#Self-Help Blog Post 2
Self-Editing - Discover Your Inner Masochist
 
Self-editing is often something a self-publishing author may have to do at the start of their career because finding, and being able to afford, an editor is difficult. I started out self-editing my work for those reasons.

Self-editing is amazingly difficult - a lot of my author colleagues will swear that it virtually destroys their love of their work - I agree with that sentiment. But, there are things that can help - and even though I do not self-edit any more, I use the same types of practices described below as I review my work before submitting it for editing. I hope this blog post is useful to you; I fully understand just how hard the process can be.

First some myth-busters :-

• Indie authors can get away with poorly produced work because they're indie authors
• Grammar isn't important these days
• Editing is for the elite
• My book is priced at 99 cents; what the fuck do you expect?
• I'm too busy writing to edit (I agree with this ... lol)
• It's the story that's important; readers will make allowances
• Even trad' published novels have errors in them; why should I worry?

You may not care what people think of your work - good luck with making a living if that was your objective. And an average story, well-written, will do better than a great story that is poorly written.

Invest - and there are free options - in a spelling and grammar checker. I use Grammarly - which I believe may now be free. I cannot recommend strongly enough how useful it has been in trapping the plethora of simple errors that will exist in a first draft manuscript.  The eradication of those errors, and to be honest, the training it provides for avoiding them in the future (where they are a bad habit rather than an error) are incalculable. I don't have my checker running while I'm working; it's for a later stage of the process.

But let's begin at the beginning.

Cooling Off

You've written your story and it's time to celebrate - couldn't agree more. Put the draft away and forget about it for a period of time. That period of time is actually pretty crucial. If you plan to self-edit then the time you give yourself away from the manuscript is going to help you to disassociate and put yourself in the frame of mind to edit it successfully. At the start of my self-publishing career, I would publish as soon as the story was written with just a cursory look at the manuscript. There was no cooling off period. I've since learned to be patient because letting the story cool off is actually a very, very good idea. If you're like me, then 3 days is going to be too long to wait - I am extremely impatient. I suggest a week, better still, 3 weeks (some would say 3 months but I think that is too long). Meantime, write something else, shower, eat, use your legs, open the curtains, mow the grass, talk to someone ...

I find that, even though I may have put the story away, I am still thinking about it on one level - but I try not to think about it consciously. When I return to the story, I tend to read it straight through, and I am amazed at the difference in how the story reads now compared to the last reading. Don't start changing things immediately - maybe just highlight things that you want to consciously think about. Okay; glaring errors can be changed but nothing fundamental.

The last thing I want to do is read the story as the author - I need to disassociate. Beyond the cooling off period, which does help to achieve the right mind-set, these are some of the things that have helped me to disassociate and adopt a mind-set closer to that of the editor (although I don't think an author will ever truly get to the same place as an editor when editing their own work).

Basic Checks

These are four miracle ways to highlight small errors that you seem to miss despite reading and re-reading a manuscript (whether you use a checker or not) and they will often knock me out of the groove of writing and into the groove of editing :-

 · Change the format, font and font size
·  Read it on your Kindle/eReader
·  Read it out loud
·  Read it from the back to the front

Checking your manuscript for grammar/punctuation/syntax and formatting errors is relatively easy - you will need to have decided on the rules you wish to employ - like how to write time or money or measurements - just be consistent. For example, you can choose to write time as 3 p.m. or 03:00 or 15:00 or 3 o'clock or three o'clock - just be consistent. And here's a good article from grammar.com for lots more choices and some rules you could adopt (and it's a great site for lots of other advice).

Other Basic Checks

If you check nothing else, check the following :-

• Names of characters and consistent spelling - for example Stephen vs Steven [I’ve mixed them; it’s easily done].
• The timeline - just map it out simply so that you can be sure that the dates and the events match and you have given sufficient time for things to happen.
• Tenses - I am terrible at switching tenses and mixing tenses [where it isn’t appropriate].
• Any ‘real’ data - just check your facts/figures/names/places/quotations, and insert footnotes as appropriate.

