6 Steps to Editing Like a PROfessional!

Editing is hard work . . . anyone who tells you differently is selling something.

Editing is part of every writer’s job . . . anyone who tells you differently is selling something.

Finding the time, and more importantly, making that time count is how the PROfessionals edit.

Below are 6 editing tricks to enhance your writing.

1) Find your editing groove. For some this is EARLY when eyes are the sharpest and focus is the clearest. For others their peak time might be mid-to-late afternoon. Caffeine kicks in, morning rush dies down and – again, this is about focus – the brain settles into a rhythm.

I caution against late night editing. Eyes are slower for all the image bombardment of the day. Eagle eyes are needed for great editing. If, however, evening is the ONLY quiet time – then read the sentences aloud. That’s the best way to catch what’s actually on the page.

2) Highlight sticking points. One particular sentence seem muddy? Dialogue exchange stilted? Blocking in the scene missing? Think about it. Mull it over. But NOT TOO LONG. Don’t get dragged into the writing whirlpool and expect to rescue every drowning sentence. Highlight the sticking points and then MOVE on.

The solution to the original hiccup may reveal itself a page later . . . two pages later . . . when you’re in the shower. (That’s a biggy for me. My dialogue is suddenly brilliant while I’m in the shower. Ink blots and smudges really can tell a story.)


3) Great editing is about condensing.

A) Don’t be afraid to rip out meandering dialogue. Think about that friend (or relative) who never met a short story. Get to the point. B) Scene setting is necessary; world-building may be a must for your genre. But readers will skip loooooong descriptive passages. Focus on the specific elements that make that particular description important then highlight those aspects. C) Adverbs are NOT a writer’s friend. Use with caution.

4) Enhance chapter hooks. Can you name 3 writers that make it impossible for you to put down their book? Why? Great writing – sure. Good plot – absolutely. Superb characters – goes without saying. But I’d place a bet . . . on chapter hooks. How do you hone that skill?

A) Study the timing your favorite authors employ. B) Study 30-minute TV shows. C) Study YA novella authors.

One of my go-to authors is Gary Paulsen. He started in short serials before moving to YA novels. He wrote for youth at an easily distracted age, yet he kept them turning the pages.

If adverbs should be avoided like the plague, then chapter hooks should be embraced liked antibiotics.


5) During editing pay close attention to easy-to-transpose words.

A) patient vs. patience; B) complied vs. compiled; C) advise vs. advice. D) analyze vs. analysis; E) ever vs. every.

The list can be endless, and even tedious. If you’re unsure on the correct version, highlight the word and check for synonyms. Still confused? Use Dictionary.com or your favorite online word source. I work with double monitors to keep support sources easily accessible.

6) Step six to editing like a PRO is an extension of step five. Be aware of your go-to words. One of my writing redundancies is ‘back’. Step back. Go back. He moved back. Her back. His back. Back off. Back away. Am I backing myself into a corner? Find a word cloud program, even a Plain Jane version in your document program of choice, then analyze a scene or chapter. If you are guilty of lazy repetition, it will leap off the page.

Good news for writers everywhere: Editing like a PROfessional writer is a learned skill.

You don’t expect to be a fabulous writer first rattle out of the box.

As a writer, you’ll create loads of boxes (stories) and each one will require editing (loads of editing).

Add these 6 editing tips to your writer’s arsenal and you will deliver more concise and enjoyable words to page.

Be at BETTER WRITER
AT

How to entice Readers . . . 5 Writing Tips to Building Book Teasers!

Writing the Perfect Phrase -- study the masters!

Snapping Photos?? Breathe LIFE into Writing . . .

I’m old enough that Kodak still means cameras to me. Instant camera was our phrase from the 60s & 70s. Of course, considering today’s technology, it’s ludicrous to think those were instant pictures.

1) First to film – The lucky owned a 35MM, which meant loading the camera was always a treat. Lining it up - perfectly - to catch the leading edge of the film reel (and hoping like crazy that you’d really accomplished that feat so you’d be taking pictures instead of just turning the hand crank). For the novice photo buff, it started with a Kodak Instamatic: a pop-and-click camera.

2) No do-overs -- As you shot the roll of film, it was framed or not. Blurry or not. Too dark, too light, the wrong angle OR not.

3) Film development – Then, budding photographers were off to the photo store to drop the precious roll of film.

4) Pictures – Finally, the film results were returned. Not just moments later, or hours later, but days later, the camera buff could enjoy their photo reward. Oh, and the sleeved negatives were the accompaniment, in case, a second print was required.

