How Many Ways Can You Edit

How Many Ways Can You Edit In my opinion you cannot edit too much unless you have no idea what youre writing. If you have purpose in your project and understand the direction of your story, then youll know when the editing is done. How many times do you edit a story? Wrong question. The question is more along the lines of how many ways can you edit. I cannot tell you whats right for all writers, novelists, freelancers and copywriters, but I can tell you what I do when Im writing my mysteries. I also use many of these for my magazine projects as well. The ways Hope edits: 1) Finish the rough draft. (on screen) 2) Let it sit overnight at a minimum. A novel needs to sit for a week or two. 3) Edit it on screen for the big picture aspects. Does it have a beginning, middle and ending? Does it open strong and end strong, making the point clear? Did the middle sag? Is the plot solid? 4) Edit it on screen for flow, syntax, and flavor. Tweak dialogue. Revisit the climax. Dissect the pivotal scenes. Make the setting three dimensional and the characters real. 5) Edit it on screen for grammar, typos and spelling. 6) Print it off and pull out your red pen. Read it with a hard editors eye, slowly and methodically. You will see the story differently on paper than you did on the screen. 7) Now, read it aloud. You can read it to someone or they can read it to you. If the other person is not a serious writer, have them read it to you, so your ear can catch the mistakes, lulls and boredom. 8) Have a beta reader who is a writer read it. 9) Have a beta reader who is a voracious reader read it . Do not waste your time with someone who is not a solid, well-read recreational reader. They will not catch the boo-boos. 10) Hire an editor. 11) Find a copyeditor. 12) Find a proofreader. (You can often combine numbers 10, 11, 12 or 11 and 12.) One editing tactic that makes my work better is locating repeating words. As you read your work aloud, youll hear the words that are stated too many times. In my most recent manuscript, I took note of such words as I read it, listing words like HAND, LOOK, ROSE, UNDERSTAND, THOUGHT, and STOOD. Dont assume you repeat the same words in each of the works, because Ive found that no two stories are the same in the words I like to overuse. There are lots of steps to edit your work, especially your long works. If you wonder about whether youre editing enough, chances are you arent.