Once the fun part of creating our stories is complete there comes editing. It is a necessary step towards having a polished manuscript. However, it can be energy draining and frustrating. One writer stated, she printed out her manuscript on different colored paper. Each color was for a separate editing stage - blue for grammar & spelling, pink for continuity, yellow for dialogue and so forth.
No matter how many times or how many people read through our work - errors will happen! Since I have been writing and assisting with editing for fellow writers, I notice every 'mistake' in the books I read. I'm not even scrutinising or looking for them, they just jump off the page at me.
Do you have the same problem?
Can you switch off your inner editor?
One trick I've found helpful is to read the work from the last chapter to the first. I also have some awesome fellow writers that help me. We arrange monthly meetings and swap 4 - 5 chapters of our work with each other. Then gradually work through all these segments until the next meeting.
These links are great too:
http://lisavoisin.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/fiction-fridays-5-tips-for-scaling-the-editing-wall-and-dealing-overwhelm-writetips/
http://samanthaeng572.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/chapter-14-from-draft-to-final/
Scrutinize - definition: to examine in detail, with careful attention
Once the fun part of creating our stories is complete there comes editing. It is a necessary step towards having a polished manuscript. However, it can be energy draining and frustrating. One writer stated, she printed out her manuscript on different colored paper. Each color was for a separate editing stage - blue for grammar & spelling, pink for continuity, yellow for dialogue and so forth.
No matter how many times or how many people read through our work - errors will happen! Since I have been writing and assisting with editing for fellow writers, I notice every 'mistake' in the books I read. I'm not even scrutinising or looking for them, they just jump off the page at me.
Do you have the same problem?
Can you switch off your inner editor?
One trick I've found helpful is to read the work from the last chapter to the first. I also have some awesome fellow writers that help me. We arrange monthly meetings and swap 4 - 5 chapters of our work with each other. Then gradually work through all these segments until the next meeting.
These links are great too:
http://lisavoisin.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/fiction-fridays-5-tips-for-scaling-the-editing-wall-and-dealing-overwhelm-writetips/
http://samanthaeng572.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/chapter-14-from-draft-to-final/
Once the fun part of creating our stories is complete there comes editing. It is a necessary step towards having a polished manuscript. However, it can be energy draining and frustrating. One writer stated, she printed out her manuscript on different colored paper. Each color was for a separate editing stage - blue for grammar & spelling, pink for continuity, yellow for dialogue and so forth.
No matter how many times or how many people read through our work - errors will happen! Since I have been writing and assisting with editing for fellow writers, I notice every 'mistake' in the books I read. I'm not even scrutinising or looking for them, they just jump off the page at me.
Do you have the same problem?
Can you switch off your inner editor?
One trick I've found helpful is to read the work from the last chapter to the first. I also have some awesome fellow writers that help me. We arrange monthly meetings and swap 4 - 5 chapters of our work with each other. Then gradually work through all these segments until the next meeting.
These links are great too:
http://lisavoisin.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/fiction-fridays-5-tips-for-scaling-the-editing-wall-and-dealing-overwhelm-writetips/
http://samanthaeng572.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/chapter-14-from-draft-to-final/
editing not required for comment…hahaha
Very witty & sharp!
This is so true. i should try the last chapter to the first thing. My husband and edited my work four times each. then I had two teachers edit, then a college professor, then a read over, then published, then found the word dad used as a proper noun in several places it shouldn’t have been, and a punctuation error, took it down, re-edited the errors, put it back up, found one more glaring error on the first page in the first sentence….took it down and edited the final time. I would like to think it is perfect now…but probably not 🙂 and that’s okay, I have seen alpha authors with glaring errors. I just needed to stop! Last time I read it all the way through, I found nothing in the way of errors, so I am satisfied.