These things are easy compared to the story editing/deep editing/long editing/plot editing [call it what you want].

A Beta Reader

If at all possible, try to recruit a beta reader - who is not an editor and shouldn't be treated as such. Possible ways to recruit a beta reader/s:
Invite participation through your blog/Facebook/Twitter/Book Club/Goodreads, etc. I am loathed to suggest family and friends as they tend not to be honest enough.

And offer to reciprocate. Reading other people’s work is both fun and very helpful in seeing how someone else may have addressed something similar in your own story.

Fundamentally, you want to know if the story is a 'good story' and that 'it works'. If you can recruit a beta reader, they should be asked to look for plot holes, continuity errors, and assess believability, and above all, readability - was it a 'good read', did it invoke the right kind of responses, how did they feel at the end? Was there anything left undone, unsaid, or unresolved that adversely affected their reading experience?

Up to you how you handle the feedback.

Self-Challenge

So you have a handle on the quality of the story - how does the author challenge their own work? Start with the basic premise - what was the story about and what was the point? If you, like me, have no outline, no prompt, no consistent style and no clue about how things will end when you begin, this might be hard, and you might have to rework sections of your story once it reveals itself in all its colours.

My last published work* was about a man thinking about, and to a degree, lamenting, his life choices and what he believes he has actually achieved in fifty years. I give him the means to regain his zest for life, and I ultimately bring him to the point where he is ready for his life to end with no regrets. That is the story in a nutshell - did I get there? I guess you'd need to read it to find out. I can apply the tests, but I’ll never really know if I ‘got there’ until someone else reads it, which is why a beta reader is worth their weight in gold. I put that story in front of my beta reader and got feedback along the lines of :-

• Some of the feelings that the main character expressed seemed to come up too fast; insufficient plot time was allowed for the feelings to mature adequately (plausibility/believability).
• A lot of questions of the type that begin - Why did he? Why did he not?

As authors, the answers to these sorts of questions are all too obvious because we wrote the damn thing. Asking why is probably a self-editor’s most useful tool.

Fundamentally, the reader is the auditor, and the only one that counts (pun intended).

*The story is titled The Last Jötunn.

Word Choice

Invest in a dictionary and a thesaurus - there are plenty of free ones on-line.

An example of how word choice can affect how we think about a character/situation :-

"You're so utterly wrong," Adam remarked bitterly, finding Joseph's assessment no easier to swallow than a handful of dry pills ...

utterly - could have been - completely or totally (any others?)

I chose utterly because of the tempo of the sentence and because of where the stress on the utt of utterly comes as opposed to the ple in completely, where the stress is in the middle of the word, and I discounted totally because my character is an older English teacher.

remarked could have been said - but remarked implied a kind of distancing, a resignation, or perhaps a clue to some underlying angst, motive or long held animosity.

assessment could have been comments - but assessment implied more depth to the subject matter that was in dispute.

Some challenges are obvious - what would my character say? They live and breathe in the story, and their character is usually established through dialogue - read it out loud - try role-playing the conversation - does it sound authentic? Adam is bitter, the emphasis is on utterly - move the stress and listen to the effect - does it sound more authentic/powerful/evocative? If the stress moves to You're it makes Adam sound more combative - is that what I was actually going for? In which case, bitterly is replaced by angrily - try it for yourself and see how it works. See what works for your character/s and your story.

I change dialogue more than I change anything else - it is also affected by my mood at the time, which is something to guard against but also embrace, as a reader could be in a very different place to you as the author/self-editor.

This review stage is time-consuming and energy sapping - so pace yourself.

Culling Words

How many words does something need to convey its essential meaning?

Did I need to say  ... finding Joseph's assessment no easier to swallow than a handful of dry pills ...?

