Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Editing - stumbling blocks

While I'm fine tuning the second in The Kundigerin series, I thought I'd share with you some of my stumbling blocks.

I run through a checklist my editor gave me before I send it to her. I'm excited to see the progress I've made during my writing journey, noting that I don't make as many writing errors as I used to. Just as I started patting myself on the back, I went in search of the word "saw." There are places it belongs in a manuscript, but I don't want to tell you how many times I told what the character saw rather than showed what the character saw. This distances the point of view, and even knowing to watch for it, I used "saw" way too many times during the course of the story.

      She saw the beach below.
      Below, the brilliant blue of the sea met a strip of beach.

See the difference? Yep. Me, too.

Maybe some day I'll see all these mistakes on the first draft. Maybe. Not holding my breath.

That's why I do a final run-through at the end to check for all the things I know I should have done, to make sure I actually did them.
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6 comments:

  1. MariodacatsmomFebruary 11, 2015 at 2:09 PM

    I do see the difference, and I'd probably use the simple version way too many times. You really have to think about what you are doing, don't you. I have learned so much by reading your tips. Unfortunately my knowledge won't go any farther than my blog, but maybe I can improve on the writing in my blog and Mario's.

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  2. KarlaFebruary 11, 2015 at 2:56 PM

    It's an ongoing process. Thanks for stopping by, Mario's mom!

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  3. Terry OdellFebruary 11, 2015 at 9:17 PM

    Ok, so now I should do yet another run-through of the manuscript. Thanks a bunch. I think. Thank goodness there are only 36 of them, which, in a 92K manuscript doesn't seem TOO bad. But yes, one has to check.

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    1. KarlaFebruary 12, 2015 at 6:37 AM

      Just when you think you've got it right, that checklist kicks out all the things you overlooked.

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  4. Terry OdellFebruary 12, 2015 at 8:28 AM

    What's worse is not having a word on your checklist. The Smart Edit program helps me with that. The stuff I know to look for is "easy"--it's finding the sneaky words that show up (usually new ones in each book) that appear too often.

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    Replies
    1. KarlaFebruary 12, 2015 at 8:52 AM

      true enough - which makes Smart Edit an "enhanced" checklist :-)

      Delete

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