Self Editing

The dumbest thing you can do as a writer is edit your own work. And yes, I do it too, primarily for financial reasons. I have beta readers who catch a lot of things, but not everything. That’s not possible. Good editors are not cheap. And outside of traditional publishing, how do you know if the person editing is any good?

Back to the “Why Indie” post, this is tantamount to shooting myself in the foot. If I put out something with poor quality, it hurts me and every other indie author trying to gain credibility. Having an editor should ensure higher-quality work, right?

After 15 years, I’ve come up with a few tips on becoming your own editor.

First, I highly recommend buying this book. It’s an excellent guide (if you follow it).

From the blurb: Chapters on dialogue, exposition, point of view, interior monologue, and other techniques take you through the same processes an expert editor would go through to perfect your manuscript. Each point is illustrated with examples, many drawn from the hundreds of books Browne and King have edited.

Second, take your time. It’s never finished when you think it’s finished. Allocate more calendar time editing than you’ve spent writing your first draft. Make it as much, if not more, of your job as drafting the story.

Find plot holes. After finishing your first draft, set it aside for a month. Try to forget it as much as you can. Then, sit down and read through your story with fresh eyes. Keep a notepad beside you (or add comments to your document) and note each time you’re pulled out of the story for whatever reason.

Some plot holes or discontinuities can be resolved simply with an added sentence. Others may require a section to be rewritten. Sometimes, an unresolved setup in Act One must be addressed in Act Three. Occasionally, it might need to be deleted if it adds nothing to the story.

That’s okay. That’s what editing is.

Fix your punctuation. Not too many commas, not too few. Proper punctuation in dialogue.

Don’t trust spell check. An incorrect work in a sentence that is still a legitimate word won’t be flagged. See what I did there? This is less of a problem now since most spellchecking is contextual. But a decade ago? Big minefield.

My final step is to have the story read aloud to me while I read along. I edit in Word (first draft in Scrivener), and in Word, there’s a feature called ‘Read Aloud‘ in the Review menu.

Listening to your story will catch awkward word choices, missed typos, repeated words and more.

And when you’ve finished with the process, head back to the beginning and do it again.

And again.

You want people to enjoy the story, right? Don’t let them get hung up on the non-story parts.

Your thoughts?

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In Defense of Structure

I am predisposed to structure in almost everything.

When I first started writing (Matt’s War — read about it here), I had no idea how traditional story structure worked. I knew there were three Acts, but frankly, I had no idea what each Act consisted of, how to transition between the Acts or how much of the story was made up by each Act.

I had finished Matts’s War’s first draft when I learned how all successful movies and books are structured.

Now I need to be clear, all stories and movies that follow a good structure aren’t successful. The story needs to be good and the characters compelling. But a good story with compelling characters but poorly structured won’t resonate with readers or viewers.

So if story structure is so important, you’d think everyone would jump on it, but some still believe the mere existence of structure means a story is cookie-cutter with no originality.

I mentioned I have a predisposition to structure. I’m an Engineer by education and training. We don’t build something until we have a plan, whether it’s a computer, bridge, or building.

I see story structure as a blueprint. A line drawing of the cabinet you want to make. It contains the necessary elements to make a functional cabinet but leaves a lot up to the cabinet maker (or author). The type of wood, the finish, the quality of the hinges, all of that is up to the maker.

Same with story structure. I go more into it here (and more will be added in the future).

When I learned of this, the scales fell from my eyes. I had to make massive structural edits to Matt’s War. It has some of my best reviews yet.

So to the story structure deniers, deny all you want, but pick any successful book or movie, and I will show you, in detail, its underlying structure.