That's a style choice - but it can still be challenged. I want the reader to recall, if possible, a time when they found something hard to swallow, a bitter pill (literal or figurative) - I hope this sentence helps them do that because I want them to actually experience the sensation as they read it - I'm encouraging an investment by the reader in the story - I want them to have a deep [relative] emotional experience.

I could have written 'Adam said' ... leaves me feeling unemotional, disconnected and cold.

Or I could have written 'finding Joseph's assessment galling' - but that sounded too clipped, and galling might imply anger, irritation and annoyance, whereas, Adam is bitter, and actually, Joseph's assessment is probably correct but Adam is finding it hard to take.

Sometimes you do have to cull :-

Jessica remembered a time, not too long ago, when the pain would have been so acute as to cause her to double over and vomit up the contents of her stomach (31 words)

versus

Jessica recalled the all too recent episodes of excruciating pain and debilitating nausea (13 words; almost 1/3 of the original length)

Did it have the same meaning?

Is it important? There are no prizes for verbosity - you risk turning your reader off, and I recall reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, and I, along with lots of other reviewers, came to the same conclusion - cull 300 pages and you've got a decent read.

Be succinct when it's necessary to move the pace on, when creating drama and tension.

Another example of drawing a picture with few words - my thanks to my best buddy Chambers Mars for donating this very small fragment of his latest instal of The Life & Times of Johnny Santé ...

... “That’s Gloria; she owns a café in Brick Lane ...”
No love lost there, judging by the tone. Gloria looks more confident, is probably a few years older, and doesn’t care that her roots are showing ...

Have a mental picture of Gloria already? 40 something, business owner, no nonsense, perhaps combative, certainly not vain - average height, not too slim, dark brown hair [going grey], minimal makeup ... and someone who Perrie [who spoke] doesn't like but probably admires.

Invested? Intrigued? Already identifying with the character/s? Already caring about what happens to them/next?

Basic challenge - is it the right word? Is it needed at all?

Change the word or remove the word - what else changes? That depends on context.

"You're so utterly wrong," Adam remarked bitterly, finding Joseph's assessment no easier to swallow than a handful of dry pills, grimacing, just like he always did when he found only Gypsy Tart on the menu in the refectory - was it beyond the wit of man to offer a piece of fruit as an alternative? Payback would come later when he had Joseph facedown and begging for cock; then the matter of 'return on investment' would be utterly inconsequential.

To put this into context - Adam is a senior lecturer at a college, facing budget cuts. Joseph is the financial director, who has just pointed out that, despite heavy investment in Adam's department in the past, results have not improved. They are having a clandestine affair. The reference to fruit and the fact that the character’s name is Adam, is, of course, no accident - Joseph ultimately corrupts Adam. I could not afford to remove these words because then the backdrop is lost - even if the reader doesn’t see it. When you have a story working on multiple levels, the editing is just going to take that bit longer. And you might find editing each story within the story a useful technique.

• Context dictates choices.
• Style dictates choices.
• Change begets change.

 
What do you want the reader to experience/remember/talk about?

This process of challenge, however long it takes, and however laborious it may seem, will give you a fantastic insight into the story, into your style, and into your strengths and weaknesses.

Golden Rules

• Invest in a spelling/grammar checker
• Invest in a dictionary and a thesaurus
• If at all possible, recruit a beta reader/s, and reciprocate
• Leave a first draft complete manuscript alone for at least 3 weeks before attempting to self-edit it
• Challenge every word
• Read your manuscript out loud
• Read your manuscript on your eReader
• Cull anything that does not add value
• Context and style dictate choices
• Dialogue should be real - role play it
• Move the stress in the sentence to see what else changes
• If you adopt a rule, apply it consistently

If you have self-editing tips to share or questions or anything to say, please comment below. I would welcome your feedback.

The next post will be on the thorny issue of reviews.

Thank you for stopping by.

