When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
These 11 tips are from Renni Browne and Dave King’s wonderful book, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print. If you are preparing a story for your writers group, for a beta reader, or want to knock out the most obvious errors before spending money on a professional copy editor, this book should be on your Christmas list. You’ll notice their comments are more non-judgmental than most reviewers. Their focus is to help you consider important elements of your writing–do they deliver the message you want them to in your writing? Feel free to read more of my review, then check back here for the most important tips Browne and King cover. Here are my favorites:
- Narrative summary no longer engages readers the way it once did. Showing your story… will not only give your writing immediacy. It will give it transparency.
- Are you describing your characters’ feelings?
- It’s often a good idea to introduce a new character with enough physical description for your readers to picture him or her.
- Some writing books distinguish as many as twenty-six different flavors of point of view, but there are really only three basic approaches: first person, third person, and omniscient
- (If you move from head to head) Would your story gain power if you stuck with a single viewpoint character or broke your scenes up at appropriate places … to make this possible?
- Take a look at your language. Is it right for your viewpoint character?
- Take a look at your descriptions. Are the details you give the ones your viewpoint character would notice?
- Do you have tangents–little subplots or descriptions that don’t advance the plot?
- (On the importance of dialogue mechanics: This from an agent): The first thing I do is find a scene with some dialogue. If the dialogue doesn’t work, the manuscript gets bounced. If it’s good, I start reading.
- Can you get rid of any of your speaker attributions?
- Read your dialogue aloud
For more self-editing tips, check out Writing Forward’s post. For a checklist, here’s one from Change it up Editing.
To have these tips delivered to your email, click here.
To purchase Self-Editing for Fiction Writers from Amazon, click the link below:
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print
More on editing:
How to Edit Your Novel (according to Yuvi)
8 Steps All Writers Follow When They Edit
20 Hints that Mark the Novice Writer
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One tip I try to follow is to help my readers make an emotional connection to the main character.
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Good one, and harder than it sounds. I do a lot of book reviews and one of the main reasons I don’t engage with a book is I don’t feel vested in the characters. I just finished one like that.
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I love these posts. I learn so much. 🙂
Anna from Shout with Emaginette
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Thanks, Anna. They help me, too, in my never-ending effort to stay focused. Right now, it’s wordsmithing.
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Great tips, Jacqui. I also like saving to PDF and having the computer voice read the novel back to me. It easily picks up missing words and spelling mistakes 😉
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That’s a great idea. I’m going to try it.
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Great tips Jacqui. The point of view is a tricky one for me. I cannot imagine that many flavours of points of view. I have read a book in the second person, It took me awhile to get use to it and I think you would have to be an experienced Author to try it. Same old rules I guess, learn them and then try and break them if you dare.
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I find POV makes a huge difference in my story because it forces me to think through that person’s head. I am constantly rewriting when I do that.
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These are great tips to create a good flow and realism.
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Thanks Medeia. I have a personal list of self-editing tips which is pretty similar.
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You know how I feel about reading my book aloud. My hubby no longer wants to know who shares our house – it’s just my crazy writing ego.
My current WIP has multiple POVs from multiple characters, and given its format, these are going to remain as is. I do like Brown and King’s simple description of first person, third person, or omniscient POV.
Thanks for the useful summary.
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That’s funny–sharing your house with your writing ego. Are you going to enter this new book into ABNA?
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This year’s ABNA is a new Amazon concept, requiring some things I don’t have – like a cover for my potential book. The goal seems elusive – even more than the original ABNA winner’s block. Many people have been commenting about it; some are eager to enter, and others (like me) are waiting to see how this new competition works out. Penguin used to be the publisher for the winner, but now it’s Amazon itself.
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I missed all that. I think I could throw together a cover. I could make one for you, too, if you come over and advise me. We could chat, too, about all sorts of stuff.
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All good ways to review your writing for clarity and vibrancy.
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Absolutely. Even if I use a professional editor, I like my copy as clean as possible.
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Reblogged this on georgeforfun.
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Thanks for the reblog, George!
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The point about reading dialogue allowed makes sense as it has to sound natural. Useful tips here!
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I struggled with that because the spoken and written word evoke different reactions. No one’s going to read my book aloud so why do I want to make it fluent for that purpose.
Still, it’s so often suggested, I do it!
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Reading the manuscript out loud is a great thing to do–you notice immediately some basic flaws in dialogue.
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I like that trick. The one I have trouble with is reading it backwards.
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I’ve never tried it though I probably should. Is it like playing a record backwards? 🙂
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Reblogged this on Sexual Reminisces and commented:
Useful article, many thanks
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Thanks!
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I recently bought a copy of this book, and I recommend it for every writer.
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It’s down to earth, with lots of common sense–which makes it easy to remember and easier to accept.
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This is a fabulous checklist! ❤
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It is good, innit? If only I’d follow them!
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I did copy them and wonder if I’ll remember to pull them out. I do like the list.
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The advice for introducing new characters is one that I instinctively know, yet I also know that I get too wrapped up in the story, which makes me forget to show who this new person is physically or emotionally.
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On the other hand, I like books where the physical description leaves a lot to my imagination. I think, though, I prefer to know the details.
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