Taking a Stand on Self-Editing

by Patricia Cates

Do you ever feel like you are walking a tight rope with your writing? You can't see the forest through the trees. You are on the brink of a breakdown and you hear your own voice calling out from a cliff top saying, "IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE LOST IN EDITING…editing…editing…? HELLO...Hello...hello...IS ANYBODY THERE…there…there…?” 


photo courtesy of theguardian.com

Guess what? There's actually a lot of us trekking out there! I know it's quiet...but if you look really hard you can see us way out in the distance. Grab your binoculars and take a looksee. And guess what? There is a really convenient set of zigzagging redwood stairs that lead right to camp. (And hey we're in the company of about 250 scouts to the east so we're extra safe.) It sure feels good to know that there is a terrific group of fellow writers right here to help guide us along this journey. 

Looking back through MMW posts I noticed that the last time any bloggers delved into the subject of editing was back in March of 2013, so I thought I’d mention it again. There you'll find a terrific post by Mandi worthy of another read. It mentions a book entitled “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers” by Renni Browne and Dave King. I am always looking to improve and emphasize the need for confidence in this area.

So last month I was fortunate enough to share my blog post with Sue Grafton. I mentioned to her that she was an author whom I admired and thought of, when I was in need of streamlining and refocusing. Her style is straightforward and flows well, and her characters feel like family.  She was gracious enough to give me a bit of advice to share here with everyone. Although it wasn’t a huge interview, this is what she told me:

“Trimming and editing is essential. I think it’s fabulous to write from the heart---almost stream-of-consciousness---while you get that first draft on paper. After that, you have to be ruthless. I think of it as taking 00 sandpaper to my work. I tend to edit and revise as I go along, but I’ve been at this for over 50 years.”

How wonderful to get advice from such a seasoned author. It just solidified my stance on this entire writing process as being such a deeply personal one. She says "YOU" have to be ruthless. That means that you have to edit your own work...and maybe with some sand paper. Our books are our babies. They originate from our hearts. Do you want to entrust them into the hands of a stranger, or a software program? Her example is one that I hope sticks around for a very long while.

Are you a writer who self-edits? If so why? Do you love it? Are you maybe a little bit of a control freak? As most of you know it can be super time consuming, but when it’s your passion, it’s just what you do. For those who detest editing, when you need help, where do you turn? Of course you know it’s imperative to find someone you trust implicitly. If this is you please make sure it's someone you can collaborate with in a marriage type way.

I don’t know about the majority of you, but I love editing. That’s why hours go by that feel like minutes. It is such a blast. And yes I am a control freak to the max. So when I found out about all of the editing software available for purchase, I was pretty ticked. To think that there could come a day when we potentially are all replaced...it makes me fume and cringe at the same time. This lack of a need for humans I assume started somewhere around the time of the assembly line, and has since advanced to computers doing all of the thinking (and now apparently robots.) I truly would like to see this sort of technology fall flat on its round silver face and stay the heck away from our precious little literary world.

I will surely never be caught buying any editing software, but I can see the temptation for people who struggle with this aspect. These programs do promise to cut down on time spent, but remember that a content editing job is one that takes insight and emotion into the author and the characters.

Additionally the power in self-editing is what keeps the novel true to you. How many times have you read a book where you felt like the voice changed midway through? I have put down a few best-sellers over the years, due to the fact that the first 3rd of the book rocked it, and then it felt like someone else completely was writing the thing. Super disappointing. My question is always a resounding why?

I also feel that sometimes there are just so many talented folks out of work and I want those jobs saved. What a jolly slap in the face these programmers are virtually giving to the very folks who wrote their textbooks for them! Whether it is the entry level job of a copy editor, or someone getting a part time freelance gig proofreading, the wonder of words for many of us is the passion in life that keeps us occupied and consumed. For some mom's it is often what helps a family make ends meet. The pay is rarely great, but even if that little is taken away, it will be a sad day indeed.

Okay enough said. In conclusion my advice today is simply to enjoy staying lost in the wilderness of editing. Work on it. There’s a breathtaking view from the rim of the canyon. Take it all in before it’s lost to developers.

