Editing is a Man's Best Friend

There. I finished uploading my fifth chapter of the novel I'm currently writing on my website.
And it only took two hours to do it.


I woke up this morning with the intent to uploaded the chapter at 6:30 in the morning.   See, I already had it written about two weeks ago. In the mean time, I've been sprucing up other novels for their debutante submission process. Digression aside, the chapter was done. Complete. An advertisement in a GQ mag, it was so fine.


Now here's when things went wrong.


I woke up at 10:20am. I planned on waking up early and making Saturday an entire writing day, but I didn't get to sleep until 1am. Counting sheep is crappy advice, especially since I got a degree in accounting (1 sheep; 2 sheep; 3 . . . wait. Did we cosign the first 2 or did we pay cash? What's our Accounts Payable like after we took on the first 2 fluffs? Do they have any salvage value after their useful lives?)
At least I received about 9 hours of sleep :) Plus side, for the win!


Editing is a man's . . . worst friend. Don't get me wrong. Editing's awesome, but it can always sneak up on you. I have plans today, so a surprise two-hour editing for a single chapter (which is not unusual) just kind of stinks. The writing in the chapter wasn't terrible; it was actually quite good. There were, however, those pesky little problems that you don't see until you go back a while later. But I suck it up, because good writing is what I strive for.


Now, here's some tips to find and get rid of what I like to call pesky little problems:


1. Needless Words. They like to show up in the form of "that" (He wanted to know whether that the tree was green. I said that the tree was brown), "to" in some instances (he tried to sing; omit the word to, and change to sing into singing), and never use "the fact that" or "all of a sudden".


The theory, concerning omitting words you don't need, is (that) it makes smoother, faster prose. Try rereading your writing a few days after you wrote it and give it another shot with an honest eye.


I recommend exporting your document into a PDF if you can't print it out. The PDF version looks, at least to me it does, more like a finished novel. In this fashion, it becomes easier to see mistakes because the product looks more like a book than the same screen you've been (desensitized to so you won't see errors as easily) typing away at for hours on end. You might be surprised what you find.


2. Adverbs. -ly words should go (sourly, grouchily, hungrily, etc). The author's number one goal is to show and not tell. Adverbs tell and not show. Thanks, Stephen King, for the good advice :)


For example, writing "Give me back my son!" the man hit the tree mercifully" is lame writing. What does that even mean?


How about this: The man punched the tree trunk without concern for his well being; his knuckles were raw and splintered, and the trunk's bark had been stripped, yet the mans's assault continued on throughout the night and into the morning. "Give me back my son!" he yelled, driving his now bloodied fist into the oak without the intent of stopping no matter the sacrifice to his own body.


Much better.


3. Check names. Always check you have written your character names correctly throughout your entire draft. Someone named Billy can end up Bilyl or Bllyi without you ever noticing. Hey, it happens to me all the time. And that is just embarrassing.


That's all I have for today's editing lesson. Number one thing to remember while editing is taking your time and reading each sentence, line by line and word by word. Reading slower should help you catch these critters and help you create a better end result.


Oh, shoot. It's 1pm, and my day is just beginning :) Have a nice weekend.