ends our session for today. As usual, leave your comments on my desk, and blog back into class next Tuesday for part two of this series.
My, I must say, class, you did behave quite well today – I was so engrossed in my lecture, and I appreciate never having once been interrupted by any of your usual loud antics and disruptive behavior. Bravo!
So, with that, blog is dismissed. See you all next week, class … class? …
Class?
Click on Tweety Bird and tweet this post if you liked it!
Thank you. Good lesson. These are the obvious ones I look for. I’m working on showing and not telling. But my new book (Amanda) is heavy with dialogue. Is that ok?
Ron, lots of dialog can be quite effective if the dialog is realistic sounding. I will be doing a series of post on that subject as well. One thing to look out for and avoid is your characters becoming “talking heads” with no movements, facial expressions, things going on in the scene/setting during lengthy conversations. Keep “showing” the scene to the reader while your characters talk.
Not a writer myself, but these posts are still ineresting to read, seeing how good prose is crafted. Also appreciate the humorous touch, as usual.
I fancy myself trying to write a book one day so I’m keeping this post and series bookmarked! Sorry for leaving class so early – we all had to get to the concert ya know, and you CAN be soooooo longwinded, Prof Old Silly! LOL
I like the part about exclamation points! I hate it when a book is always yelling at me! It get’s on my nerves!!!
LOL – fun post and informative, Prof old silly.
Good points – love the “empty classroom” humor too. Levity always adds to lessons, lol
Lessons to live by Marvin. Thank you! I know I am one of the most guilty of many of your “nots”. Thanks for enlightening me and improving my writing such that it will be publishable!
Michelle, you’re welcome … and as your editor I’ve seen you come a loooong way, baby!
Excellent points, Professor! Hello? Marvin? Old Silly?
Guess he left the classroom too…
Thanks, Crystal – no I’m still here – preparing for next week’s class – a professor’s work is never done, sigh.
Wait. I’m still here. I just stepped out to go to the restroom.
That’s good advice, as usual. I hate the “wrong word” error. I usually don’t catch it. Hubby does, once he finally reads my post. YIKES!
Thank god for hubby!
Marvin, please email me at crystalclearproofing@charter.net. I need your help!
My lawyer will be contacting your lawyer.
I’m here to stand up for the rights of adjectives and adverbs.
A noun may be a person, place, or thing, but adjectives bring them to life!
Hater!
We’ll settle this in court. Death to all Adverbs and adjectives!
You CAN settle out of court with a plea bargain – occasional use of them is sometimes permissable. Best offer – take it or leave it.
Thanks so much. I didn’t know the one about excessive use of question marks. I thought you always put the symbol if it’s a question.
Karen
I find this irresistibly tweetable, Marvin. So I’m off to tweet it!
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
Good advice, teach. Worth tacking up near our computers.
I was a little lost on the question mark advice, but I assume you meant to avoid using the question mark then including “he asked.” I would tell my clients to use one or the other.
Helen
Straight From Hel
That is what I mean, Helen – use one or the other – ? with “said” in the tag, or end the question with a comma and use “asked” in the tag. Sounds like we edit the same way on that one.
Very nice reminders, clearly explained. Thanks Marv, Galen.
What a wonderful post! I worry about my comma usage since the rules for American punctuation are different than what I learned in school. I shall check out some sites. Thanks!
Elspeth
Good tips. I have a problem with pesky repetitive words – I think someone comes along behind me and types just into every third sentence! (by the way – I’m so relieved you didn’t hear my cell phone ring!)
I didn’t realize how much I liked the word quickly. I eliminated over 20 usages. And the “ly” words? Don’t get me started. I had to go back and spend an entire day rewriting these sentences. But using the FIND function, I was able to do it quickly. Oops, there I go again. Quickly and the “ly” A double whammy.
Hey old habits die hard, eh Stephen? And I am no exception. That’s why even a pro editor needs to have another editor to go over his or her own manuscripts.
My ex-boss ALWAYS used exclaimation marks for all her writing. So tiring! Thanks for the great lesson.
The ‘ly’ thing is a recent elimination in my work. Still working on passive voice – I bet I cross that 5% threshold.
Great tips! Will add to Friday’s post.
BYW – in the beginning, you implied everyone wore underwear… LOL
Maybe that’s why the class left!
OMG! You know, you just might be right!
The AutoCrit Editing Wizard is perfect for editing fiction. It helps me find all the repeated and overused words as well as idenitfying slow pacing, etc etc. I love it.
Excellent lesson Marvin I have learnt quite a bit from what you wrote. Thanks.
Yvonne.