Now onto Editing...

"…your reader is at least as bright as you are." William Maxwell

We have written our work and are now ready to edit it. Editing is the stage of the writing process in which a writer or editor strives to improve a draft  (and sometimes prepare it for publication) by correcting errors and by making words and sentences clearer, more precise, and more effective.
 
The definition of editor is:
(1) An individual who oversees the preparation of text  in newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, and books; short stories, manuscripts, etc.
(2) An individual who assists an author in copyediting  a text.
 
Writers have internal editors that always sit checking, rethinking and wondering if what they just wrote sounds okay. They go back and keep fixing each sentence to make it the most perfect sentence but in the process they are losing time in their writing day. I already did the blog post about turning that internal editor off!
 
I remember telling my one friend, who asked me to look at her work, to eliminate the overuse of the word AND. Well she had an ‘editor’ friend who told her not to remove the ANDS. A matter of preference? Is one eye different than having four different eyes looking at your work? Yes, all four will say something remarkably different.
 
I remember one time, I wrote this story. I fixed and tweaked my heart out. I asked an editor friend to do a once over and see what she found. My biggest problems were with tense shift, so she fixed them, made the story look brilliant in my eyes, but when I posted it to the classroom, I got hit with all kids of opinions of you should change this or that, and this is wrong, try this, until I put the story in my filing closet, never to be seen again.
 
Not that I mind opinions, but I realized that too many opinions can be harmful to your writing instead of helping you along. All writers (most of them anyway) think they are editors because they got an A+ for twelve years of English class. A grammar pro does not make the perfect editor, nor does a writer make the perfect editor. An editor has to understand sentence structure as well as story line structure; they have to have in-depth knowledge of the writing craft. To me I want my editor educated in the field of writing for many many years before I place my work into her/his hand. Your editor is the next step in getting published.
 
What I want in an editor, and I’m sure editors look for it too, is a like minded individual. We can not expect an editor who has reviewed, written and enjoys the genre of evil, to appreciate a novel about spirituality and God. They will be very cynical and sometimes unable to give you a good edit. Same for a person of faith trying to edit a dark dark text. You might think you can cross the line and be very objective, but really you’re going to find that you’re more critical and putting in your opinion.
 
As you revise your work and make it shine, remember to think before you delete that imperfect word or rearrange the structure of the sentence. When you submit your work to an editor, make sure they are of a like mind because it is then that you won’t mind handing it over to them. And the editor I choose will be with the magazine, publisher of my choice. Right genre, write right!

"To be clear is the first duty of a writer; to charm and to please are graces to be acquired later." Brander Matthews

G,P,S

Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

In a recent blog tour I had the pleasure of asking the author of The President’s Parasite, Jim Musgrave if there were any "secrets" that the newcomer to writing should know. "Learn your basics first, meaning grammar, punctuation and spelling." he offered.

And the second best kept secret, which I’m sure isn’t a secret to my fellow writing friends because I’ve said this over and over again, get a good manual of "technique". His suggestion? Telling Lies for Fun and Profit by Lawrence Block. Great advice!

I’ve given you blogs on Style, Theme, Ego, Inspiration, and even a blog titled Writer’s block. Today’s blog, I’d like to offer up to you the importance of Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling.

Many of us have learned our grammar techniques in grade school and more than likely we’ve become rusty over the years. Do you really remember was a present participle is? Did you ever think that later in life you would NEED to know?
The definition of the word grammar is interesting:
1.
a. The study of how words and their component parts combine to form sentences.
The study of structural relationships in language or in a language, sometimes including pronunciation, meaning, and linguistic history.
2.
The system of inflections, syntax, and word formation of a language.
The system of rules implicit in a language, viewed as a mechanism for generating all sentences possible in that language.
3.
a. A normative or prescriptive set of rules setting forth the current standard of usage for pedagogical or reference purposes.
b. Writing or speech judged with regard to such a set of rules.

This ties in the punctuation and spelling because we can not have one without the other. Notice how simple letters form words, we write our words and they are going to form sentences (hopefully logical ones.) We’ll need to add the proper punctuation and to finish it off we need to proofread what we’ve written to see if we have any typographical errors.

I know a lot of people depend on their MS Word for a spell check but it being a program and not human, the robotic nature will not pick up the differences in there and their. It will not discern by from buy. It will give you a red squiggly line for incorrect spellings and your eyes may be drawn to THAT. In the process you may miss an error and let it slip through your eyes. MS Word will not find errors in punctuation for you either. YOU need to do the work to make it comprehensible and legible to your reader.

The best thing to do as a writer is to get in the habit of proofreading your work BEFORE you click that little word, SEND. Know the rules, know the proper etiquette and by all means STUDY what you don’t know.