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Like people, your characters get depressed. They get angry and they find relief, but they do it in their unique ways. So simply convey that in your scenes. Showing how your characters react and express their emotions makes your book dynamic. Resist the urge to explain those feelings to your readers.
Here are some things to check for when you revise:
1. How often do you use narrative summary?
2. Are there long passages where nothing happens in real time?
3. Do the main events in your plat take place in summary or in scenes? A scene is where your character is doing something, saying something, sharing what he sees with the readers.
4. If you do have too much narrativc summary, which sections do you want to convert into scenes?
5. Does any of it involve major characters, where a scene could be used to lesh out their personalities?
6. Does any of your narrative summary involve major plot twists or Surprises? If so, start writing some scenes.
7. Do you have any narrative summary, or are you bouncing from scene to scene without pausing for a breath?
8. Are you describing your characters’ feeling? Have you told us they’re angry? irritated? morose? discouraged? puzzled? excited? happy? elated? suicidal?
9. Keep an eye out for any places where you mention an emotion outside of dialogue. Chances are you are telling what you should show.
Remember to R.U.E.
You might want to check out this book. It gives talks about this subject, give examples and writing exercises to test your ability to recognize these things in other manuscripts.
I just got this book for Christmas and I love it! It’s helpful not just on the editing side, but also for drafting. It gives an idea of what to pay attention to. Thanks for the post.
chris behrens said, on 1/13/2011 12:43:00 PM
I like this book too along with other editing books, but I still can’t say enough about having a writing partner or a pro offer advice, as well!
CB
There is so much involved in self-editing; the lists and checkpoints can fill a book. But, in this article we’ll look at how to do a final once over. These are steps to be taken after you’ve proofread and self-edited the manuscript and had it critiqued, checked for grammar, storyline, punctuation, showing, etc.
1. Read you manuscript
Read it again. Try to read it slow and watch for all the self-editing tips you’ve learned and think you’ve applied. Spotting one’s one errors is difficult since we know what we wrote and intended. Some of the other tips here will help with this problem.
2. Change the font and read it again.
Surprisingly, you will spot errors you just glazed over before. You won’t run through it the same way you did with the original font.
3. Read each paragraph from the last sentence to the first
This is an interesting method for an additional self-edit. It’s helpful because your brain won’t be on auto-pilot. You will spot glitches within sentences that you would glaze over when reading normally.
Note: I don’t mean reading each sentence backward; read each sentence as you would normally, but read the last sentence first and work your way to the beginning of the paragraph.
5. Print your manuscript
Okay, I know what you environmentalists are thinking . . . I’m one also. I try very hard not to waste paper and protect our trees. But, there is a difference between reading on a computer and reading paper copy. I’ll be honest, I don’t know why our brain perceives it differently, it just does.
As you’re reading your manuscript, use a colored pen or pencil and mark the text you find errors in. Once you’re finished go back to your computer document and correct the errors.
The other practical aspect of this process is it’s a good idea to have a hard copy of your manuscript near its final stage. Unless you have an offsite backup, you can’t be too careful (I’d be skeptical of this also – you never know with any online system). I’ve lost a number of files when my computer broke. And, I’ve even lost files on
23 Comments on Guest blogger Karen Cioffi on the "Final Stages of Self-Editing", last added: 5/12/2010
Great ideas! I agree with you about printing. I've missed errors when just reading online. As soon as I print it, the mistakes leap right off the page!
I'll use these tips on my current manuscripts. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
Great tips for all writers, Karen! I've tried not printing it out (trying to be nicer to the environment) but, like you said, it just doesn't work. I thought it was my own idiosyncrasy. Good to know I'm not alone!
I like the change of font idea. It's simple & different. I also have a list of "search-and-destroy words that I look for. Common typos that Word might never notice were used wrong like, Affect-effect,Grisly-grizzly,Picture-pitcher, Naval-navel,and so no.And then there's the ever-sticky, Its-it’s, their-they're, your-you're, etc.Of course we all know the difference, but somehow they do have a way of sneaking into our prose and camouflaging themselves well.
I never thought of changing the font and re-reading the MS, then read it again backwards. Sounds like a lot of work. Think I;ll pay my editor to do that for me.
But I do a lot of self editing myself. As much as I can. Makes life easier on my editor that way.
Great tips. I'd heard the read it backwards one before, but I have a hard time doing that - lol. I can write backwards (really, I can; it's called mirror writing but I don't need a mirror to do it). I print mine out mostly for figuring out which clues are best as discussion questions for the back of the book and which would be better off in the study guide.
Changing the font is a new one on me. Think I'll do that next time - thanks for sharing - E :)
Elysabeth Eldering Author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad, 50-state, mystery, trivia series STATE OF WILDERNESS, now available STATE OF QUARRIES, now available STATE OF RESERVATIONS, coming May 2010 STATE OF ALTITUDE, coming May/June 2010
Hi, All, Thanks so much for visiting today. I haven't tried the reading your manuscript backwards yet, but I will. And, I agree, I think it will be time consuming.
And, Dana, those homonyms are so tricky and seem to sneak in when least expected.
Karen, These are great tips for self editing. I have a hard time catching errors on the computer screen and find printing the document to review works better.
What a great post! I especially love your tip about changing the font. I never would have thought of that but it is so true! Thanks Karen and Mayra for this helpful post.
This is a great list, Karen. I hope readers will also consider my book The Frugal Editor (www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor); it gives some editing/content advice straight from the mouths of top agents. Let's just say that they all seemed to have plenty of pet peeves. (-:
Like people, your characters get depressed. They get angry and they find relief, but they do it in their unique ways. So simply convey that in your scenes. Showing how your characters react and express their emotions makes your book dynamic. Resist the urge to explain those feelings to your readers.
Brilliant posting, wonderful tips! Thanks!
I just got this book for Christmas and I love it! It’s helpful not just on the editing side, but also for drafting. It gives an idea of what to pay attention to. Thanks for the post.
I like this book too along with other editing books, but I still can’t say enough about having a writing partner or a pro offer advice, as well!
CB