Newbie question about editing

[BigTexan]

My first story has finally been posted and I have had a tremendous response to it so far. Over on the "Feedback" forum I got an excellent feedback pointing out some of the errors that had escaped my attention.

I went through that story over and over again looking for those small little gotcha's that bug the hell out of me when I read and still I missed a lot of them.

How do you guys edit your stories? Is there some way I can improve my editing techniques? I hate having even a single grammatical error in my writing if I'm going to submit it.

BigTexan

 

[KillerMuffin]

1. Accept that you will post with errors and consign perfectionism to coventry.
2. A good rule is to never edit as you go. It's hard to concentrate on the future if you're living in the past. The caveat is that some people write better this way.
3. Once you've tacked on the final sentence, put the file away for at least a week. A month would be better. It's hard to edit what's fresh in your mind.
4. Read it more than once before you change anything but spelling and punctuation mistakes.
5. Don't go back and edit your old work at Lit for anything but spelling types of issues. Again, you're wasting time on something that's not going to be on the new lists again. Put up something new with your new knowledge applied.
6. Cut out about 10% of your total words. If you have 3,000 words, remove 300. You should never add to the total of a completed story unless you've made major changes in the story. Start with adverbs and attributives.
7. Kill as much backstory as you can. If it were that important, you would have started the story back then. Keep only what you need for the reader to make sense. Don't lump it all in one spot, either. Flashbacks are useful, but backstory is descriptive narrative and inherently boring to read.
8. The most effective word processing tool for spell checking is the grammar checker, not the spell checker. It takes more time, but if you typed your instead of you a grammar checker will catch it.


You may find success by using all, some, or none of these tips.

I'm a hypocrite though, I never edit before posting. Sometimes I don't even run a spell check.

 

[Madame Manga]

Originally posted by KillerMuffin

2. A good rule is to never edit as you go. It's hard to concentrate on the future if you're living in the past. The caveat is that some people write better this way.

I wish I could stick with that rule. ;-) Sometimes I forge ahead and get a whole chapter or short story written without nitpicking and backtracking along the way, but I can't remember the last time I did that. It IS easier to edit something that's complete, since you can see where the missing bits are.


8. The most effective word processing tool for spell checking is the grammar checker, not the spell checker. It takes more time, but if you typed your instead of you a grammar checker will catch it.

Word actually does all right with some things, such as spotting passive voice and verb agreement problems. However, my copy remains convinced that I am writing a politically correct business presentation no matter how I fiddle with the settings, and flags every "gender-specific expression" such as "When a *woman* grabs a man's cock, *she* is making an unmistakable come-on." ;-)

I'm a hypocrite though, I never edit before posting. Sometimes I don't even run a spell check.

I rarely run a spell check either. But I edit until my eyes bleed. ;-) I STILL miss things like words repeated in a paragraph. There is nothing to do but give it to someone else with strict instructions to red-pencil every clinker.

MM

 

[Weird Harold]

3. Once you've tacked on the final sentence, put the file away for at least a week. A month would be better. It's hard to edit what's fresh in your mind.

Two more tricks to help you see what you typed instead of what you know you wrote:

1: Run the spelling and grammar check one paragraph at a time starting from the END of your story.

2: Change the Font and/or font size before editing so that it looks different than what you saw as you typed the original.

 

[BigTexan]

Thanks guys, great tips. Especially KM (Now I know why they were fawning all over you on Chat the other night!)

One question to WH.

Why change the font? I'm not sure I understand how that would help. I'm not disagreeing with you, just asking for your reasoning.

Thanks again

BigTexan

 

[Weird Harold]

Why change the font? I'm not sure I understand how that would help.

One reason that editing your own writing is difficult is because the eye sees what it knows is there -- because youknow what you typed.

Changing the font and/or font size forces your eye and mind to see what is actually there instead of seeing what was there when you typed it. In essence, you're presenting your eye and mind with something it has never seen before so there is no "memory" factor involved in reading it.

It works because reading is somewhat like browsing the net -- like your browser, your eye "caches" what it has seen before so familiar things process faster than new things. Changing the font is like hitting "refresh" and making your browser reload a page to get the most current info.

 

[NoJo]

It makes it easier to spot typos when you cahnge the font.
The best suggestion I've seen (also from Wierd Harold, I think) is to use one of those "speaking programs"(Apple Macs nearly all come with one). Besides being hilarious, a lot of things that slip past the spell check (I often mis-type "the" instead of "they") are immediately noticable when the silly robot man reads your story back to you.

 

[gaigirl]

It makes it easier to spot typos when you cahnge the font.

I often read the story backwards, word for word from the end to the front. That ought to catch the gong that should have been going, the rubber that should have been rubbed, etc.

 

[BigTexan]

2: Change the Font and/or font size before editing so that it looks different than what you saw as you typed the original.

I'm gonna haveta try that. Never really thought of it before but what you said makes sense. That's why even though I went over my story four times, I still missed several glaring errors.

Thanks again.

BigTexan

 

[Weird Harold]

That's why even though I went over my story four times, I still missed several glaring errors.

I think that's partly the reason why almost everyone finds some typo in their story after it's posted -- Literotica's formatting and font is different from almost everyone's defaults in their word processer.

Anything you can do to change the appearance will help you find errors -- Font, Font size, Margins, color, etc.

 

[wildsweetone]

font change

wow WH, that's gotta be the most useful trick i've ever come across, it really works! thanks for suggesting it!

 

[ronde]

About spell checkers...

BT, when you set up your spell checker, set it to prompt for changes instead of to change automatically, and read each prompt for the context in which the word is used. If you're using a word processor that allows automatic changes "on the fly", disable this feature.