Alp
x

These days, I'm incredibly fortunate to have an exceptionally talented editor - Shannon M. Kirkland - who edits all of my work [and the work of the other members of the co-op]. Despite the fact that we have been working together for a couple of years now, and have developed a rapport second to none, there are times when I absolutely hate the editing process and wished either, I had never written the fucking book in the first place or, it would just materialise on the shelves of the retail stores and leave me the hell alone!

It's a common enough story, which I hear from many author colleagues, and I began to think about it. There are ways to survive the editing process, and these are some of the strategies that appear to help to overcome that desire to pull the kitchen knife out of the block. Self-editing may be the only option at times, and I plan to do a post on that subject. I used to self-edit, loathed it, but forced myself to study editing and qualified, so I know both sides of the coin now. Studying helped me to avoid many of the errors that I habitually made - and when it comes to editing, the more errors you rely on your editor to correct, the more expensive it is going to become, both in terms of money and turnaround times.

Imagine the scenario - you've penned your story, done a bit of tidying up, and now all you want to do is get on with the next one [I do anyway]. You pass the manuscript over to your editor. You hear nothing for a few days/weeks, and assume all is well, until you get the marked up copy back ... and then you wonder if your health insurance will cover you for the injuries you wish to inflict - sound familiar?

At the start of my self-publishing career, I did not have an editor - didn't actually think I needed one - and my work suffered for it. When I got one, I was overjoyed ... and all of my stories have been re-edited or edited since. But different issues began to emerge as a consequence of allowing someone else - at the start, a comparative stranger - to look at my work and basically tinker with it - which felt akin to allowing the paper-boy to change the oil in my pristine, 1976, Daimler Coupe V12 - not in your fucking dreams!

We have since developed a working process that mitigates a lot of the tension [no one touches that car!] and I hope the following guidance helps; it has definitely helped me, and my work is a great deal better for it, and the editing process is a good deal less stressful.

Be clear about what you actually want your editor to do. There's a big difference between getting them to critique a story outline vs getting a manuscript ready for publication. There are different types/stages of editing and your chosen editor may not be the best choice for all of them. Clue yourself up on the different stages - it'll also help you if you're trying to engage an editor who you don't know, and it'll help you to decipher the terminology.  This article from the Newbie Author's Guide is a pretty decent summary :-

The Different Kinds of Editing

What do I want my editor to do? Answer the question - it will inform cost and timescale, and the quality of the end result.

Now plan three specific reviews before handing over your manuscript. I say this because, the earlier you trap an error/inconsistency, or even just a different word choice, the better.

When you start the reviews is up to you. I tend to leave my complete draft manuscripts untouched for anything between 3 days and 3 months.

Review One

Read the story and decide if you've met the original story prompt [call it a prompt for now] - did anything change? Something is bound to have changed - which is okay - but does it leave anything :- undone, unsaid, unresolved, ambiguous, unsatisfying? No; my story stacks up, or yes; and a bit of tidying up is warranted.

Review Two

I invariably, as part of this second review, decide things like, which words will be italicised, the final names of things, whether to use real names for things or made up ones, whether the section and chapter breaks feel right, does it need a prologue or an epilogue? I do not write to a strict style guide; I vary it according to the story. Your editor may have experience of working with formal style guides - i.e. The Chicago - so decide upfront if you are going to write to the guide, and have the manuscript edited to the guide - and decide very early on whether you're going with American or British English spelling! Whether you choose to use a formal guide or not, if you establish a rule - like putting a real person's name in italics - keep to the rule, and write the rules down so your editor knows what is 'right' and what is 'wrong'. This applies to lots of things; names, how to write times, measurements, numbers, monetary values; how to treat reported speech in dialogue - single quotes or some other way to indicate reported speech? Decide on the rule, record it, stick to it, and tell your editor.

Or let your editor decide on the rules - but don't then argue with them!!

