Editor for a Waif Story

[coreyc]

Hello, I am extremely new to writing and looking for a patient editor, but having no luck contacting them directly.
English has always been a hated subject to me, being severely dyslexic I have struggled with it all my life. I have had two stories that have been running around my head for the last 5 plus years and I have finally decided to try and write them.

The one story that I started with is a slow burn waif story. Basically, older guy runs into younger homeless woman that is resistant to the older mans help.
She goes from passive to aggressive and back not know how or what she is feeling. Him, divorced and starting over with "nice guy syndrome".
I know, not a new idea, but I feel like it's still a good one.


What I am looking for is someone to help me with:
-Spelling
-Grammar
-Sentence structure
-and constructive criticism, i'm an adult and can handle a red pen.

So a journey together or just us meeting at the end I am open to all ideas and help.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

it's not a bad idea.

you should add the word count, to help would be editors understand the amount of effort required.

 

[coreyc]

LOL, it's current word count is 52k and I would say it's about 1/2 ish done to where I would like it..
Now at least 10% I would guess can be chopped out, as I feel there is serval sections that are a little bloated.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

what is "waif", anyways?

 

[AlinaX]

A person who appears thin or poorly nourished, often a homeless or neglected child.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

What I suggest is you start with google docs and grammarly -- both are free. grammarly has a paid option, but I can't say anything about it, I use the free option.
They'll catch many errors. I usually do both, google docs first, then grammarly.

 

[StillStunned]

Be aware of what you're asking for. I've said it before in this forum, and I'll say it again: it takes a professional editor about an hour to review 1000 words - more if it requires heavy editing.

So for your 52k words, you're asking someone to devote about a week and half of fulltime work. And if you're only half done, that's going on for three weeks. That's a lot of time and energy for someone to volunteer.

I'm not saying you're wrong to ask, I just think it helps if you understand precisely what it is you're asking, and why people are reluctant to offer their help.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Start by downloading Grammarly if you haven't already. It's a free download app that has a free option and a pay option. The free version is perfectly fine. I use it every day.

 

[coreyc]

@StillStunned, I didn't know what kind of commitment time that editing would put on a person, thank you for that info and I will keep that in mind. So with that, I am not in a rush and willing to work with in someone's else time line.

I am Now writing it in google docs so I think that I am getting a lot of the basic issues, I haven't tried grammarly yet, and I am planning on it.