WRITING TIPS - Self-editing

If you’re planning to send your manuscript to a publisher you’ll want to ensure your work is of a high professional standard. Anything less and it could end up on an editor’s slush pile. The better presented your work is, the better your opportunity of having an editor actually read it.

Here are a few tips to help you before submitting.

• Point-of-view: first or third person is always preferred (third person more so). Try to limit point-of-view (POV) to essential characters only. Head-hopping within scenes will cause editors NOT to want to continue reading your manuscript.

• Punctuation: keep it basic. Avoid the urge to use clusters of em dashes and/or ellipses, and also an overuse of commas throughout your text. Use only where absolutely necessary.

• Repetitive words: be sure to carefully check for repeated words and phrases in close proximity throughout your work. Always consider using alternative words if you find you have too many of the same ‒ especially if they are within the same paragraph and/or on the same page. You can check this by typing a word into the navigation search engine (Ctrl F). It will highlight all of the same word throughout your manuscript.

• Unnecessary words: the most common are: that, had, and, really, very, little, and then, a bit, just, about, probably, against, so, all, but, like, got and was/were. There are always other ways to restructure a sentence to avoid using these words. At least, try to use them less often. As above, you can search for these and replace them.

• Sentence structure: should be varied to allow an even flow throughout your story. Beware of paragraphs with every sentence starting with articles (e.g. the, a/an, some) and/or pronouns (e.g. she, it, this). Beware of having an overabundance of present progressive verb tenses, possessive pronouns (-ly adverbs) and prepositional phrases. 

• Dialogue tags: sometimes less really is more. Not every line needs a tag, and "said" and "asked" are what most editors expect these days. Use a good mixture of action and/or speaker characteristic tags.

• No bold, underlined or other special fonts except italic. And use this only where absolutely necessary.

• Use spellcheck (I’m surprised at how many writers don't do this). When using it be aware that any spelling variations will NOT be picked up by spellcheck e.g. there, their or they’re; your or you’re, so it’s important that you know which spelling is correct before using a word in a sentence. And, as a backup, go to your hard copy Dictionary and look up the word’s definition to make doubly sure.

I cannot stress enough that the more polished and professionally presented your work is the more likely it will get into the hands of an editor. Good luck!

Happy writing!

Copyright © 2014 M A Anderson

Brisbane, Australia