With Echo Falls being so near to completion and some new editing work falling on my desk, editing is on my mind for more than one reason. When it comes to editing, people usually love it or hate it. If you hate it, that’s okay because there are people called editors out there who actually like to do it. However, you can help your editor’s stress levels stay low by doing your own editing before you send it off.

At the very least, you should:

1. Use the spellcheck and grammar check. The grammar check can be a bit of a piss off sometimes, but it’s still useful. Use it!

Note: Editors are not your human spell-checkers. If there are a lot spelling mistakes in your piece, don’t be surprised if people don’t want to edit your work and/or you get charged more.

2. Read your work out loud. I cannot tell people this one enough. People don’t do it because they feel silly, but it’s the easiest way to weed out odd-sounding phrases and sentences.

3. Put it away for a while and come back to it later. ‘Fresh’ eyes are a very important part of your writer’s toolbox and they only cost you a bit of your time (during which you should be working on something else anyway, so it’s not really a cost after all). A little distance can be just the thing you need to catch all the little things you didn’t notice before.

Doing all these things before you hire an editor will not only make your editor’s job easier, it could just make your bill cheaper as well.

PS. If you absolutely must have a friend look at your manuscript, just do yourself a favor and make sure to pick the friend who always talks about how much s/he loves ‘tearing manuscripts to bits’. S/he may not be a professional, but s/he is closer to it than Aunt Sally.

Remember this?

Well, I am finally done. Yay! Happy dance time.

While I’m not done in the sense of sending it off to anyone yet, I am done in the sense that the major overhaul (aka my edit) is done and now I’ve sent it to the trusted people who will nitpick and lead to more edits (but hopefully only small ones).

There is something incredibly liberating about finishing this stage of the game and letting your manuscript ‘fly free’ to your beta readers. If you’re like me, you certainly don’t think it’s perfect but you think it’s come far enough to try walking on its own.

I have to admit I feel a little lost without it. I’ve been working on it through so many big changes in my life that it’s strange to be without it. But I am happy. And I am excited to move on. (Well, until I get the comments back, anyway.) I’ve been taking my time to catch up with other projects I’ve put off for the editing and getting ahead with work. But I have also been nosing around to see what I’m going to work on next.

Right now I’m leaning toward a novella-length romance featuring Emma and Dan who fall in love Down Under. I’m excited to bring more Australia into a piece, given that Echo Falls took place in a completely fictional location.

For today, though, it’s mostly work and relax.

And finally do some more unpacking.

Done, done, finally done!

Okay, so not quite done, but a big chunk done. I finally got through editing Echo Falls and now I just need to plug the changes into the computer before sending the doc off to my beta readers.

Yay!

Remember this?

Healthy, happy, unassuming first draft just waiting for The Author’s hand to give it a bit of clean and polish before it went on its way to The Beta Readers… Well, things ended up being a little rougher than anticipated. Now it looks like this:

Poor, poor first draft, drowning in a flood of red ink.

As you may be able to tell:

1. I love editing.
2. Echo Falls is a rough draft amongst rough drafts.

I’m not someone who constantly revises nor am I someone who can’t let a story go. That is why I like to do one of these huge edits on the first round so I can get it to being a story I truly like. At the moment… Well, at the moment you can probably tell that I wrote most of Echo Falls sitting in front of the television until I realized that doesn’t work for me anymore.

I sent the first three chapters to a friend and she already found a continuity edit. Eesh. Albeit, a small one, but still…

Despite all the red ink, I still genuinely feel good about Echo Falls and its potential. I still think it could turn out to be my first published novel.

And it’s time to edit!

When it comes down to it, I’m still a paper and pen kind of editor. While I have mostly weaned myself off longhand writing, seeing it on paper is still what turns on my inner editor.

That and the red pen.

I see a first draft in a similar way to how I see a blank page – potential. Of course, having the draft there is much less intimidating than a blank page. I can rip apart the first draft all I want, but I’ll never have that blank page horror of marring something that is, in effect, perfect as it is. But either way, there is potential.

I’ve heard from many writers that they hate editing. They hate it but consider it a necessary evil of the craft. Personally, I quite like it. For me, it’s a form of character love (obsession?). The story isn’t done! Once again I get to drift back into this world I have created and make it better. (Oooh, can I make it better…)

I know that Echo Falls needs a lot of work, but that’s what revisions are for. Nothing is in a solid state, and I can play as I please. As I paged through on a skim, I wondered why I had even put in chapter numbers. There will be added in scenes; I know this even before I start.

At this point, my only nagging doubt is that I may be trying to polish a turd. But until I figure my way around this pile of coal dust and rock, I can’t know that. So I concentrate on the joy of saying hello to my characters once again. I may have only said goodbye just a week ago, but I have missed them.

Do you like editing or loathe it? Somewhere in between?