Stop & Consider:

How often did that picture actually match the remembered image in your mind?
The memory of the event, the landscape, the adventure?

Even today, with the serious advances in iPhones, Smartphones and photography equipment,
does the captured image provide a mirror testament to the moment?

Why not?

What’s wrong?

Why isn’t that image on our social media, in print, framed and hung on our wall, the perfect recreation?

Because – how ever good the photographer – memories are about more than the two dimensional image.

Memories capture:
1) Sound: sea rushing to shore, a child’s squeal, a seagull’s scream.
2) Smell: briny ocean, clean air, tempting scents of grilling hotdogs, smoke from a beach fire.
3) Feel: cold wind, warmth of the sun, slick of suntan lotion.
4) Taste: salt on the tongue, hotdogs slathered with chili & onions, chilly rocky road ice cream.
5) Sight: waves breaking against impenetrable rocks throwing mist high; sun illuminating a dad teaching his child to swim; clouds building, deepening, darkening, threatening until the brilliance of lightning splits the sky.

The photo can highlight one instant in time, but to truly capture the ‘Kodak’ moment, all senses must be enveloped.

As a writer do you store these memories to access when creating a scene? Building a character’s backstory? Designing real-life dialogue?

Life is more than a snap-shot.
It’s more than 3-D.

Life is meant to be fully dimensional. Writers, then, must create the moments, the experiences and breathe those images onto page.

One of my New Year’s Resolutions – and I commit to these sparingly – to develop pics from my camera phone (QUICKLY) then list one or more sensory memories on the back of the photo. I have several underutilized photo boxes (normally filled with junk I simply haven’t cleaned away – ooh, sounds like another worthy NYR). I don’t want to overcomplicate the process, so I’m planning to file under settings. Then as I write a beach scene, I can thumb through these Kodak memories and relive the experience, that slice of living in the moment.

The goal: no matter how good my sense of ‘senses’ can be during a writing session,

I always want to dig deeper,
bring more to the page,
breathe more LIFE into the writing.

Learn More! Additional writing tips.

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Demystifying graphics for your advertising needs.

The Language Garden: The Apostrophe Hummingbird

I have been re-reading ‘Eats, Shoots & Leaves’ by Lynne Truss.

Glutton for punishment?

Hardly.

Like the majority of authors, I constantly hone and refine my skills. There is no 'quick grow' method to sound writing. No short-cut or easy season. Study time, butt-in-chair effort to learn basic and advance grammar is still the most effective method for a good crop of sentences.

As to EATS, SHOOTS, AND LEAVES: if you haven’t read Lynne’s witty take on grammar and its sad decline, you are in for a treat. She entertains and educates – no easy feat.

If you’re new to writing, then best advice: learn the grammar rules.



A past critique partner, albeit a brilliant woman, continually brought her weekly pages with numerous grammatical errors. When we groused, as writers are want to do, about the continual mistakes, she informed us that learning all those pesky rules slowed her creativity and she knew we’d correct her anyway.

NEWSFLASH TO NEWBIES

**Your writing buddies, your critique partners, and heaven forbid, your readers don’t want to slog through your grammatical mistakes.**

FIRST - SINGLE IT OUT

Start simple: pick one aspect that you 'just' don't get and research that grammar rule. There are scads of grammar research sites.

GrammarBook.com

Your Dictionary

Grammar Girl (Quick & Dirty Tips)


My suggestion is check a couple of sites. Not all research sites are created equal -- true. But often when you study from more than (1) source, a real understanding of the rule will become clear.
Simply put: the rule will just make sense.

So, to Single it out: In this case, let's talk about the Apostrophe. NOT all aspects of its use: JUST ONE.

The tiny apostrophe is actually quite a work-horse in grammar. Perhaps, I should liken it to a hummingbird. Always around, busy, and cheerful if used correctly.

SECOND & THIRD: STUDY THE USAGE & STAY FOCUSED

Here's my exact point: there are hundreds of articles/blogs/grammar quips written about the Apostrophe and its multiple usages. It would be easy -- ridiculously so -- to become overwhelmed. You started with a purpose to learn more about the apostrophe so pick (1) aspect, study the usage, then stay focused on that aspect.

Don't cross your eyes and click off this blog. I have no intention of sending you into GRAMMAR doldrums with a list of apostrophe purposes.

