| Edited to remove embarrassing lay/lie mistake. I said I wasn't perfect. A very large envelope landed on my doorstep today, courtesy of the man in brown. Yes, my friends, copy edits have arrived. This is the first time I've seen my manuscript since revisions. It's gone through some changes since then. Now it has a title page, a copyright page, acknowledgments, a bio and all the bonus material I wrote a few months ago. In short, it's looking more and more like a real book. I'm new enough to all this to find the process interesting. Instead of groaning over the fact I have to juggle copy edits and a marathon sprint toward my deadline for book two, I'm actually excited. I am one of those dorks who actually enjoys editing. In a former life, I was the bitch with the red pen who made freelance writers curse under their breath. But having been on both sides of that desk now, I understand how crucial a good copy edit can be. Am I perfect? Heck no. I missed a lot of stupid typos and comma faults. Editing yourself is extremely difficult, but I made it as clean as I could before I submitted it to agents. And that's why the copy edits on my desk are not nearly as scary as they could have been. Which leads me to some advice for all you aspiring writers: Learn how to edit your work. Don't look at me like that. How can you expect an agent or editor to want to buy your work if it's riddled with typos and murky sentence structure? Take a class at the local community college. Buy a book on self-editing. Read Strunk and White. But don't fool yourself. Grammar and punctuation are two of your most important tools as a writer. Ignore them at your own peril. |
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I turn my stuff in in crayon. When my editor stares at me blankly, I shout at her, "Earn your keep, woman!"
So... how do your crayons taste like?
Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Rennie & Browne or Rennie Brown or some combination of those letters is an invaluable resource for wordsmithing egotist. Definitely capable of taking even the most stubborn writer down a peg.
I'm looking at you, Anton.
I find that the advice to put the manuscript aside for at least a few days before editing helps a LOT. I'm too attached when I've just type 'the end' to ruthlessly murder my prose, even the stupid typo parts of my prose. After a day or three out comes the hatchet! Whap whap whap!
BTW...Anton, Dead to Me kept my husband up until two in the morning, giggling on his side of the bed. He WOKE ME UP to read me the section with the totally obvious shiny thing trap. (I, of course, read the book the first week, he's behind my reading curve.) I nearly had to strangle him with your book. Are you an accessory to murder if I kill him with a book you wrote?
Hrm...
~J
Please note: the above entry has been editorially neglected.
JSB, you're so right about taking a break before switching to editing mode. Reading the story aloud also helps.
CRAYONS TASTE LIKE PURPLE!!!!
jsb-
That is awesome!
And hey, kill away! No press is bad press!
Dude, I feel sorry for my copy editor. I use commas as decoration and purposefully omit them to give the sentences a more breathless feel. I also use fragments. A lot. There was a lot of stetting going on, but I have to say, I love my copy-editors -- they had amazingly keen eyes!
I don't need to self-edit. I have a wife whose job, as I've been made to understand, is to point out all my mistakes.
So, instead of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, I recommend Marriage for Dummies.
Let it not be said that a serious case of anal retentiveness can harm a writer's career. It can slow it down to a crawl but it can't hurt.
May I also suggest Eats, Shoots & Leaves? It's an entertaining book about punctuation. No, really. It is.
Great advice. I find the biggest trick to self-editing is to set the thing aside until you don't see what you think you wrote, but the reality and the comma splices.
And turn on the godawful Word grammar check and look up the rules it flags just in case.
Then turn to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers or similar.