Sunday 21 March 2010

Editing

A post on QT has had me thinking over the last few days about revision.

I've read the blogs, the fab suggestions on QT and blog queen Elana's tips for editing a MS in thirty days:

http://querytracker.blogspot.com/2009/10/editing-how-to-avoid-staring-into-great.html

I also read some valuable info from a book I picked up a while back called Writing For Children. It's a nice how to guide with ideas about writing for different ages, and a nice revision checklist.

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Children-Handbooks-Linda-Strachan/dp/0713687746/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269195200&sr=8-1

And Nathan Bransford has a revision checklist on his blog.

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/06/revision-checklist.html

So how do I edit? I pick a chunk of chapters, print them off then attack them with a variety of highlighter pens and coloured pens.
I have a different colour for each area such as dialogue tags, showing v telling etc.

Yeah, I'm weird. lol.

Then there is always the suggestions of crit buddies to think about, who always manage to find something I've missed. I guess authors really are too close to their MS.

Anyway, since it seems to be a topic with various answers I'm gonna throw it out to you guys.
Much like "how do you eat a Cadbury Creme Egg" I want to know how do you edit your MS?

4 comments:

Tahereh said...

i start from the beginning. i just read and reread and edit as i go. i make not of all the things that don't sound right, and then i fix them. i'm not sure if it's the right way or the best way... but it's the only way i've ever done it. hehe. i guess it works for me?

fun post! thanks for sharing!! (and best of luck with your work!)

Wonderland said...

Editing has been a learning experience with me. I have found that for my current editing I have been reading through the chapters and highlighting any paragraphs or sections that I can delete. I then look for ways of rewording paragraphs to say the same thing but with fewer words. The plan is that after I have edited my pass through I'll give it to a few trusted readers for their editing comments. The hardest of my critiques being my wife. She has me print out the chapters, then she attacks it with a red pencil. I hope that when I'm done it'll be polished to a mirror like finish.

Lindsay said...

Tahereh, thanks for the comment and the kind words. I like the idea of just working through the MS and fixing.

Lindsay said...

Kirk, like your way of editing.I always find trusted readers help:)Kudos to your wife for getting the red pen out. It'll all be worth it when you're holding a published copy of RABBIT SLAYER in your hands:)