Editing…Friend now more than Foe?
It’s been a week since I posted and while I’d rather stick with posting two or three days a week, it is sometimes just not possible. This past week was extremely busy; not only with birthday plans and time spent with family but also with a lot of time spent on my book.
While the book took me only four months to write, I realize now it has taken the same amount of time to edit. There may be some necessary changes here and there that I will have to contend with before the book is published but I am satisfied because my story feels whole.
What have I learned throughout the editing process?
It’s difficult sometimes but the more you “show” a reader what’s happening, rather than “tell” them, it helps to keep the reader on the same page with your characters, rather than with you. You want the reader to forget they are reading a story so that they feel as if they are living in your story.
But editing is definitely not all about grammar and sentence structure…
The characters need to be someone you can love, hate, root for or hope to die but either way, the characters need to bring about some sort of emotion or connection with the reader.
Plot holes need to be filled – no, not potholes, but plot holes. Holes in the story that will either completely baffle the reader of totally irritate them because the mistake wasn’t caught before the book was published.
For all the so-called rules involved with editing, you can see why it did not begin as my most favorite task. It is a necessary evil we must accomplish as we grit our teeth and bear it.
One piece of advice was to look at the first and last sentence of each chapter. While it may be difficult to always start each chapter with a killer line, even if that is the advice given, it does make sense to check whether the last line of each chapter would compel the reader to continue on with the story.
There was also a suggestion I hadn’t thought of and another I hadn’t yet heard about.
The second suggestion was one with regard to formatting and it threw me for a loop because it goes against everything I have learned ever since I began typing on a typewriter in high school.
Anyway, the suggestion is apparently more than a suggestion but a flat out rule…use only one space after a period, not two. Well, like I said, ever since I began typing in high school, two spaces after a period was always the requirement. That rule stuck through college, as I began working in law firms and during my career as a legal assistant and a private investigator. It is a trained habit I will no sooner break than my love of coffee or chocolate.
I’m sure I’ll mumble and grumble again about the editing process when I begin these tasks all over again for my second book but at least this post will remind me there is a light at the end of the tunnel…and that I must be persistent as I also remain patient with the process.