Self-Editing Tips
Here are eight tips for your writing/editing pleasure.
- Simplify and reduce: If you’re in a room, you drop things on the floor; if you’re outside, you drop them on the ground.
- NO: Aunt Mary paused and then dropped the wand to the ground. By this point, it was covered in green goo. She then gave a single nod to him. “Yes, George,” she said, begrudgingly. “You’re right. This will never help.”
- YES: Aunt Mary dropped the wand to the floor. It was covered in green goo. “Yes, George,” she said, granting him a single nod. “You’re right. It won’t help.”
- Make a sound: Make it simple.
- NO: Her sister yelled, annoyance in her tone.
- YES: Her sister yelled, sounding annoyed.
- Don’t feel a thing: Feel don’t tell.
- NO: She felt her muscles tense.
- YES: Her muscles tensed.
- Diagram it: When describing a room or rooms in a house, draw a diagram first so you know what you’re talking about.
- NO: She fled to a nearby room with a balcony, and pulled back the shades that covered the view, wishing he were here.
- YES: She fled to his bedroom, up two flights up and down a long hallway, desperate to stand once more on his shaded balcony.
- Practice dialog punctuation: It’s important to get it right. Ending punctuation goes inside the parentheses. Place a comma, then parenthesis, before she said.
- NO: “Now eat.” She said. “It cost a fortune”!
- YES: “Now eat,” she said. “It cost a fortune!”
or “Now eat,” she said, “it costs a fortune!” - NO: “Are you hungry,” he asked?
- YES: “Are you hungry?” he asked.
- What is it?: Do its correctly
- Its, as in “its foot was on fire.”
- It’s, as in “It’s about time.” Say it out to be sure – > It is about time.
- Connect the dots: Describe a character as soon as you mention them, not later.
- NO: He came out of nowhere and spoke to her as if he knew her. When he took her arm, she remembered she’d had a feeling that this would happen. As more people arrived, she trembled with the need to get away from him. What did he want? He was big and bald, with an annoying high-pitched voice. All in black, his expensive looking suit reeked of gasoline.
- YES: He came out of nowhere and spoke to her as if he knew her. He was big and bald, with an annoying high-pitched voice. All in black, his expensive looking suit reeked of gasoline. When he took her arm, it seemed like deja voux. More people arrived and she trembled with the need to get away from him. What did he want?
- Write in active voice: Make it strong.
- NO: While I was being taught how to use spreadsheets, she was playing a video game.
- YES: While I took a spreadsheet class, she played video games.
Bonus Poem
Here’s your bonus poem.
Walking on the Edge
Even from the start, she turned her pert little nose up at me, asking what the hell are you doing?
She asked with her eyes.
I had no idea.
I learned that she watched and listened, looking for my flaws, studying how I worked.
She made him hurt me.
I didn’t care.
I am strong and brave to her, yet talk too much and not about the right things.
Triggering old wounds.
Easy to forgive.
She is beautify, sunny, and bold, and yet can be spiteful and mean, her opinions harsh.
And, yet I love her.
She is part of me.