Editing Cheat Sheet

It’s that dreading time in your novel where you’ve completed the first draft and let it breath for a little while, but now you have to do the editing before you can send it off to beta readers or your editor. No heavy sighs and no groaning. Editing isn’t so bad when you go into it prepared. For me, I have a little cheat sheet that I keep nearby when I’m starting the editing phase and it helps tremendously. With the cheat sheet, I can remember to watch for little things and edit in waves rather than plunk down in front of the manuscript and try to face the daunting task head on.

With all of that said, I can provide you with the cheat sheet I use when revising my manuscript after the first pass. Some things may be different based on the way you work and based on common issues your own writing may have, and this is also not to be used for a final pass edit. I suggest using an editor for that. At any rate, onto the list.

1. Fix General Trouble Areas (Homophones and Common Misspellings) - This one will vary from writer to writer. Come up with a short list of problems with specific homophones or spelling errors you notice your work has. For me, I have this annoying habit of typing LEAD instead of LED, almost every time when I’m writing really fast. So, it’s the first thing I check for, especially because it’s something easy to fix too. Sometimes, I have issues with Its and It’s. When I’m in “the zone” while writing, my fingers will just type and my brain is in full-on right side mode, so things like grammar and homophones are not on my mind. So, I check first for the homophones and any other minor spelling issues I know I have that can easily be found using the Find/Replace function. Compile a list of your known trouble areas to remember them.

2. Check Dialogue and Dialogue Tags - I check my dialogue for awkward phrasing. Sometimes I say it out loud to be sure it sounds like something a character would actually say. Dialogue should flow freely and be easy to read. Natural. Just like speaking is. I also make sure that I’m not repeating information with dialogue and that I’m cutting unnecessary dialogue. While I’m checking on these things, I also check my tags. Do I abuse adverbs? Do I repeat in the dialogue tags what is already clear from the dialogue? Is there a way to remove the tags and add an action? Before I finish this step, I also make sure that it’s clear who is talking. You don’t want the reader to be confused.

3. Check for Point of View Shifts - This is something I rarely have an issue with, but there are cases when I switch a sentence into a different point of view on accident. Unless your story is in third person omniscient, you should generally have only one point of view at a time. When you do have to change the POV, be sure that it is done clearly.

4. Watch for Repeating Words - Some writers or readers might not care, but I look out for repeats. As a reader, I notice things like chapters or paragraphs in a row that start with the same word or sentence structure. At first glance, this might not matter, for chapters even less so, but generally this indicates monotony. Varying sentence structure and word usage helps break up the monotony. No matter how action-packed or how interesting or how important the section might be, monotony will kill it. So, I check for this in my own writing. This also goes for word usage too. If I have a paragraph with four sentences in it and use the word “coin” five times, it’s too many. Or if I use a character’s name too many times in several sentences. Often, we don’t need constant reminders of what the word is.

5. Focus on Pacing and Plot Consistency - Pacing is important when writing a good story, as is consistency in the plot. This is where I check for plot holes or check for details like whether or not character A’s hair color changed part way through the book. Pacing should be looked at scene by scene and overall. Are there any places that drag in the overall book? Is there anywhere that needs to slow down a little? In my work, there tends to be a lot of action and high energy, so when I am revising I tend to look out for areas where there is little to no “down time”. Sometimes readers need a break from the action. If I forgot this fact during my outlining and writing phase, I have to correct it during the editing phase.

6. Listen to Your Manuscript - The last thing I do to get my manuscript ready for eyes other than my own, is to physically listen to the manuscript. Use the Text to Speech tool or have someone read it back to you. Yes, the entire thing. Listening to your book will help you pick out the trouble areas. It will also help you catch spelling or grammar mistakes as well as awkward dialogue. Also, it’s really fun to hear your book being read out loud.

If you need a reminder of what to look for when you edit your manuscript, feel free to use this cheat sheet. Anything else that is needed should be mentioned by your beta readers, editor, and proofreader, which is why this list isn’t all inclusive. Also, what works for me, may not work for you. I suggest you learn what your weaknesses are and create your own cheat sheet that caters best to your needs.

Outlining

I wanted to write a post on outlining today because I've spent the last week or so working on the outline for the sequel to Land of No Angels. And since tomorrow is the start of my 75,000 words in 45 days marathon, I suppose it would be good to talk about outlining.

