 Romance/Love: November 20, 2024 Issue [#12852] |
This week: Post NaNo Edited by: LoneKrampuswolf  
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Congratulations, you've either made it to the end of NaNo or it's almost over and you're finishing up that last little bit. Whether or not you've participated this year the following may be of some help to you. There are a lot of hurdles to writing great fiction, which is why it’s always important to keep reading and writing.
We only get better through practice. Practice really does help in the writing process, from formulating ideas, to actually painting the world you want to draw your reader into. We not only learn by example, but by experience, but unlike real life, we can edit the worlds we create.
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Editing is, arguably, the most challenging aspect of the writing process. It is in this process that I believe the story is truly constructed. Our eyes tend to play tricks on us. We read right over typos that we normally would catch in other people’s writing. However, editing is the key to creating an enticing well-written short story or novel. Self-editing is difficult, but it’s certainly not impossible. I hope the following steps help you publish a cleaner copy of your short story or novel and avoid errors that frustrate you when someone else catches them.
1. Step Away -
Distance yourself from You and It. You need to arrive as if someone else wrote this book or story. That will give you cold clarity about the story, the characters, the language, everything. This is tricky if you’re on deadline and don’t have a lot of time, still, it should be given a try.
2. Read all the way through -
Read the piece all the way through and consider it as a unit before you begin marking edits or making changes.
3. Spell Check -
Although you shouldn’t rely heavily on spell check, it's a good place to start. Go ahead and run the spell checker before you begin editing, just don’t rely on it as your only defense against errors. The best program I've had personal experience with is Word Perfect and Microsoft Office. I'm sure there are others, but those two are the best from what I've experienced.
4. Have a friend read it -
Friends or family members are essential to the editing process. Essential. You need friends, family, or someone close to you that you trust to read your finished work. Just have them read it, and get their notes.
5. Read aloud -
Read your work out loud and change anything that doesn’t make sense or that you stumble over. If you have to read a sentence more than once before you understand it, change it.
6. Act out the scene -
Sometimes when editing a scene, some of the dialogue doesn't sound right. I have found in those cases if I were to act them out it makes more sense and helps me to feel better about it. |
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