How to Slash Your Word Count

by Katy White

The book has been written, the critiques are in, and it's time to write what I hope will be to complete my final draft.  I hope to both fix the problems that have been brought to my attention and to get my 83k YA Contemporary down to, oh, 80k.  The problem in losing these 3000 words?  I've already slashed the scenes that I thought were superfluous.  So I need to cut the count by words alone. 

How?!

Below is a sampling of areas I'll focus on in my final revision.  

1)  That.  The word "that" certainly has its uses (and I'm sure you can think of myriad examples).  But it can also be a word count killer.  For example:

"He thought that I should stop eating so much ice cream."
"Eating an enormous spoonful in his face, I made it obvious that I didn't care."

In revising, I'll read lines like these out loud for the rhythm of the sentence and keep those that impact readability.   


2)  "Out of" vs. "from."  Every time I can replace "out of" with "from," I lose a word.  This can look like:

"She raced out of from the room."
"His callousness pulled her out of from her daze."

And it's an easy change to make when I use "CTRL+F" to find each instance of "out of" and evaluate if "from" fits, or not.

3)  Axe some dialogue tags.  Once I've established that two people are talking, I probably don't need "he said" and "she said" as often as I currently have them.  

4)  Stop over-explaining everything because I want my reader to see a scene exactly as I see it.  Just because I care that my character cocked his head to the side before saying something, does the reader really need to know that?  Sometimes, sure.  When it helps them better understand my character.  But not always.  Unless it's desperately important essential that you see my character's confusion, as opposed to her being upset or suspicious or some other emotion altogether, the head-cocking just isn't necessary.  In fact, the dialogue should really speak for itself in most cases.  This rule applies to my writing all the time.  (See, I even did it there?  I needed you to read this sentence exactly as I would have said it out loud, even though you really don't need that for comprehension.) 

5)  Remove redundancy.  Instead of saying, "Josh crept stealthily to the barn," why don't I just say "crept," shall I?  Stealth is implied.  And so long, phrases like "nodded his head" and "reached a hand." "Nodded" and "reached" will work just fine.

6)  Sayonara, adjectives and adverbs (where possible).  This sort of fits with the redundancy above, but where something isn't redundant, I probably just need to find a stronger verb.  And if it ends in -ly, I really need to evaluate its usefulness.  That's not to say every adjective or adverb will go, but some will;  the ones that stay will be purposefully kept.  I'll keep the others purposefully. 

The fact is, I'm still going to have needless words.  I'll miss some tightening opportunities, and I'll choose to forego others.   Yes, you read that right:  despite the constant harping in the writing community to make your writing as tight as absolutely possible, I won't.  I'll look at my voice, the flow of my sentences and paragraphs, keep what sounds nice, and only get rid of what sounds clunky.  Because I want to sound like me.  Just the best, tightest version of me (this rule does not apply to my aforementioned ice cream problem).  

Above are the opportunities I find when I revise, but you may find others when you do, and I'd love to hear them (as well as what I'm missing).  So, please, sound off below with your favorite slashing techniques!

Self-Editing Your Manuscript - A Good Reference

If you're looking for a fantastic reference while editing your writing, I found the following book to have some very useful advice from some seasoned editorial professionals.  Here are some of the main points I gleaned from this book:

• Probably my favorite rule from the Show Vs. Tell chapter is RUE: Resist the Urge to Explain.  They talk about the importance of showing all the elements of good writing, and using telling sparingly and only when necessary.  If you are editing a section of text that feels like a textbook explanation of character history or setting, try to rewrite that information into description, action or dialogue.  There are some good examples of how to do this.
•  
• Give the characters views of the world, rather than your views through the characters eyes.  This is where really knowing your own characters comes in handy.  You might not include their most embarrassing moment in the third grade, or list their favorite flavors of ice cream for the reader, but the more you know about your own protagonists/antagonists, the better you show the world through their eyes.
• To help edit dialogue to make it sound more natural, read it out loud.  The book suggests that you, "...bring your ear into play when editing...dialogue is an artificial creation that sounds natural when you read it...the eye can be fooled, but the ear knows."

I'm only half done reading this editing guide, but already its packed full of sound and useful information.  Some of the points the authors make I've heard before, but its still nice to have reminders, especially as I'm getting deeper into my first round of edits on my manuscript.

What about you?  Have you read any good writing craft books lately?