In my regime, the primary purpose of the second review is to challenge word choice and whether a word is needed at all. Each word is chosen and placed with purpose - what is its purpose, does it fulfil its purpose, is it needed at all, is a different word better. In my second review, unnecessary words will be culled and different word choices will be sorted out - and the longer I leave it between finishing the draft and picking it up again, the more likely I am to see the words that need to change [but I'm an impatient bastard so I can't ever wait longer than 3 days]. I find most of my changes come in the dialogue. If you didn't read it out loud at the time of drafting it, now is a good time to read your dialogue [in fact, the entire story] OUT LOUD!

So at this point, I have my story that stacks up and one which generally conforms to the style guide I have decided to use, and some key areas [dialogue] have had some specific attention, and I have challenged every word to make sure it's needed, and if needed, it's the right choice [as far as I am concerned, and I could be 'wrong'].

Review Three

I use this review to perform a limited number of consistency checks as part of the basic check of grammar and punctuation. We use Grammarly in the Project; it works for us. I run through with Grammarly, also checking consistency of things like initial caps [Dad vs dad], italics, the spelling of foreign words, place names, consistency of forenames, surnames, titles and nicknames.

By this stage, I have a story that stacks, which has been reviewed three times, and is now ready to be handed over to the editor. At which point, I will confirm what I want them to do, how I want them to mark up the manuscript, and how long it is roughly going to take. It is also important to agree when questions will be asked [by the editor] and how quickly they will be answered [by the author].

Hand it over and forget about it until you get questions or a marked up manuscript back. Do not pester, do not fret, do not start changing anything unless you agree with the editor on how you are going to handle multiple versions [don't do it; fucking nightmare].

My editor checks everything for me, consequently, it can take a reasonable amount of time before I get the manuscript back - meantime, I write something else or change the oil in the car.

I no longer dread a manuscript coming back. Things have definitely improved, because over the course of the last two years, I have worked hard to eradicate some of my bad habits [lack of punctuation being my worst habit when I started].

Sometimes I do not feel in the mood to open the file to see what the editor has found/proposed - and I don't open the file. There's no point because I'll just get pissed off/bored/destructive.

When I'm ready, I will read the feedback that comes with the manuscript, which will invariably point out the key changes proposed, the rationale behind them, and the possible choices if there are choices.

All changes are proposed changes; I have the final say on whether a change gets made - my story, my name on the cover, my responsibility and my reputation. But my editor has a responsibility and a reputation too - so we work as a team.

Now it gets tricky - someone else has read my story, and potentially said some things about it that I may not like. I know all too well the feeling when someone else, an editor, queries something, proposes a 'better' form of words, gives me ideas about improving the overall reading experience - NONE OF THESE THINGS SHOULD BE TREATED AS CRITICISM!!!! But they so often are. Your editor is your best friend/asset - treat them as such. And they will have put as much energy into the story as you did - believe me, I edit for co-op members too, so I know just how much energy it takes.

Now; changes come in all different flavours and you may have a different approach to different kinds of changes. For example :-

I task my editor to correct [i.e. physical put right] punctuation/grammar and spelling errors - that's a no brainer.
I task my editor to correct inconsistencies in adopted style - that's also a no brainer.

The rest is negotiable.

Do I care if it's a choice between 'he said' and 'he remarked' or between 'she smiled sweetly' or 'she smiled demurely'? I trust my editor to make changes based on their experience of my work and how a story would tend to flow - that's the beauty - and the huge benefit - of working with the same editor over a long period of time. However, if I had challenged my own choice of sweetly vs demurely and decided demurely worked better but my editor decided that sweetly worked better then I am duty bound to look at it again - and I may agree or disagree. It may be that 'sweetly' suggested 'innocence', whereas 'demurely' suggest a sexual undercurrent [the best kind] - what was my intent? The editor was not present when I wrote it, is not a mind reader, cannot hear the voices inside my head [thank fuck] - so treat feedback with the care and respect that it deserves.

