Self-editing for authors

[Trionyx]

As the old saying falsely attributed to Hemingway goes…
Write drunk. Edit sober.

I don’t write drunk but I frequently write late at night when I am tired. All editing is done when I am alert, mainly in mid morning after appropriate caffeination.

If I am unhappy with a word or section while writing, I will highlight it in red to more easily find it later.

 

[Rob_Royale]

The MSWord audio read through has become my most important editing step. It catches stuff that I miss after three editing passes.

 

[StillStunned]

The MSWord audio read through has become my most important editing step. It catches stuff that I miss after three editing passes.

Like I've mentioned before, it's what the professionals do. It's been quite the gamechanger.

But the thing is, like any tool. you need to use it properly. You have to pay attention and read the words on screen while the audio is playing back. Watch the highlight flit from word to word. Even if by that time you're completely fed up with your story and all you want to do is hit the Publish button.

The only thing that makes it bearable is being able to adjust the speed.

 

[TheLobster]

The only thing that makes it bearable is being able to adjust the speed.

I started using Natural Readers online service at 1.3x speed. It's pretty neat.

The hardest thing while using it is probably to suppress the mounting urge to laugh at the dispassionate, robotic voice reading your filth without the slightest flinch or hiccup.

 

[AG31]

On the type of first pass you're talking about one of the top catches is the same word used too close together in a paragraph (or even a sentence). But I enjoy editing more when I revisit stories a year or more after they've been published. I read them for pleasure, but always find little things that could be said more effectively or felicitously.

I wish I felt more comfortable about submitting revisions on Lit, but I worry that my current one will be deleted and then my revision will be rejected for some obscure reason, like sounding like AI, that so many have mentioned.

I would not like to use a text to voice app. I don't like to listen to stories read aloud. Not sure why.

 

[Djmac1031]

I would not like to use a text to voice app. I don't like to listen to stories read aloud. Not sure why.

I have yet to find a "text to voice" app, or at least a free one, that doesnt sound like a knock off version of Alexa. But they serve their purpose for the editing process.

I do enjoy a good audio when properly performed.

if you'll allow me an unabashed plug, I recently had voice actor ResidentMadame perform my short story, Dancing Fingers, and she did an amazing job with it.

https://www.literotica.com/s/dancing-fingers-1

There's a longer audio coming soon, an excerpt from one of my Angels And Demons stories, The Seduction Of Darkness, which i cant wait for people to hear. It's not just a reading, its a full fledged production including sound effects.

 

[yowser]

For me, this is mostly a paragraph level item, although it can extended throughout the story as well, depending on need.

Pacing (and many have noted how in when 'listening' to your story this part, and whatever defects it has, becomes more obvious.) A short sentence. A long sentence. One with descriptive bits followed by a short action sentence.

Think of the good and bad speeches you have heard. Varying tones and volume, emphasis that stands out because it was handled deliberately. The worst are usually drones: steady, methodical, same sentence structure and sounds repeatedly, until you are ready for sleep or walking out.

Make relative clauses vivid, lots of verbs or gerunds create movement, a blizzard of adverbs dulls everything down.

In the broader picture, thinking of the story as a whole, Shakespeare had it near perfect: a long gut-wrenching serious scene, then a light bit, some comedy, before getting back to the main parts. Keep it moving, keep it varied, he built tension while the characters came to life.

 

[SkyBubble]

I'll start with paragraph length.

Gone are the days when people would enjoy sinking their teeth into a chunky paragraph that covered an entire page of a paperback novel. We don't have the attention span for it anymore, and besides, let's be honest, quite often we'd skip those bits anyway.

Particularly for online reading, it's important to keep your blocks of text short. With so many people reading on their phones, you don't want them to be scrolling and scrolling and scrolling before they finally see a break.

My personal rule of thumb is 60-90 words per paragraph, and lately it's been veering more to the lower end of the scale.

But it's not just for ease of reading. Short paragraphs keep the action going, if you break them down into logical groupings. One character's thoughts, speech and actions, and break to move to the next character.

Only group actions that belong together. Cause and effect? Try and move the effect to the next paragraph. Pros and cons? Same. Thoughts about multiple other characters? Give them each their own block.