One aspect: Plural Possessive (a plural word that needs to show it 'possesses' something.) The house of Cassey = Cassey's house; The pencil of the boy = the boy's pencil. Got it. Except in the case, we're talking about plural possession. ****

Very specifically –
A) men
B) women
C) children
D) oxen
E) brethren (general usage in today’s time to denote spiritual brothers. Depending on the religion or denomination, women can be brethren as well.)
F) neofen (newcomers to science fiction; fans who are extremely new and inexperienced with the genre.) Wiktionary
G) kneen (obsolete form of knees – plural) Your Dictionary

There is the school of thought that ‘chicken’ belongs in this list; that chicken is the plural for chick. However, Old English scholars believe that ‘. . . chicken, the –en ending isn’t a plural, but a diminutive, expressing small size or affection, which also turns up in kitten and maiden.’ World Wide Words


TO our lesson:

Is it Men’s Locker Room? Or Mens’ Locker Room?

As MEN is already plural, more than one man can go into that smelly, sock-infested locker room and hang out, doing whatever men do in that inner sanctum, and it’s all good. Therefore, Men’s Locker Room will nicely suffice.

Was it the Women’s Suffrage Movement? Or the Womens’ Suffrage Movement?

Again, WOMEN is already plural; the apostrophe goes BEFORE the ‘s’. Women’s history can be charted back to the early start of women’s rights when female abolitionist activists gathered and gave birth to the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Note where to place the apostrophe. The PLURAL of women stands quite nicely on its own.

Should we name the new play area: Children’s Playground or Childrens’ Playground?

By now, the pattern should be clear.

In your writing, if the word is already plural through the use of an ‘–en’ ending, then any possession must take place with an added apostrophe then s.

Some are blatantly common: MEN, WOMEN, and CHILDREN.

Some are dated, almost part of our quietly buried English language: KNEEN, BREATHEN, and OXEN.

Others are new to our language: NEOFEN.

FOURTH & FINALLY, SIMPLY SCRIBE SENTENCES (that means WRITE). Practice this Grammar Rule. Set aside 5 minutes a day, study the rule and practice a few sentences. Make the new Grammar Rule a HABIT.
Personally, if I find it's a rule that continually boggles my mind, I won't just research it, or practice, but I'll write it up in my 'HOW TO' folder. I'll include links, diagrams, and my OWN explanation of the rule. From my brain, through my fingertips, and onto page: the rule becomes mine. (Feel free to steal this trick if it will work for you. My HOW TO folder is massive with all sorts of tips and insights. Word of caution: dumb down naming your research. There's nothing worse than knowing that you saved tidbits and then can't find them.)

In the garden of language, new words sprout and bud; their usages, and meanings offering color to a black and white landscape. Grammar rules are the raised beds, the lattice work, bits of string and twine that allow our ever-evolving language to blossom.

Don't Bungle your Blogging (or Become a Better Blogger - Writer)

In my daily perusal – read – of a multitude of blog and websites, I’ve discovered some uh-oh moments. Despite the type of blog, the number of individuals involved with the blog, or the purpose of the writing, the mistakes exist. No Grammar Police hat worn here. But I will say that on-page mistakes threaten our reader's pleasure.

Good writing is hard work. More importantly, easy reading is harder work.

GOOD GRAMMAR -- Wait! Don't stop reading yet.

I know . . . I know . . .The word GRAMMAR should be issued in a whisper.
Ears snap closed like a gator before his midnight snack.
Patience, Padawan - this could be useful information.


I’m aware of the Kurt Vonnegut Tweet circulating that condemns the semicolon as a useless brush with higher education and writers would do well to exorcise (not quite Linda Blair in The Exorcist, but close) the tiny punctuation mark from their prose.

Well, you caught me. I did go to university. I did study English (English Composition minor). So, I’m guilty of exercising - not exorcising - advanced punctuation. However, if you don’t know the difference between a semicolon (;) and a colon (:) and when to use each, then you have a writer's duty: learn it.

WHY? Is that your writer's duty?

Q: How can you possibly break grammatical rules if you don’t know them?
A: You can’t.

Kurt might have hated the semicolon, but the man knew how to use it before tossing it out of his literary realm.

Brief explanation –
Use a semicolon to bring together two complete sentences (related sentences) without a conjunction.

**The hard-drinking party girl closed down the bar; her next day was spent hugging the ceramic throne.**

Two related sentences. Same subject in both sentences. Second sentence demonstrates the result of the first sentence.