There are many different ways to outline something. Some people choose not to outline at all (generally called "flying by the seat of your pants" or "pantsing", while others use a very meticulous outlining method called the Snowflake Method or the equally tedious Phase Outlining Method. I'm not going to tell anyone which option is right or wrong, because it would be pointless, but I will tell you that I personally outline everything I do whether it be a short story, a school essay, or a full length novel. That's just how I roll. It works for me because I don't like feeling around in the dark. Too much time will be wasted having me sit there staring at my screen if I don't have some sort of clue.

Even though I am a plotter/outliner, it doesn't mean I go crazy. I don't used any of the methods I mention above because I find them tedious and insane. There's something fun about discovering certain things along the way while still maintaining a sense of structure. Basically, I'll plot out the whole book with a series of plot points, scene points, and other important notes. Once I begin writing the story, I will read through some of the outline in order to know what's going on. Then I will write the scenes and chapter. Sometimes I look back at the outline, others I don't.

When I wrote the outline for Land of No Angels, I'd done a lot of note taking on the post-apocalyptic world. I wrote up a five page outline on it too, but in the end I barely looked at. If I were to compare the original outline to an outline of the actual book and the differences would be immense. In fact, I took a look at the old outline a couple days ago (days before the ebook release date) and realised how many things I forgot to add because they didn't flow with the natural current of the story. Additionally, in the original outline there was a lot less conflict. Everything seemed to be solved with ease and nothing was hard to overcome. But as I wrote the actual story, conflict naturally appeared. A lot of conflict.

So, outlining is always where I start and it's a great thing, but never feel tied down to it. It's kind of the best of both worlds and I intend to keep using this method until it grows into the perfect method.

[Reader Response] Do you outline? Why or why not? What's your pre-writing process?

Ready... Set.. OUTLINE!

So, it has begun! This is my first official NaNoWriMo post! Hopefully the Nano website will be finished by the time I am done with this entry! Is everyone as excited as I am? Heck ya! Tonight I will be starting with what processes I am working with, what programs I'm using, what my general plan is and what my goals are.

Goals

• Have my Nano idea ready and outlined by Nov. 1st
• Hit 80k words for Nano
• Blog at least twice a week about Nano (I'd prefer to do it daily, but I don't know if I will have the time, energy or topics. We shall see.)
• Write around 2k per weekday and 5k per weekend day (or at the very least 1.5k on week days and 3k on weekends)

Some pretty crazy goals for me there... especially since I also work. But, I'm pretty good at BSing, so I've got to be able to at the very least BS some of it, right? Hahaha, maybe not.

Next thing I want to talk about is software and processes. I know many people may not be interested in the software I am using for Outlining and Note taking and even for Writing, but there may be some people who do. Personally, I use and swear by a program called Scrivener for everything writing related. Why? Because it's amazing. While it is not free, it's very reasonably priced and it's an indispensable asset to my planning and writing process. It has note cards, cork board, research capabilities, full screen and tons of other things that I can't remember but make it even more awesome. Also, it is a Mac only program so sorry to PC users if you are/were interested. Some other great programs that I have tried are Open Office, Neo Office, Voodoo Pad, and Writers Cafe.

As for my planning and outlining process, I am using a mix of things. Yes, I am a planner. No, I don't really "wing it" so to speak. I do, however, keep in mind that nothing I plan is set in stone. Just because I plan and outline, doesn't mean I have to follow what I planned or outlined. I usually spend a lot of time sorting out my characters and writing a series of plot points. This year, I am also using some Outlining lessons from Kelley Armstrong on her forum. I'm using those lessons as a rough guide to where I should be over the next month. I know a lot of people swear by the snowflake method, but that just seems too.... what's the word... neurotic to me. If you can stand it, more power to you! And I know some people swear by the Phase method. I'm not sure I really "get" the phase method, to be honest. If anyone can explain this method in a way that I could understand, I'd be thrilled.

So, after tons and tons of debate on what I would do NaNoWriMo on, I finally came to the conclusion that I would work with an idea I randomly came up with today. The idea inspired me so fully that I HAD to do it. I want to work on the idea a bit more before writing out a premise (Homework 1 in Kelley's lessons) and I'd like to come up with some characters, but I can leave you with this: My novel is called Inoculation and it is a dark satire. The target audience, I believe, are readers from ages 16 to 25 or so. Maybe. Haha, I'm not sure. Maybe older. I don't know.

I think that's it for tonight! I hope the site is finished soon!

I totally got bored waiting for the site to come up and made this banner for my story. ^_^