Remember that your readers don't owe you anything, least of all any effort to read your story. Make it as easy and inviting as possible, and they'll be more likely to stick with you until the end.

You don't want to standardize paragraphs too much, however. That's what AI does.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

As the old saying falsely attributed to Hemingway goes…
Write drunk. Edit sober.

I don’t write drunk but I frequently write late at night when I am tired. All editing is done when I am alert, mainly in mid morning after appropriate caffeination.

If I am unhappy with a word or section while writing, I will highlight it in red to more easily find it later.

I thought it was "Write horny. Edit frigid."

 

[SkyBubble]

Then there's another thing. If you're using italics or bold, run through and make sure your HTML marks are appropriately placed and that when you open them, you also close them, like quotes or parentheses. If you do <em> and forget to do </em> the rest of your story will be in italics, instead of the one thought you wanted to capture. I've been doing that on my latest story (just submitted) for a couple of days.

 

[SkyBubble]

Something bought to mind by the omission @StillStunned made in his post upthread is the over-reliance on spelling and grammar checkers in Word. Most people write in Word, and TBH there are many things I dislike about it (my main 'steam-out-of-the-ears' issue is its habit of resetting to US English no matter how many times I tell it I want British English as default). Anyway... Word will highlight spelling and grammar errors, but will often not notice an omission/incorrect spelling, because what it is reading is grammatically correct/correct spelling, even if it is completely the opposite of what is intended. It is easy to skim a document looking for those red and blue wavy lines, but if you restrict your editing to that, be prepared to miss some massive errors.

It also misses when you make a typo that is also a legitimate word, such as "He is form New York."

 

[Voboy]

Edit as you go.

Every time you pause to fetch some water, or go pee, or adjust your erection, or re-pack you bra, or click into another tab because your kid entered the room while you were writing an anal felching scene, or ANYTHING, re-read the last thing you wrote. Edit right then, swapping word order or sentence structure or whatever. Then move on, because that's as good as it's likely to get (if you write like me).

Spelling and grammar errors? Don't make them. If you do, catch them at the same time you "edit." Then move on.

The finished piece will be almost ready to submit already. All it takes is one more read-through once it's complete, for continuity and problematic phrasing. And then Bob's your uncle. Send it. On to the next one.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Then there's another thing. If you're using italics or bold, run through and make sure your HTML marks are appropriately placed and that when you open them, you also close them, like quotes or parentheses. If you do <em> and forget to do </em> the rest of your story will be in italics, instead of the one thought you wanted to capture. I've been doing that on my latest story (just submitted) for a couple of days.

One way to check this is to save your doc as a .html and then open it with your web browser of choice.

 

[Bamagan]

The MSWord audio read through has become my most important editing step. It catches stuff that I miss after three editing passes.

That's the only part of the program I truly miss; I switched to LibreOffice, which has nearly every other feature I ever used. I reluctantly decided to cancel my Office subscription after they jacked up their price by something like 45% because of all their 'improvements', which I'm confident is their way of saying they dumped a ton of money into AI (all of which I removed or disabled as soon as I figured out how) and wanted to pass on the bill. Thanks, but no thanks, Microsoft.

 

[Britva415]

My tip is to give it some time between finishing the writing and doing the editing.

When I can still remember what I wrote, that's a bad time to edit because I'll see what I thought I wrote.

When I can't remember what I wrote, that's a good time to edit because I'll see what I really wrote.

 

[PapaRomantic]

I have used editing as a way to get back to being motivated to work again on a story. If the "muse" leaves me after a few thousand words, I'll go back to the beginning and edit what I have. A lot of times, that will get me back into the story and I can start writing again. Plus it means less mistakes to find once the work is complete and the real editing starts.

 

[Dreamerman77]

The MSWord audio read through has become my most important editing step. It catches stuff that I miss after three editing passes.

As a non-English speaker I couldn't do without MS Word read aloud. Listening English beats my reading and writing, not to mention speaking, so I basically listen to all my stories multiple times when editing. Ear catches most of the errors, missing or extra sentences, missing paragraphs and also reveals if there is no flow. Highly recommended.

