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Part of me thinks I already did a Questions 3 on editing, but I’m too lazy and tired to search for it. Probably because I’ve been scrambling to edit this week. Not easy to do when it’s so cold that I want to hibernate and the most comfortable position I can find is kneeling next to the bed. Honestly, I’ve seen a lot of authors are in editing mode, so maybe this will be more fun than I realize. Let’s move on to the questions.
- What is one piece of an advice you would give someone to make their editing easier?
- What is the most frustrating part of editing for you?
- Edit spelled backwards is Tide? How would you say this is appropriate?
Answer for 3: I feel like I should answer this to be fair since I’ve answered the other two several times over the years. I think the backwards spelling is appropriate because you’re washing out the mistakes and stinky stuff from your manuscript. Like how the tide going out will carry stuff away. Then again, you could be left with a dead whale on the shore and that’s just upsetting.
Legends of Windemere 
1. Getting someone else to do it would be easier. Breaking it into random chunks – out of order – seems to help. So does changing the font.
2. Finding stuff so stupid I can’t believe I wrote it in the first place. At least it’s better than having someone else find it.
3. I’ve been having a tidal reaction to the book as I edit. I love it, I hate it, I love it… Maybe it’s the moon phase.
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1. Never thought about the out of order method. How to you check for continuity like that? Or is that a different editing run?
2. True. If you find it then nobody else has to know it happened. 😀
3. And on a full moon, the manuscript has to be locked up before it attacks the villagers. 😉
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I make multiple passes. Sometimes removing continuity from the equation lets me find things.
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Might have to try that. Being a series author, continuity is the delicate tightrope that I have to walk across. People love pointing out when you slip and fall.
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Continuity is important, but so is spelling and such.
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I swear dragun is correct in the Dwarven tongue. 😛 That excuse never works.
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1. Love thy betas. This is so important, it should be phrased like a commandment.
2. Typos. Hence my love of my proofreader & editor, Lorelei, and her eagle eye.
3. Lol – you said it best 🙂
I actually love editing. It’s the first draft that feels like a tooth being pulled. That’s probably I edit as I write, though, which makes it particularly slow as a process.
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1. Bribe betas with Valentine’s Day chocolates. Got it.
2. Give editor extra chocolates for eagle eye ability. Got it.
3. Give self chocolates for being right. Got it. 😀 (Avoiding snacking is not easy.)
I’m kind of the opposite. The first draft takes a while, but I enjoy reading it to see how everything fit together. After that, things gradually get slower and slower. I hit that ‘not you again’ level eventually.
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Erm, you’re not peckish by any chance, are you? 😀
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Just a bit. Trying to get a chapter of editing done before lunch, which seems to delay my meal.
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What is one piece of advice you would give someone to make their editing easier? Go and hire someone else to do it. Seriously I would advise taking it slow and easy. If you get tired, stop.
What is the most frustrating part of editing for you? Going over paragraphs time and time again and just not seeing the mistake.
Edit spelled backwards is Tide? How would you say this is appropriate? The edit does an excellent job on the whites and colors to make the whole book smell clean and fresh.
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1. No editing in your sleep. For no other reason than drool on paper or laptops is gross. 😉
2. I hate that. It can drive you to a point where you make a change solely to feel like you did something productive.
3. Excellent analogy.
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Thank you. I kind like the ediT/Tide thing myself.
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Thanks. I have no idea what made me realize that.
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Genius is the only answer
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That or a mirror that showed me the word backwards. 😛
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Ha ha ha. (Written in Sharpie on your forehead)
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1. Know your weaknesses and have a plan in place so you can spot them. 2. Reading the same words over and over until you can’t see the wood for the trees! 3. If you get caught up in it, it can feel like you’re drowning 😉
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Number 2 is a great piece of advice in a way. People don’t realize when that happens.
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It’s when that starts happening that I know I need a fresh pair of eyes. The proof that I made the right decision is usually the number of things I missed. But Nicholas makes a great point too because betas are invaluable 🙂
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I’ve gotten a little better over the years. I think something an author should do with betas is to see if there are any repeated mistakes. This way you can adjust your style or simply your attention to avoid doing that again.
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Yeah, that’s true.
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My advice: betas, long consecutive hours with the rewrite, read out loud, more changes, copy editor, editor, one last rewrite, copy editor.
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And all in one weekend. Joking. This really shows how much work there is after the book gets a first draft.
