Good afternoon, Bookmarked readers!
I'm so glad you've joined us for another week's post. I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather as we approach Halloween (and soon, Thanksgiving and Christmas). I know I am. This year has gone by fast, but there have been a lot of wonderful moments.
Today, I wanted to tackle a subject that is very near and dear to my heart: editing.
As Jan-Carol Publishing's in-house editor, I receive new manuscripts about twice a month. My job is to ensure they're in the best possible shape and get them ready for typesetting. This means that, often, my day will consist of staring at pages for lengthy periods of time.
Many people think editing can be taxing or boring, but I've found that editing is actually the perfect way to expose myself to new voices and perspectives. Hearing new stories every single month is incredibly exciting and rewarding.
If you're interested in learning more about the world of editing and hearing a few tidbits of advice and tips, please check out our new PODCAST EPISODE this Friday, which features Janie and I discussing the subject of editing in the context of being a local publishing company.
However, to hold you over until then, I wanted to give a few specific tips of what to look for when editing a manuscript and ways to improve upon your work.
Utilize spellcheck for basic errors.
This may sound obvious, but truly, spellcheck in Word catches a lot of mistakes, especially misspelled words. However, that being said, it is very important to check everything yourself rather than let spellcheck correct everything automatically. Word isn't perfect, and oftentimes its "corrections" are generic and might not apply to your manuscript in the given context.
2. Ensure that your manuscript stays consistent.
As an editor, one of the biggest mistakes I see is people forgetting to ensure facts in their novel stay the same. If your character has two cats, don't forget that and later say that your character has three. If you spell a character's name L-e-n-a, don't forget and later spell it L-i-n-a. This also seems pretty straightforward, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to forget how you've spelled words or certain characterizations you made early on in your story.
3. You can always make your story better.
As fantastic as a story might be, there is always room for improvement. Be open to criticism and ideas. This applies to both writers and editors. When writing your novel, ask yourself, does this element work in the story? For editors, ask yourself, are there any accidental repeats in this story? Does the timeline make sense? This is called "content editing," and it matters just as much as looking for grammatical errors.
4. Line editing must be done with scrutiny.
Line editing refers to the language of a manuscript. You want the language to be clear and fluid, as well as enticing to readers. Do you see run-on sentences? Are there sentence fragments? Is the author using the same words or sentences repeatedly? To notice these kinds of mistakes, you have to read each sentence carefully, which can be mentally taxing, but it is crucial when editing a manuscript.
5. Proofread.
In this stage of editing, you'll be looking for errors pertaining to spelling, grammar, and sentence construction (syntax). Ensure that your usage is consistent (consistency pops up a lot in editing). Throughout your book, make sure hyphenations, numbers, capitalizations, and fonts stay the same. Take your time with this, and if you have to go back and look at a previous section in the book to check consistency, do so without hesitation. This kind of thing matters, and readers will notice.
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Again, to hear more editing advice and essentially receive a crash course on the world of editing, please check out our PODCAST, which releases new episodes every single FRIDAY.
Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to read our blog. We appreciate all of your support and couldn't do this without you!
Have a wonderful week, and remember to find time for reading!
Allison Chudina
Editorial Assistant
Jan-Carol Publishing, Inc.
Bookmarked
Love this! Great tips!
Great reminders!