 

[Dreamerman77]

That's the only part of the program I truly miss; I switched to LibreOffice, which has nearly every other feature I ever used. I reluctantly decided to cancel my Office subscription after they jacked up their price by something like 45% because of all their 'improvements', which I'm confident is their way of saying they dumped a ton of money into AI (all of which I removed or disabled as soon as I figured out how) and wanted to pass on the bill. Thanks, but no thanks, Microsoft.

Try opening your file in Edge browser. I open them through OneDrive / Google Drive and use Edge read-aloud function. The best by far.

 

[TheLobster]

Then there's another thing. If you're using italics or bold, run through and make sure your HTML marks are appropriately placed and that when you open them, you also close them, like quotes or parentheses. If you do <em> and forget to do </em> the rest of your story will be in italics, instead of the one thought you wanted to capture. I've been doing that on my latest story (just submitted) for a couple of days.

An easy way to do it is to use the Preview feature on Lit.

 

[StillStunned]

Here's a tip that some people are going to hate me for.

If you're not sure about a grammatical rule, look it up. Don't rely on your word processor to tell you, or Grammarly or anything like that. They don't understand the context of what you're writing, or the style you're trying to achieve.

All that time you spend looking up boys' names in the 1970s? Or looking up the precise name of a style of shoe? Or arguing about category/rating/how to bend the content rules? Why not put the same effort into learning the nuts and bolts of your hobby?

So just look it up. If you're not sure, ask someone. But once you understand the rule, you'll always understand it. It's probably already there in your passive knowledge, particularly if you're writing in a language you speak regularly.

And understanding the rules means you know how to break them to the best effect. Fixed word order is fine, but sometimes moving one word around will give your sentence an extra punch. Zeugmas might be grammatically iffy, but they can be a great stylistic tool. Punctuation helps to order the information you're presenting, so varying it shapes how your reader processes your story.

And best of all, sooner or later you won't need any software crutches.

 

[TheLobster]

Here's a tip that some people are going to hate me for.

If you're not sure about a grammatical rule, look it up.

Ain’t nobody got time for that. And if you no like it, you can zeugma balls!

 

[HordHolm]

So just look it up. If you're not sure, ask someone. But once you understand the rule, you'll always understand it. It's probably already there in your passive knowledge, particularly if you're writing in a language you speak regularly.

And understanding the rules means you know how to break them to the best effect. Fixed word order is fine, but sometimes moving one word around will give your sentence an extra punch.

Picasso was brilliant precisely because he first learnt to be brilliant in the traditional style. He was a master. Then he broke all the rules and created something even better (shame he was such an arse).

One of the things those pesky blue wavy lines keep insisting I do is put a comma after an introductory phrase. And the blue wavy line is right, I really must if I want to be grammatically correct. But sometimes the introductory phrase needs to be longer, and the blue wavy line doesn't understand that. And in that instance, I am right and the blue wavy line is wrong!

 

[HordHolm]

A case in point:

I have just this minute written the phrase, "It wasn't to last," at the beginning of a sentence. For some reason known only to its hamster-brained self (sorry, I know that's unfair to hamsters), Word has decided to place one of those blue wavy lines under the 'to' in that phrase. This is obviously wrong, but I decided to see just what it thinks I should have written, and my first change reveals its ridiculous programming: I should have written, "It wasn't too last,". Immediately the wavy line disappeared and my phrase is now, according to Microsoft, all ship-shape and Bristol fashion. It doesn't make any sense, though.

Remember folks, the Word grammar checker can be an arse. Don't rely on it.

 

[TheLobster]

Remember folks, the Word grammar checker can be an arse. Don't rely on it.

To be fair, “It wasn’t going to last.” would be the usual phrasing, and Word probably optimizes for readability rather than literary flourish.

Which is actually a good point to note if you’re using any grammar tool. They are typically meant to fix the wording of your corporate emails, not to improve the phrasing in literary fiction.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Remember folks, the Word grammar checker can be an arse. Don't rely on it.

Microsoft doesn't know the difference between it's and its, and clearly not to and too, either. Sigh.