I may get feedback that suggests that a whole scene needs to be rewritten because of any number of reasons - tone, energy, drama, length, positioning.

My initial response may well be  - HOW DARE YOU!

I take a walk, think about things, attempting to see the scene from other angles and perspectives. My reaction can often be very visceral - I will actually feel something physical - tense up, grit my teeth, clench my fist, scream - it's all part of the birthing process. Disassociating myself and trying to think through alternatives has been the greatest challenge and gift of the last 2 years.

Calmly, later, I will read the notes, revisit sections, think about things but rarely change anything immediately. We have agreed on a mark up regime so it's easy to find the stuff that I need to focus on - basically, anything highlighted in yellow. Just adopt a consistent approach to marking up. I like the following :-

yellow - this needs to change - may or may not come with notes or suggestions
blue - question attached
red - are you out of your fucking mind?!

Just agree on and consistently use a scheme.

So my 'he remarked' may come back 'he remarked bitterly'
Is it necessary? If yes; is there an even better word? What else could/should change?

'he remarked bitterly' - becomes [after some thought]

​'he remarked bitterly, finding Joe's words no easier to swallow than a handful of dry pills ...'

A word, in this case bitterly, gave rise to a change that adds something - I want the reader to remember that time when an aspirin dissolved on their tongue or got stuck in their throat, and I want them to remember how it felt/tasted, and that invocation is now part of the reading experience. My editor proposed the word, I incorporated the word into a change [which they will be asked to review]. And it could be they decide that remarked bitterly is enough - I may disagree - I will ultimately choose which form to go with - and my editor may never agree but we followed a process and that is what's important.

Make it a positive experience.

After I have processed the questions and changes, I resubmit the manuscript to my editor - and that cycle is repeated as many times [usually no more than 3 in my case] as necessary until we are both happy with the outcome - I may have conceded some points, and they may have conceded some points - but we have a manuscript that we both agree can be published.

A final review?

My editor may do a final proofread - I rarely touch it again for fear of opening up the discussion needlessly [or for fear of making grammar errors while tinkering].

I have to trust my editor - they have my manuscript and they are party to my success - I'd give my ATM card to most people long before I ever gave them a manuscript to edit [no fucker gets to drive the car except me].

The Golden Rules

1. Decide in advance what you actually want your editor to do.
2. Prepare the manuscript for delivery to them - and essentially, what rules do you wish them to enforce, agree on a mark up regime, how questions get treated and if there are to be review points along the way.
3. Once you hand it over, forget about it.
4. Once you get it back, do nothing immediately.
5. Prepare yourself mentally for opening the manuscript and reading the feedback/changes - and remember, you asked for it.
6. By all means query things with the editor [they are also human and fallible].
7. Disassociate and try and see all perspectives - the hardest task but easier the longer you leave the review - but not too long.
8. Compromise - you'll achieve a 80:20 result - which is good enough - strive for perfection and you'll never publish the damn thing.
9. Thank your editor [they worked as hard as you], pay them and credit them.
10. Learn from the feedback. We all have our pets - mine are semicolons - I adore them but they can be irritating [especially to American readers] - learn and grow as an author - you don't ever have to give up your style but it will be enhanced by the absence of errors/inconsistencies/poor word choices/ambiguity ...

If this was helpful, prompted a question or you have an experience you would like to share, please comment below. If there are any errors in the article, blame me, my editor didn't see it before I pressed 'post' ... then she does have a 100k word manuscript to edit for me as of last night.

Alp Mortal

I am thrilled and honoured to have Ryan Field as my latest author under the spotlight guest here in Cafe Arte.

Click here for the feature - SPOTLIGHT

Ryan is an author who I admire for his sheer dedication - you can't put 100+ titles on the shelf without having true grit - and the versatility of his output. he also has the distinction of being the author with the most titles on my Kindle.

An award winning and best-selling author who I hope you enjoy discovering just as I have.

​Alp