What I loved about this lesson, was listening to James Patterson talk about how he edits and why- and the reasoning behind it.
James Patterson starts this lesson with talking about editing.~“For me and for a lot of writers. And I think for most of you. Editing, polishing and I’m talking about what you’re doing yourself,- not when your book gets to a publishing house. It’s the whole ball of wax. Its not writing, it’s rewriting and it’s rewriting, and it’s rewriting. I like to do many drafts. I’ve done as many as nine or ten drafts. But, I do the drafts very quickly. I don’t get constipated! I don’t get worried! I just keep going. Let’s do it again! Let’s do it again! Let’s do it again!”
What I got from this lesson was ‘that your story needs to move forward’, editing your words will help cut the fat and making the story clear and on point. Read your words forwards and backward. Read as enjoyment does something trip you up?
Before you start to edit, walk away from your writing. Take a short break. Eat something. Clean something. When you come back you will see your work fresh.
What I know about editing;
- You need to look for style formatting errors such as spacing
- Dates
- Capitalization,
- and make sure your characters have the correct names.
- Check your POV.
- The spelling of words such as they’re, there, or their.
- Conjugations such as ‘should of’, ‘would of,’ instead of ‘could have’, ‘should have’.
When editing, you need to be careful that your story isn’t taken off track. If you’re in the middle of a romantic scene, you don’t want your character to start watching a cat video on YouTube. Unless you’re proving a point against your characters getting together.
Read your writing out loud, straight through before starting to edit. Are you conveying anger, comedy, or sadness correctly? If not rewrite.
“Consider not polishing the book until you’ve written at least one draft.” ~ said James Patterson
When it comes to your dialogue, edit it until it moves the story forward and it conveys what you need to, in the least amount of words. All types of writing will benefit from editing.
Just remember -don’t start editing until you have a complete first draft. Editing sentences as you write them will prevent your story, essay, poems, articles from evolving into a reality.
Procrastination will stop you in the form of early editing. This is important to reemphasize. Don’t edit until that first draft is fully written.
Here are a couple of links to Proofreading and or editing Information.
Learning English with Michelle.