The much-maligned semicolon certainly sports more uses than the one above, but to strengthen writing without sending the brain into grammatical shock – pick out one aspect of a semicolon and develop the habit.

Painless? Not necessarily.
Guaranteed writing growth? Probably.
Stronger reader comprehension? Absolutely.

And if you’re taking the time to share your thoughts, advice, information with readers, make it worth their reading while.

I’d planned a short discussion on comma and phrases and clauses and then realized . . . there is no such thing as a short discussion for the comma.

Lengthy subject: The Chicago Manual of Style, 7th Edition, dedicates fifty-five (55) pages to the use of the comma.

Please, if your version of the manual style has a different page count on the ubiquitous comma, don’t notify me. I’ll take your word for it. Suffice it to say, the comma covers a great deal of written ground. If unfamiliar with the comma, consider some of the suggested reading listed below.

However, grammar lessons isn’t over – in this knock-out round, let’s discuss,

Subject – Verb VS. Subject - Predicate

I chose this picture because I’m envious of anyone with this conditioning. Ring-side managers would need to call out paramedics/chiropractors if I even managed to get my leg in this position.

Yet, the picture is accurate for many of us (I’ll include myself here, thank you very much) in readily knowing and understanding the difference between Subject – Verb and Subject – Predicate.

For bloggers, who venture to amazing places, enjoying delicacies I can often not pronounce or engage in hang-gliding, sky-diving, rock-climbing that I’d not be brave enough to try; for the newbie writers finding their literary feet; for the article innocents preparing for the world of submission and rejection, I beg you to learn the basis of sentence structure for Subjects & Predicates.

Simple sentence:
She jumped.

She is the subject.
Jumped is the verb. (A verb that shows action.)

I said it was a simple sentence, but now it gets a bit trickier.

What if the verb didn’t show action? What if the verb was one of those sly ‘state of being’ verbs?

Forms of to be

be, am, is, are, was, were, been, being

Other Linking Verbs

appear, become, feel, grow, look, seem, remain, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn

Simple sentence:
She tasted.

What? What did she taste? Isn’t taste an action? I always thought so, but if it’s an action verb, why doesn’t the sentence seem complete?

Because taste is a tricky linking verb and now needs a predicate to modify – to complete the sentence.

She tasted the sweet flavor of the season’s first apple.
She tasted the bitterness of defeat.
She tasted salty. (Tasted salty? Who would think that, much less write it?)
As he nibbled her neck, she tasted salty.

Don’t wrinkle your nose. If you’ve read a handful of romance books, you’ve encountered something similar.

The point is:
What comes after ‘tasted’ is vital to sentence comprehension, which means ‘tasted (verb required for a predicate) the sweet flavor of the season’s first apple’ is in fact a PREDICATE.

A PREDICATE or better known as that which modifies the subject of a sentence. In this case, the subject is ‘she’.

All right, before your brain explodes from grammar TNT, I’ll remind you that as a writer, you must possess – and actually – read grammar HOW TO books.

A few healthy examples : The Chicago Manual of Style

English Grammar for Dummies

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips.

If you want to be considered a Professional Writer, even a semi-competent writer, then EARN IT!

Homework doesn’t end just because you are an adult. If anything, it’s a more serious form of homework.
Whether Ms. Smith gave you an A on a writing composition isn’t nearly as important as if your readers enjoy the stories you share, the information you impart, or the wisdom you reveal.

Don’t bungle your blogging.

Oh, and if you've been paying attention, you'll have a read a number of colons (:) in this blog: find them.

Summer is in full 'steam' on the back porch. Do drop by again.

What you know and how to write it in an article . . .

Article writing 101 . . . actually, it's more like pre-101, however, it's been tremendous fun sharing a number of the writing lessons I've learned. Good writing is important for everyone -- a point I'm constantly making to my kids. Whatever the career, whatever the emphasis, everyone needs to know how to communicate, and communicating through written word is crucial. Apparently, EZine magazine thinks it's important, too, because they've accepted several of my articles regarding writing.

They sent this link: ezinearticles for my Clear and Concise Writing.

For those of you who don't think you could write an article, consider all the things that you know how to do -- there will be a lot! If you can break it down into steps, then you can become an article writer.

It's hot here on the porch -- matter of fact there is no sitting on the porch until we pull out of the 100s, 17 days so far this summer. Upswing is that it's even too hot for the mosquitoes.

Until next time
~Sandra

Spakling Today

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