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My thoughts:
1. What is one piece of an advice you would give someone to make their editing easier?
Don’t think: “I have to edit my book.” That will seem overwhelming. Instead, think: “I need to edit a chapter.” Thinking of your book one chunk at a time will make the job seem less overwhelming. Someone gave me this advice. It really helped.
2. What is the most frustrating part of editing for you?
Having to rewrite a clunky scene that just isn’t working. Which means I’m back to drafting.
3. Edit spelled backwards is Tide? How would you say this is appropriate?
The moon’s gravitational pull affects the tides. So, I got to thinking that an audience’s perceived reaction to a book has an effect on an author. The more the author believes that he or she will be criticized if he/she doesn’t get the book right, the greater the desire the author has to make sure his/her edit of the book is thorough. Perceived reaction = gravitational pull.
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1. Good advice. Big jobs are easy to tackle when you chop it into pieces.
2. Ugh. The rewrite phase.
3. Interesting theory and association. Oddly scientific too. 🙂
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The questions were really good! I thought the edit/tide question very interesting.
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Thanks, Charles, for the advice. It’s great coming from an author who’s really experienced. 🙂 — Suzanne
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You’re welcome. Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
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I love your description of tide, it rings very true. Editing has to be done and I find that I pick a suitable playlist from my you tube, make coffee, roll some ciggies and get going.
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I haven’t used Youtube for a playlist in a while. Moved to Pandora because I kept checking the videos. 🙂
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To me, the most important part of editing is to focus your story. You have a finished draft, so you know what the story is about. (Right?) So now make sure that every piece of character, setting, dialogue and especially every image points toward what the story is about. A story that is less polished but focused will have more impact than one that is highly polished but not focused.
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Interesting point. Never really thought about how a story can be technically sound, but be panned due to having no focus whatsoever. This is probably why there should be multiple editing runs. At least one for story focus and another for the technical side.
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What is one piece of an advice you would give someone to make their editing easier?
Love and honor thy beta readers.
What is the most frustrating part of editing for you?
When my editor insists on dumbing down my work. I like to think my readers want to figure some things out for themselves in this genre.
Edit spelled backwards is Tide? How would you say this is appropriate?
With ten beta readers, two full edit passes and a proofing, it certainly has been an ebb and flow process. I keep telling myself it’s all for the best.
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1. Good advice. Especially when the holidays come around.
2. There does seem to be a belief that readers aren’t as smart and insightful as we think. Yet, we’re readers ourselves. So I wonder how often things are dumbed down because someone thinks I’m not too bright. Now I feel insulted by my library.
3. That definitely sounds like it’d be a lot of back and forth. It probably is for the best. All to put out the best that you can.
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1. Make your editing easier by reading more. The more you read, the more you pick up on the intricacies of the perplexing English grammar system. Which in turn improves your own editing abilities.
2. I hate sweeping structural edits. Little stuff I have no problem with. I actually really enjoy proofreading — fixing grammar, spelling, that sort of thing. But when someone reads my manuscript and correctly points out that something big is amiss — a plot point doesn’t make sense, a character arc doesn’t work, etc. — then it requires so much re-writing and it makes my head hurt just thinking about it. GAH.
You didn’t ask this question, so I’m going to ask it: What is one editing mistake you wish authors would stop making?
And now I will answer it: using dialogue tags wrong. It’s SO FRUSTRATING. I think I’m going to make a Use Dialogue Tags Correctly worksheet for people to download and practice on. Actually, yeah, I think I’m actually going to do that. Not now, but soon. Keep your eyes peeled, lol.
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1. Good idea. The only thing I would mention is to be careful that you don’t adopt someone else’s style and dilute your own. Just from personal experience, I’ve found that every author has a unique voice and met many who copy others.
2. I’ve found that those big ones aren’t always hard to fix. Might just be a few tweaks here and there or just an extra scene. There are times people say they hate a character arc, but it comes out that they simply don’t like the character. Sadly, nothing one can do about that if the character is central.
3. Curious to know what you mean by wrong.
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Oh, I mean that the author just isn’t using the correct punctuation. Here are several examples of incorrect punctuation in dialogue tags:
“I like fish.” She said.
“I like fish,” She said.
“I like fish.” she said.
Correct: “I like fish,” she said.
There are many other exciting ways to mess up dialogue tags! But incorrect punctuation/capitalization is possibly the worst offender.
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Okay. Got it. Though I don’t like fish. 🙂
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LOL. So no sushi for you, then?
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Nope. I’ve tried and it always fails.
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