What’s this All About? Editing in a Nutshell

Check out editing part 1. If you don’t do any editing, don’t expect people to read your work.

Adventures in Career Changing | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Editing Tips

Unless you normally write six-word horror stories, you are going to need an editor. Everybody needs this service. However, you should edit your work before handing it over to a professional. In particular, if you are just coming off NaNoWriMo, you need to trim the fat. Because we all pad in order to make word count for NaNoWriMo. Don’t be ashamed of this! And a lot of it might turn out to be the good kind of fat. In particular, if it helps you introduce a new and interesting character, or set a new scene, or transition a story line properly, it can be terrific. But you still need to go through it with a fine-toothed comb. Everybody needs to do this. And there are no exceptions.

Adding Words

Sometimes, you actually add words in order to edit a story. And that is perfectly fine. If a description was rushed, or a scene feels forced, you may need to add words. In particular, if you wrote your story with placeholders such as: fix this later or add transition here, you must address those problems!

Getting Started

Are you wondering why this post was not added in November? It’s because editing requires some ‘leave it alone’ time. Frankly, this is too early. Because I highly recommend leaving your work for a full month before tackling editing. Just, find something else to do during the month of December. Between the holidays and the end of the quarter and the end of the tax year (and up here in New England, you might get some snow to shovel), I’m sure you can think of something.

Okay, Now We’ll Really Get Started With Editing Part 1

So you’ve set your work aside for a month. Your first job is to read your manuscript through from start to finish. Want to take notes? Sure. Or not. This is your show. But read all 50,000 or 100,000 or whatever words.

In the next post, I’ll show you where to go from here.

The Lonely Writer

Are you a Lonely Writer?

Independent writers can sometimes be rather lonely indeed. You can feel as if it’s just you in a sea of promotions, prompts, social media, and writer’s block.

Adventures in Career Changing | Green | Lonely Writer — Green

I’m here to help you. I am getting my Master’s degree in Communications (social media), and this is my capstone project. Yeah, I’m being graded for this! I might just continue after graduation. Furthermore, I can see there is a need out there, for a sharing of this sort of expertise.

I am also a published author. I write or do something regarding writing every single day. Plus, I just so happen to be a retired attorney, and I used to work in databases and even voice recognition. My resumé is rather eclectic.

Balance

I seem to have a pretty balanced brain, in that I am not too far over on the artistic side (right) or the analytical side (left). However, I tend to split the difference. Or maybe it’s just my genetics. Because my father is a retired engineer and an inventor, several times over. And my mother is a retired reference librarian. This stuff is in my DNA.

So with such an odd and varied background, I have become what you, too, need to be:

Organized
Artistic
Persistent
Legally savvy
Open to all sorts of possibilities

Help

I know you need some help, or maybe just a sympathetic ear. And believe me, I know! Just between you and me, we have to wear a ton of hats. Writer. Marketer. Accountant. Lawyer (or at least paralegal). Editor. Cover artist.

Fortunately, you are not alone.

And I am more than willing to share my expertise and my experience. So let’s explore, together, how to navigate the waters of being an independent (no agent yet) author, whether published or not. I’ll provide videos and cheat sheets for you to refer to, so you’re no longer in the dark.

We’re gonna make it.

We’re in this together.